Framework
The Direct-Ask Email Formula
Tom's cold email framework that pulled a 90% reply rate from YC founders — three parts, no disguises.
How it works
- 1Quick introduction — who you are and what you're building, in one sentence.
- 2A specific, transparent ask — not 'pick your brain,' but exactly what you want and why it helps you.
- 3Why you chose them specifically over everyone else — a concrete reason, not flattery.
- 4No fake feedback calls. No sales calls dressed as research. Transparency is the entire mechanism.
Hear it on the podcast
AI Just Closed 40% of Your Tickets Without YouListen to the episodeMore from this episode
The Deflection Rate North StarThe one metric Tom's team tracks obsessively: how often a request arrives, gets understood, gets acted on, and gets closed by AI without any human touch. Unthread customers are hitting 40% across IT, HR, Legal, and Finance.The Three-Layer Build (Ticket, Task, Automation)How Unthread evolved through three product layers, each one unlocking the next — and a model any ops-heavy SaaS founder can apply.The Human-in-the-Loop TriggerNot every task should be agentic. Tom designs Unthread with first-class human approval for actions where a wrong move is catastrophic.Bring Your Own LLM (BYO-LLM)A pricing and architecture pattern Tom's seen explode among enterprise customers in the last 12 months.
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