Cold Email AI
Write to a real person at the firm, not the portal. Give it who they are and what you found out about them, and it writes a first email under 100 words from your own CV, the day 3 and day 7 follow-ups, and guesses their address from the firm's email format. Then it opens the lot in your own Gmail, Outlook or mail app: nothing is sent from here.
Not rated your CV yet? Start there, then reuse it here. Or read the playbook first.
The outreach playbook
Why the email is short, and everything else the numbers decide.
Every rule the tool holds a draft to comes from published data on student cold emails, not from a template somebody liked. The two sources are Whali's study of 6,337 emails sent by over 200 students between November 2025 and May 2026, and Instantly's benchmark of 16.5 million cold emails. Opens are inflated by mail apps that preload images, so the comparisons matter more than the absolute figures.
- 83.7% vs 69.5%
- Open rate for subject lines under 30 characters against ones over 70, across 6,337 student emails.
- 11.9% vs 1.9%
- Reply rate for emails under 100 words against 100 to 200 words. Over 200 words, 0.3%.
- +60%
- The lift in replies from one follow-up in a 16.5 million email benchmark. A third email was the peak; a fourth lost replies.
- 4%
- The share of contacts students wrote to who were recruiters. Directors, managers and founders got the rest, and replied.
- Tue, Wed
- The best days for opens, with midday and late afternoon the best hours. Monday morning and Friday the worst.
The shape of an email that gets a reply
- Subject under 30 characters, specific to them. "Your Q3 note on gilts", "Imperial student, quick question", "Interested in the FX desk". Never "Internship opportunity" and never your own name.
- Open on something they did. A post, a deal, a talk, a paper, a team move. One sentence on what it was and why it caught you. This is the line that proves the email was written for them, and it is the one thing the model cannot invent, which is why the tool asks you to paste what you found.
- One line on you. The strongest single credential from your CV, with a number where there is one. Not your life story.
- One small, specific ask. Fifteen minutes on a named topic, with two windows offered. Never a job, never a CV review, never "any advice you have".
- Your first name, and stop. No "I look forward to hearing from you", no attachment, no links beyond your LinkedIn if you must.
What to ask for, by intent
Coffee chat (15 minutes, no ask)
The ask is fifteen minutes on a call about one named topic drawn from their work. Never ask for a job, a referral or a CV review. Offer two concrete windows and say you will fit around them.
Spring week referral or advice
The ask is fifteen minutes to hear how they would approach the firm's spring week application, or whether they would be willing to flag the application to the recruiting team. Mention the programme by name and that the application is open or opening, never that it has already closed.
Summer internship
The ask is fifteen minutes to hear about the team and how they would approach the summer internship application. If the person is senior, ask who on the team would be the right person to speak to about the programme.
Off-cycle internship
The ask is whether the team takes off-cycle interns or has unadvertised openings this year, and if so who runs that process. Off-cycle roles are rarely posted, so the email can be more direct about availability (name the months the applicant is free, if the CV or notes give them).
Graduate role
The ask is fifteen minutes to hear what the team looks for at graduate level and whether the applicant's background is a fit, plus the name of the right person for the graduate process. Never ask for a job outright.
Apprenticeship or school leaver programme
The ask is fifteen minutes to hear about the apprenticeship or school leaver route into their team and how applications are read. Keep it plain and unpretentious: the reader may be the first person from the firm the applicant has ever written to.
Keep in touch after meeting them
They have already met or spoken. The ask is to keep the thread alive: a thank you that names one specific thing from the conversation, one line on what the applicant did with it, and a light question that invites a reply. No request for a call unless they offered one.
Follow-ups: two, then stop
Most replies to a cold email come from the follow-up, not the first message, because the first one arrived in a busy hour and was never a no. The first follow-up goes three days later as a reply in the same thread, assumes the email was missed rather than ignored, and restates the ask in one line. The second goes a week after the first email, adds one new specific thing (a question about something they did since, a result you have had), and says plainly it is the last. A third follow-up costs replies and goodwill, and the people who ran the numbers say so. Weekends are skipped: a nudge that lands on Saturday is read on Monday under forty others.
Finding the address
Almost every large firm uses one format for everyone and the formats are public: first.last at the banks, first_last at McKinsey, surname first at BCG, initial plus surname at Deloitte UK. The tool keeps the reported formats for the firms students write to most and builds the likely addresses from the person's name. Treat each one as a guess: search it in quotes, send to one, and if it bounces try the next. The LinkedIn connect note (300 characters, no subject line) is the fallback for anyone you cannot reach by email, and the same rules apply to it.
What this tool deliberately does not do
It does not connect to your inbox, send on your behalf, or run a sequence while you sleep. Sending from your own Gmail or Outlook means the firm sees a real student's address, the reply lands where you will see it, and nobody has read or send access to your email. It also means you press send on every message, which is the step that stops a placeholder going out. The follow-up queue tells you what is due; your calendar feed carries it; you send it.
Questions students ask
Comparing tools? See how this stacks up against Whali, including the things Whali does that we do not.
Run it through the competitor-swap test before you send it.
Part 6 of the playbook: the test, the raw materials for a 'why this firm' that passes it, and the real cover letter that won an economic consulting offer, annotated line by line.
The Spring Week Application Playbook · £19.99, one-time · Free edition available