Ethical Cold Outreach

Post by dbbk » Wed, Aug 12, 2026, 1:39 PM UTC

anticorporate wrote: post #27

georgel wrote: post #23

The comments on cold outreach on HN are always going to be negative. I assume the majority of us here are developers and go to insane lengths to block "spammers". That said, even YC (can't find the exact Dalton + Michael episode) encourages cold outreach. If it didn't work, people wouldn't still be doing it.

> If it didn't work, people wouldn't still be doing it. The same can be said for all sorts of activities, from the illegal and unethical to the mundane. Although, to be fair, you're right. Which is why I actively make it my goal to make doing cold sales outreach more costly to the companies doing it than if they had done nothing at all. A BDR cold emailing me is a pretty good way to make sure your software does not g…

Post by rcxdude » Wed, Aug 12, 2026, 2:30 PM UTC

Barbing wrote: post #44

anticorporate wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If it didn't work, people wouldn't still be doing it. The same can be said for all sorts of activities, from the illegal and unethical to the mundane. Although, to be fair, you're right. Which is why I actively make it my goal to make doing cold sales outreach more costly to the companies doing it than if they had done nothing at all. A BDR cold emailing me is a pretty good way to make sure your software does not g…

> I'm very likely going to cost their privacy/compliance team…time What might this look like for you? (I don’t cold email except thanks or say questions btw, but I am curious!)

Post by rcxdude » Wed, Aug 12, 2026, 2:36 PM UTC

gigatree wrote: post #52

warkdarrior wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Congratulations, you just confirmed the need for SEO in all its forms.

Lmao “if I need it I’ll just Google it and give my business to whoever paid the most to show up on the first page, thankfully those people don’t also spend tons on advertising too”