Send with Amazon SES

Recommended for volume. SES sends from your own domain for about $0.10 per 1,000 emails, and FounderDB warms each SES mailbox up automatically. Pair it with Cloudflare receiving so replies come back to FounderDB.

1. Use mail.yourdomain.com

Send from mail.yourdomain.com — e.g. hello@mail.yourdomain.com — and receive replies on yourdomain.com itself (Cloudflare receiving). Keeping sending on its own subdomain protects the rest of your domain's reputation, and it's the setup the rest of these docs assume.

2. Verify the domain in SES

1. AWS console → Amazon SES → pick a region (e.g. us-east-1) and use the same one throughout.
2. Configuration → Identities → Create identity → Domain → mail.yourdomain.com.
3. Keep Easy DKIM (RSA 2048) and let SES show you three CNAME records. Add them in your DNS (on Cloudflare: DNS → Records, proxy off). The identity turns Verified within minutes to an hour.

DNS records

That's enough to send well-authenticated mail. Optional: set a custom MAIL FROM on the identity (Custom MAIL FROM domain → bounce.mail.yourdomain.com) and add the MX 10 feedback-smtp.<region>.amazonses.com and TXT v=spf1 include:amazonses.com ~all records SES shows you, so SPF aligns too.

3. Leave the sandbox

New SES accounts are in the sandbox: at most 200 emails a day, and only to addresses you've verified. Cold outreach needs production access: SES → Account dashboard → Request production access. Describe honestly: low-volume, personal outreach to founders who just launched publicly, every email has a one-click unsubscribe, and bounces and complaints are tracked. Approval usually takes about a day.

4. Create an access key

1. IAM → Users → Create user (e.g. founderdb-sender), no console access.
2. Attach an inline policy:

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": ["ses:SendEmail", "ses:SendRawEmail", "ses:GetEmailIdentity"],
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ]
}

1. Security credentials → Create access key → Application running outside AWS → copy the Access key ID and Secret access key.

5. Add the mailbox in FounderDB

1. Outreach → Mail accounts → Sending → AWS SES.
2. From email hello@mail.yourdomain.com, a Sender name people will recognise (your name), the two keys, and the Region you used.
3. Reply domain: your receiving domain from Cloudflare receiving. (If you leave it on None, FounderDB uses your first receiving domain anyway.)
4. Add SES account. FounderDB checks that SES has a verified identity covering the From address (or, failing that, sends a real test email). The badge turns Sending when it passes; Not verified yet means SES doesn't have a verified identity for that address — fix it, then click Verify.

Click Send test to send yourself one real email — it skips pacing and isn't counted as outreach.

Warm-up and pacing

A new SES mailbox warms up automatically: 50, 100, 150, 200, 200, 300 emails a day over its first six days, then 300 a day from then on (or the mailbox's daily cap, if that's lower). Add more mailboxes to send more. Sends are spaced 4–18 minutes apart (change Min gap / Max gap on the mailbox) and only go out inside each sequence's send window. With several mailboxes, each email goes from the one with the earliest free slot.

Next

Create your sequence.