What is the coldcaking reply rate?

On Daymaker pitch-cake sends to high-value targets, roughly 30% of recipients reply the same day. Many others post publicly about the delivery, which creates secondary reach inside the office.

When does coldcaking not work?

Coldcaking fails when the target is wrong, the address is stale, the message is weak, or there is no follow-up plan. A cake cannot make a weak company fundable or fix bad timing.

Does coldcaking work? Reply rates, proof & results

Q: Does coldcaking work?

Coldcaking works for getting noticed and earning replies on high-value sends. Daymaker founders report roughly 30% same-day replies. It does not guarantee meetings — traction and follow-up still matter.

Short answer: coldcaking works when getting noticed is the bottleneck. It earns replies and public moments. It does not replace traction, timing, or follow-up.

Coldcaking is cold outreach delivered as a custom cake. The question is not whether people see it — they do. The question is whether that attention turns into a conversation worth having.

What the numbers say

Daymaker tracks delivery and reply outcomes on pitch-cake sends. On high-value targets — VCs, strategic buyers, hard-to-reach executives — the pattern is consistent:

~30% same-day reply rate on Daymaker pitch-cake sends

100% delivery open rate — the cake arrives or you know it did not

5/7 partner meetings from one founder's VC cake campaign (Sifted)

Compare that to cold email, where a good campaign might see 20–40% opens and single-digit reply rates. Coldcaking trades volume for visibility. You are not optimizing for sends per hour. You are optimizing for one person noticing.

Public proof it gets noticed

The best coldcaking results are public. Recipients post. Teammates photograph the cake. Reception becomes distribution. A few examples from the Daymaker receipts wall:

"Genuinely the best pitch I've seen this year. Took the meeting before I'd finished a slice."

— Alexandre Berkovic, CEO @ Sphinx (YC F24), on LinkedIn

Coldcaking result: Sphinx CEO Alexandre Berkovic received this pitch cake from Daymaker and booked a meeting — The cake did not replace the pitch — it earned the meeting.

"Someone just came and delivered an absolutely massive cake to our office as a pitch for their company. Definitely one way to get attention!"

— Sheel Mohnot, GP @ Better Tomorrow Ventures, on X (123k+ views)

"One founder is winning investors over with personalised cakes… Sent 7 cakes to a16z, Sequoia, Index Ventures and more. Got 5 partner meetings."

— Sifted, Feb 2026

Coldcaking example: pitch cake with BTV seed memo delivered to Better Tomorrow Ventures — A coldcake that became a public post, not a deleted email.

Coldcaking result: founder receiving a pitch cake at a16z — Internal visibility — the whole office sees the pitch.

"Daymaker i want more cakedecks"

— Hubert Thieblot, GP @ F.inc, email reply after a pitch-cake delivery

Press coverage from Forbes, Sifted, and CNN followed the same pattern: the tactic is memorable enough to write about, which creates a second wave of reach beyond the recipient.

What makes coldcaking work

One sharp target. The send is expensive enough that specificity matters.
One clear message. If it does not fit on cake, it is probably not sharp enough.
Real proof on the design. Logo, screenshot, traction number, or investor-fit hook.
Timed follow-up. "Did the cake arrive?" while the office is still talking about it.
A company worth meeting. The cake opens the door. Traction walks through it.

See pitch cake examples for what good designs look like, and how to send a pitch cake to a VC for the full playbook.

When coldcaking does not work

Coldcaking is an attention tactic, not a meeting guarantee. It fails predictably when:

The target is wrong. A cake to someone who will never care is still noise, just heavier.
The address is stale. Offices move. Reception rules change. Delivery can fail.
The message is weak. A beautiful cake carrying a vague pitch still loses.
There is no follow-up. The cake creates the moment. You still have to ask for the next step.
The company is not ready. No amount of frosting fixes broken timing or missing traction.

Do not cake your whole TAM. Use coldcaking when one person is worth the send — the same rule as in the coldcaking guide.

How results compare to cold email

Cold email optimizes for learning at scale. Coldcaking optimizes for one memorable moment. The ROI math is different: a $99 pitch cake to the right VC is cheap compared to the value of one partner meeting. A $99 cake to a random lead is expensive spam.

Read coldcaking vs cold email for when to use each channel — and how to sequence them.

Want to test it yourself?

Send one pitch cake to a Bay Area VC, or browse the full receipts wall before you commit.

Send a pitch cake -> See the receipts ->