Guides
How sequences work
A sequence is a flow of steps that starts when a contact is enrolled: send an email, wait, check for a reply, branch, hand off to you. You build it on a canvas in Outreach → Sequences (or have Claude build it), and FounderDB runs it for every enrolled contact.
Steps
| Step | What it does | Paths out |
|---|---|---|
| Sends a template, or an email written by AI from an instruction | next | |
| Wait | Waits a number of hours | next |
| Wait for reply | Waits up to a number of hours for a reply | replied, timeout |
| AI intent branch | Classifies a reply (interested, not interested, question, out of office…) with your AI key | one per intent, plus other |
| Set stage | Moves the contact in your pipeline | next |
| Set variables | Sets contact variables | next |
| Call external API | Sends the contact to your API and stores what it returns — see integrations | done, failed |
| Branch on variable | Checks a contact variable | yes, no |
| Hand off to human | Stops the sequence so you (or your AI agent) take over | — |
| Unsubscribe | Marks the contact do-not-contact | — |
| End | Finishes | — |
A path with nothing connected simply ends the sequence for contacts who take it.
When emails go out
- Send window. Each sequence has sending days and hours in one timezone (Sequence settings). Default: Monday–Friday, 9:00–16:00 New York time. Weekends are skipped.
- Waits count from the previous step, then move to the next allowed time in the window, plus a few random minutes.
- Pacing. Each email takes the next free slot on a mailbox — 4 to 18 minutes after its previous send, within the mailbox's daily cap. When a day is full, it rolls to the next sending day. With several mailboxes, the one with the earliest free slot sends. See SES and Gmail for their caps.
- Threading. Once you've emailed a contact, every later email goes in the same thread ("Re: …" your first subject), so follow-ups read as a conversation.
- Unsubscribe. Every automated email has a one-click unsubscribe link and
List-Unsubscribeheaders. Opens and link clicks are tracked.
When someone replies
Replies arrive through your receiving domain or a connected Gmail mailbox and are matched to the contact.
- The contact moves to Engaged (active) and the conversation appears in Inbox → To do.
- If they were on a Wait for reply step, the sequence takes its replied path immediately. Anything it sends from there goes within a minute or two, from the same mailbox, in the same thread.
- If they weren't, and stop on reply is on (the default), the sequence stops — no more automated emails.
- A short reply asking to unsubscribe ("stop emailing me", "remove me"…) marks them do-not-contact.
Put a Wait for reply after each email so every reply lands on a path you designed — that's what the recommended sequence does.
Hand off to human
Hand off to human stops the sequence, cancels anything queued for that contact, and moves them to Engaged (active). From there the conversation is yours — or your AI agent's: Claude can read the thread, draft a reply for you to approve, send it, and schedule follow-ups, each labelled as the agent's. Resume the sequence from the contact's page if you ever want it back on autopilot.
Stages that change on their own
| When | Stage |
|---|---|
| The first email goes out | Outreach sent |
| They reply | Engaged (active) |
| 72 hours pass with no activity after they engaged | Engaged (ghosted) |
| 48 hours after the last email, no reply and no sequence running | Ignored (never replied) |
Sequences can also set stages with a Set stage step.
Enrolling contacts
- Mark one sequence as default. With Launch auto-enroll on (the Webhooks page), makers from new launches with a safe-to-send email are enrolled in it every 30 minutes.
- Enroll anyone from their contact page, import past launches (Contacts → Import previous data), or ask your AI agent to
enroll_contact. - Test mode runs waits in minutes instead of hours — enroll yourself to try a sequence end to end.
Editing a live sequence
You can edit a sequence while contacts are in it. If a change removes the step some contacts are currently on, FounderDB tells you how many and asks before saving — they'd stop where they are.