Connect an email provider to FounderHQ Sequences.
Connect your own email provider so sequence email steps send. About 10 minutes, plus DNS propagation.
Before you start
You need an account with one of the providers below, and a domain you control. Verify your sending domain at the provider first — see Verify your sending domain. Then open Sequences in FounderHQ and add an email connection.
Verify your sending domain
Every provider makes you prove you own the domain you send from. You add DNS records — a DKIM record that signs your mail, and usually an SPF record that names the provider as an allowed sender — and the provider checks them.
Do this before you create the connection. FounderHQ sends from the address you configure, so if the domain is not verified at the provider, the provider rejects the send.
| Provider | Where to read |
|---|---|
| Resend | resend.com/docs → Domains |
| Postmark | postmarkapp.com/developer → Sender signatures and domains |
| Amazon SES | docs.aws.amazon.com/ses → Verified identities |
| SMTP | Your mail host's own instructions |
Resend
Paste: your Resend API key. Create it in the Resend dashboard under API Keys.
Set: the from address, on a domain you verified in Resend. Optionally a from name and a reply-to address.
For delivery events: add a webhook in Resend pointing at the webhook URL FounderHQ shows on the connection, then paste Resend's signing secret back into the connection. FounderHQ verifies every webhook against that secret, so without it delivery events are ignored.
Postmark
Paste: your Postmark server API token. Find it on the server you want to send from, under API Tokens.
Set: the from address, matching a verified sender signature or domain
in Postmark. Optionally a from name, a reply-to address, and a message
stream. FounderHQ uses the outbound stream unless you name a different
one.
For delivery events: add a webhook in Postmark pointing at the webhook
URL FounderHQ shows on the connection. Postmark lets you attach a custom
header to that webhook — add X-Webhook-Secret with the secret you set on
the connection. FounderHQ rejects webhooks whose header does not match.
Amazon SES
Paste: the access key ID and secret access key of an IAM user allowed to send with SES.
Set: the AWS region your SES identity lives in, and the from address, which must be a verified identity in that same region. Optionally a from name and a reply-to address.
For delivery events: SES publishes them to an SNS topic. Subscribe the webhook URL FounderHQ shows on the connection to that topic, then record the topic ARN on the connection. FounderHQ checks the signature on every SNS message and accepts only the topic you recorded.
A brand-new SES account is in the sandbox and can send only to addresses you have verified. Request production access in the AWS console before you run a real sequence.
SMTP
Use this for a mail host with no API, or for SES SMTP credentials.
Paste: the SMTP password.
Set: the host, the username, and the from address. The port defaults to 587 with STARTTLS; set it to 465 and turn on implicit TLS if your host needs that. Optionally a from name and a reply-to address.
SMTP tells you nothing after the handshake. Messages sent this way stay at Sent — they never move to Delivered. FounderHQ still tracks opens and clicks itself, because it owns the tracking pixel and rewrites the links.
Choose where replies go
The connection's reply-to email is the default for every email sent through it. In an email template, use Reply to when one message should route replies somewhere else—for example, to support, sales, or the contact's account owner. The field accepts template variables. Leave it blank to use the connection default; when the connection has no reply-to email, replies go to the sender.
Verify
- Build a sequence with one email step and run yourself through it.
- The email arrives from the address you configured, and it lands in the inbox rather than spam.
- Open the sequence in FounderHQ. The message shows as Sent, and moves to Delivered once your provider reports back. SMTP connections stop at Sent.
- Open the email and click a link. The message picks up Opened and Clicked.
Troubleshoot
The send fails immediately with a missing from address
The connection has no from address saved. Every email provider needs one, and it has to be on a domain verified at that provider.
Mail sends but never reaches Delivered
The provider's feedback path is not wired. Re-check the webhook or SNS subscription above. On SMTP there is nothing to wire — Delivered is not available.
Resend or Postmark webhooks arrive but nothing changes
FounderHQ rejected them as unverified. For Resend, paste the signing
secret onto the connection. For Postmark, add the X-Webhook-Secret
header with a matching value.