The warm way to cold email

Networking emails that get replies.

Tell Knitly who you want to meet. It finds them, reads what they've actually done, and writes one short, specific email per person. You approve each email before it sends from your Gmail. Follow-ups go out on schedule and stop when they reply.

Try Knitly freeNo credit card. You approve every first email.
Every claim traced to a source Sends from your own Gmail Follow-ups stop the moment they reply
app.knitly.ai/campaign/prospects
ZM
Zara MalikEngineering Manager at Onyx Payments, which runs payment rails for marketplaces. About 400 people.
Ready to write

Signals

Spoke at Data Council on rebuilding intake after format driftThey normalized three fields and left the rest raw.
datacouncil.ai · Apr 2026
Engineering Manager since JanuaryLeads six on the data platform.
LinkedIn · profile
Onyx raised a $40M Series B in MarchHiring across data and risk.
onyxpay.com/blog
Why her

She rebuilt intake around three normalized fields. You are hitting the same drift.

So you ask: How did she pick which three?

Write the email →Skip her3 of 3 things we need
ZM
Zara MalikEngineering Manager at Onyx Payments, which runs payment rails for marketplaces. About 400 people.
Draft ready
three fields at Onyx
To Zara Malik · Engineering Manager, Onyx Payments

Hi Zara,

In your Data Council talk you said Onyx rebuilt intake around three normalized fields and left the rest raw. We put an LLM on our intake notes last month and it breaks every time the format shifts, so I keep wondering whether we are normalizing too much.

Would you have 15 minutes in the next few weeks to walk me through how you picked those three?

Thanks either way,
Joe

Checked by machine

Facts are in the research
One small, clear ask
Opens on them
71 words
No praise, no hedging
Approve and queue →EditRedraftSends 9:40am · follow-up day 3
13 of 13 checks passed
Verified email · onyxpay.com
Built for Job searchAlumni and peersInvestorsRecruitingOutbound salesanywhere the right email to the right person changes things.

Why replies happen

People answer people.
Not templates.

Recipients spot a mail merge in the first line. Knitly writes every email one at a time from real research, following rules drawn from what recipients actually answer.

The one they delete

Hi {{FirstName}}, I hope this email finds you well! I came across your profile and was really impressed by your background. I'd love to pick your brain about potential synergies. Do you have 15 minutes this week?

Why it dies: no proof you read anything, praise instead of a reason, and a vague ask with nothing specific to answer.
The one that gets a reply

Hi Dana,

Your talk on cutting the new-hire ramp from 90 days to 30 is the first time I've heard someone say what they stopped teaching. I run onboarding for a 40-person team and we keep adding, never cutting.

Would you have 15 minutes in the next few weeks to tell me what you dropped first?

Thanks either way,
Joe

Why it works: one fact she said herself, one fact about you, and one small ask: 15 minutes on the one thing she cut first.

Where the rules come from

Built on what recipients actually answer.

Every rule Knitly enforces, from word count to the shape of the ask, comes from published reply data, not opinion. The drafter follows them. The checker enforces them.

67%
of 6,548 professors replied to a cold email with a short, reasoned ten-minute ask.
Rule: one bounded ask with a reason
Milkman, Akinola and Chugh, field study
+50%
more replies to emails that ask one to three questions than to emails that ask none.
Rule: exactly one question
Boomerang, 40 million emails
50to 125
words is the range where reply rates peak. Longer emails lose readers; shorter ones lose the reason.
Rule: 40 to 125 words
Boomerang, 40 million emails
2×
the replies to a one- or two-sentence follow-up compared with a long one that restates the pitch.
Rule: bumps are two lines
Gong, 85 million sales emails

How it works

Find them. Research them.
Email them.

Three steps. About two minutes of your time per person. The last word is always yours.

01

Tell Knitly who you want to meet.

Plain words, not filters. Knitly reads what you wrote, fills in the plan, and asks only about what's missing while it builds your list.

