Hayley Bay Barna

Hayley Bay Barna

Partner @ First Round Capital

About

I’m a Partner at First Round Capital, where I work closely with founders from the early stages of building a company. I spend my time meeting ambitious entrepreneurs, understanding their vision, and helping them turn promising ideas into strong, scalable businesses. I enjoy getting into the details—product, market, hiring, growth, and the challenges that come with building from zero. For me, the most rewarding part is supporting founders through the uncertain early days and being a practical partner as they build something that matters.

Forums

Our onboarding e-mail open rate is fantastic, but it really doesn't mean anything

68% open rate on day one followed by a cliff on day three that no tweaks to the subject line have managed to change. I used to equate open rate with interest level. Now I realize that all it means is that our subject lines were good and that we sucked at onboarding.

Anyone who has ever had to deal with a problem like this, was the solution something to do with the email, the timing, or something about the product itself that emails couldn't solve?

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