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Reference file

Give menu

give-menu.md

The give menu, and example emails

Ways to turn an offer into something the prospect receives up front, then a set of example emails across product types. Prospect and client names are fictional; well-known platforms named as search results are real. The last example is a real send from the author's own outbound. Replace all specifics with your own, and keep them true.

The four gives

  1. The run test (services that find problems): run your actual diagnostic on their business before writing. The email reports the result.
  2. The mini tool (product and engineering-led senders): a small working thing scoped to their case: a calculator loaded with their numbers, a checker pointed at their site, a one-page dashboard of their public data. Link, no signup wall.
  3. The first slice of the deliverable (productized services): the opening section of what a paid engagement would produce. Whole on its own, obviously part of something bigger.
  4. The borrowed lens (the volume-friendly give): your data or client experience pointed at their specific case. The lens is yours; the finding must be theirs. A raw segment stat ("62% of clinics miss calls") is not a give, because nothing in it belongs to the reader. Run the cheap version of the check on their business and let your data explain what it means.

Matching give to tier

  • Tier 1, dream accounts: run test or mini tool, the deepest give you can produce. The time is worth it for an account like this, and it should not be your time: AI agents run the test, pull the data, and assemble the artifact and key variables per account before the email gets written.
  • Tier 2, solid fits: first slice, or a run test an agent produces well.
  • Tier 3, broad list: the borrowed lens. Never fake personal effort at volume; a real finding about their case, honestly cheap to produce, beats a fake bespoke one.

Example emails

All first person in the founder's voice, lowercase subjects, under 85 words. The finding, the gap, and the outcome always belong to the prospect; the sender never becomes the subject of the email.

Run test, for a service that finds gaps

subject: paylio and the ai assistants

Maya, I ran a quick test in Claude to name the top payroll platforms worth using at scale.

It surfaced Deel, Gusto, and Rippling. Paylio was nowhere in the results.

Good news: that's a solvable problem. It's the exact work we've done for Klarvo, Wagemark, and Perch.

Want me to take you through a complete AEO audit for Paylio? I'll pinpoint where Deel and Rippling keep winning the recommendation and how to close it. I'll get it over to you before our call.

Mini tool, for a dev-tool or SaaS founder

subject: built you a small thing

Tomas, I pointed our checker at getcrateful.com and it flagged 14 pages where your docs search returns nothing.

Put the full list in a little dashboard for you, no login: [link]

We fixed the same thing for Devgrid and Portico from YC S24 this spring.

Mind if I leave notes on which five I'd fix first?

First slice, for a productized service

subject: first page of your audit

Sam, I ran a deliverability audit on your domain that we normally do for outbound teams.

Your tracking links point at a domain that doesn't match the one you send from, so your cold email is landing in junk most of the time.

Attached is the page. I'd love to give you a few ideas on how to fix it, and happy to send the other six sections before our call. You got 10 minutes tomorrow at 2pm EST?

The free-build offer, at volume (a real send from the author)

subject: free custom ai agent

Hey Rachel - been seeing your name around AI automation & GTM posts on LinkedIn.

My team wants to build you a free custom AI agent.

Takes about a week and it's on me. Should I send more info?

Dima Bilous | Founder, Anfloy

P.S. Most companies start with sales agents, but we can do ops or marketing too.

Note what it does without any per-company research: the offer is the whole email, the risk sits entirely on the sender (a week of work, free), the ask is permission to send more, and the P.S. answers the "but what would it do" question before it gets asked. Signed by the founder, not the company. At volume, the first name is the only variable that changes.

Follow-up ladder for any give

  • Touch 2: the next finding or the next slice. New value, not a reminder.
  • Touch 3: the artifact itself or the tool link, complete.
  • Touch 4: the one allowed nudge. One line.
  • Touch 5: clean exit, friendly, door open.

Every touch should be worth receiving on its own. If a message only works as a reminder of the previous one, it is the nudge, and the ladder only has room for one.