The Opener Kit

Start your free 7-day trial 100 people free · or book a demo

app.thecognitive.io/sourcingMock example

✦Staff backend engineer in Berlin, Go and Kafka, has built a core service other teams depend on.Search

Showing 10 candidates

Lena K.

Staff Engineer · Payments platform

Berlin, Germany9 yrs experience

Strong

Why this match: Built the ledger service 14 teams depend on. Go and Kafka in production.

First message Draft

Hi Lena,

Fourteen teams run on the ledger service you built. I'm hiring for a Berlin payments company: Staff Engineer, technical lead on the same kind of core service, €110k to €130k.

Worth 15 minutes next week?

The message

opener-kit/message.txt

Hi [first name],

[One fact from their match line, in your own words.]

I'm hiring for [company, or how you'd describe it if confidential]: [role] in [place], [the same kind of work], [pay range].

[One easy ask, like "Worth 15 minutes Thursday?"]

[your name]

(optional, EU and UK) Found you via your public profile. Reply "no" and I won't contact you again.

opener-kit/never-send.txt

Never send

- I came across your profile
- I hope this finds you well
- An exciting opportunity
- You'd be a great fit
- Fast-paced environment
- Rockstar, ninja, superstar
- Quick chat
- I'd love to connect
- Passionate
- Are you open to new opportunities?
- A paragraph about our company
- Two asks in one message

12 examples by role

Why this match

Start your free 7-day trial100 people free · or book a demo

Day 4

opener-kit/day-4.txt

Hi [first name],

One more thing about the [role]: [one new fact they'd care about: the team, the manager, remote days, the first project, the top of the range].

[One easy ask, different from day 1.]

[your name]

opener-kit/never-on-day-4.txt

Never on day 4

- Just checking in
- Bumping this to the top of your inbox
- Circling back
- Following up on my last message
- Did you see my email?

day-4/backend.txt

Hi Lena,

One thing I didn't say: you'd be technical lead for the four-person ledger team from day one.

If now's not the time, who's the best payments engineer you've worked with?

[your name]

day-4/icu-manager.txt

Hi Maria,

On-call is shared with two assistant managers, so no solo weekend call.

Worth 10 minutes this week?

[your name]

day-4/payroll.txt

Hi Dana,

The top of the range is for someone with your go-live count, and the bonus is paid quarterly.

Should I send the job description, or is a call easier?

[your name]

Run it in Claude

Start your free 7-day trial
Add custom connector:
https://app.thecognitive.io/mcp
Sign in

opener-kit/prompt.txt

Here is the role: [paste your brief]
Company: [name, or how to describe it if confidential]
Pay range: [range]

Search The Cognitive for this role.

Then, for every person you rate Strong, draft a first message:
- Open with one specific fact from their match line, in your own words. Use only facts shown in the results. Never invent a number. If there's no specific fact, skip the person and say why.
- Then the company, the role, the place and the pay range.
- End with one easy ask.
- Under 60 words.
- Never write "I came across your profile", "exciting opportunity", "great fit" or "I hope this finds you well".
- For people in the EU or UK, end with: Found you via your public profile. Reply "no" and I won't contact you again.

Show each draft under the person's name. Don't send anything.

Staff backend, Berlin Example

Staff backend engineer in Berlin, Go and Kafka, has built a core service other teams depend on. Company: a Berlin payments company. Pay range €110k to €130k. Draft first messages for the Strong ones.

Searched The Cognitive10 shown

Staff Engineer · Backend Engineer · Platform Engineer · Berlin and nearby

4 Strong. Drafts for the first two:

Lena K. · DraftFourteen teams run on the ledger service you built. I'm hiring for a Berlin payments company: Staff Engineer, technical lead on the same kind of core service, €110k to €130k. Worth 15 minutes next week?

Marco D. · DraftYou run a Go and Kafka pipeline at 2M messages an hour. I'm hiring for a Berlin payments company that needs that for its event pipeline: Staff Engineer, €110k to €130k. Free for a call on Thursday?

Reply to Claude…

Try it on your hardest role

Start your free 7-day trial 100 people free · or book a demo