Most student outreach fails in the first line: "Respected Sir, I am a passionate learner seeking an opportunity." Founders delete it unread, not because they are unkind but because it tells them nothing. The messages that got my students replies — and the ones that got me my first client conversations — share a structure.
The structure
- Proof you looked. One sentence about something specific they built, shipped or wrote. Not their tagline — a feature, a post, a bug you noticed.
- One link. Your best project, running. Ideally related to what they do.
- One specific offer. "I could build the evaluation harness for your RAG feature in two weeks" beats "I am looking for an internship".
- One question or ask. Fifteen minutes, or a reply with what they need.
A template to adapt
"Hi Name — I used your document search feature last week and noticed it returns the wrong section for multi-part questions. I built a RAG system for my college's notes with hybrid retrieval and a confidence gate (link, with evaluation numbers in the README). If useful, I could spend two weeks improving retrieval on your side as an intern. Would a 15-minute call make sense?"
Rules
- Under 120 words.
- No attachments; links only.
- Send to a person, not an address, and get their name right.
- One follow-up after a week, then stop.
Where to send it
Small AI startups, agencies that ship AI features for clients, and founders who post about what they are building. Practitioners you met at hackathons or sessions are warm, not cold — mention where you met. The same structure is how I wrote to my first clients at SCULT INDIA, and how the best students write to me; see how to ask a mentor for help.
Ten good messages beat a hundred templates. Research, one link, one offer, one question.
— Pranjul Rathour, GenAI Engineer from Kanpur, India. Open to GenAI roles, hackathon judging, mentorship sessions and guest talks at any campus: pranjulrathour41@gmail.com.