  • Finds real people and their work emails, marked verified or guessed
  • One list, reusable across campaigns
  • Asks fewer questions the more you tell it
app.knitly.ai/campaign/new
Tell us about this campaign
Who are you trying to meet, and why?
Data engineering managers at NYC fintechs. I run a two-person data team and our LLM intake pipeline breaks whenever the format shifts. I want to learn how they handle it
WhoData engineering managers · NYC · fintechfrom your note
GoalLearn one specific thingfrom your note
Your sideTwo-person data team, LLM intake, breaks on format shiftfrom your note
Still neededHow you know them, if at all. We will ask while the list builds.
02

Knitly does the homework.

For each person it reads what they've said and built, what their company is doing, and shows you a one-page brief before a word is written. You decide who's worth it.

  • Their own words first, company facts second
  • A one-line reason to write them, or an honest "not enough"
  • Skip anyone in one click
app.knitly.ai/campaign/prospects
EC
Ethan CaldwellHead of Data Platform at Trellis Bank, a mid-size commercial bank. About 2,500 people.
Ready to write

Signals

Wrote that Trellis moved ingestion to streaming in Q2Said schema change, not throughput, was the hard part.
LinkedIn post · Jun 2026
Announced a data platform hiring push and a new CDOMay 2026.
trellisbank.com/news
Why him

He said schema change was the hard part of going streaming. Your intake breaks on the same thing.

So you ask: What did he do about it?

03

You approve. It sends. It follows up.

Every email is checked against the rules, and you see what passed and what didn't. Approve it, edit a line, or ask for a redraft. Follow-ups are drafted for you on schedule and stop the moment they reply.

  • Replies, follow-ups due, and bounces in one place
  • Answer a reply in the same thread, right from the list
  • Follow-ups send on schedule, and you can turn them off for any campaign
app.knitly.ai/outreach
Replies to answer 2
Linden Edmondson
CEO · Ithaca Energy Partners
Guyana Investment
Your reply
Answer
Thomas Horton
Country Manager · ExxonMobil Guyana
Guyana Investment
Your reply
Answer
Follow-ups due 2
Chuck Mraz
Sales Executive · Automated Industrial Robotics
Saige Test Oct 1st
Bump due today
Approve bump
Phil Stark
Senior Sales Executive · SAP
Saige Test Oct 1st
Bump due today
Approve bump
Waiting 3
Leon Persaud
Founder and CEO · DayStar Energy
Guyana Investment
Last note Thu
Open

The promise

Read every first email before it sends.

You see each first email before anyone else does, edit anything that feels off, and send one at a time. Follow-ups go out on schedule and stop the moment they reply. No bulk blasts.

  • No first email sends until you approve it
  • Every name, number, and quote traces to where it was seen
  • Nothing is claimed about you that you didn't tell us
  • Follow-ups stop the moment they reply
  • Sends from your Gmail, 25 a day, so your domain stays healthy
checked after it is written

Checked by machine 13 of 13

Facts are in the research
True about you
Opens on them
One small, clear ask
No praise
No hedging
A need, not a wish
40 to 125 words71

Who it's for

Reach out for:

Built for networking first. The same rules hold anywhere the right email to the right person changes things.

Job search networkingReach the hiring manager with one real question before your resume does.
Alumni and peersA shared school or old team is the warmest cold open there is. Knitly finds it and leads with it.
Investor outreachGet in front of the right partner on the strength of what they've backed, no warm intro needed.
RecruitingFind passive candidates before they're looking, and write to what they've shipped.
Outbound salesYour next customer is already out there. Reach them with a question, not a pitch.

Why we built this

Cold email has a bad reputation because most of it is terrible. The good kind is specific, researched, and written like a person, and it gets replies. Writing that kind at any real scale was eating hours. We built Knitly to keep the quality without the grind.

KnitlyBuilt by people who send a lot of email.

go on.

You're one good email away from the conversation that changes things.

Try Knitly free

Free to start · no credit card · you approve every first email