Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Dropbox closing Carousel and Mailbox

blogs.dropbox.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

281–290 of 435 posts

Re: Dropbox closing Carousel and Mailbox

#281

Post by lewisl9029 »

meesterdude wrote: post #272
vu0tran wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. Acquired for $101M then subsequently shut down in 1-2 years (just kidding of course). I don't know if it's in my best interest to answer this publicly, but screw it. The honest answer is I'm not entirely too sure, but an acquisition is always on the table for any startup IMO. I think whenever you ask a founder, "If someone offered you $100M, would you take it?", it's a pretty loaded question. There's really thre…

> There's really three outcomes to a startup: They die, they get acquired, they IPO. There's a fourth: they serve the needs of their customers over the course of years and decades. which, as someone in the market for an email client I can fall in love with and use for the rest of my life; is exactly what I want.

It's interesting that this option wasn't even considered.

Why does every startup need to aim to take over the world overnight? Is it not feasible to first take external funding to grow quickly in early stages, and then transition to a more organic growth model once you reach a point of profitability and sustainability (and maybe also slowly buy back shares in the company to eventually become fully autonomous)?

Re: Dropbox closing Carousel and Mailbox

#282

Post by jarek »

lewisl9029 wrote: post #281
meesterdude wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's really three outcomes to a startup: They die, they get acquired, they IPO. There's a fourth: they serve the needs of their customers over the course of years and decades. which, as someone in the market for an email client I can fall in love with and use for the rest of my life; is exactly what I want.

It's interesting that this option wasn't even considered. Why does every startup need to aim to take over the world overnight? Is it not feasible to first take external funding to grow quickly in early stages, and then transition to a more organic growth model once you reach a point of profitability and sustainability (and maybe also slowly buy back shares in the company to eventually become fully autonomous)?

If that was an option, he wouldn't be in YC, half-accidentally or otherwise. Nothing against YC here, but long-term steady-state isn't what they're looking for. Remember that next time you start using a VC-funded tool.

Re: Dropbox closing Carousel and Mailbox

#283

Post by fooly_wk »

For those disppointed with Mailbox's abandonment, I'd love to hear your feedback on Polymail (https://polymail.io). We're in private Alpha right now, but we have many similar features to Mailbox like Read Later + some better ones like Email Tracking & Send Later. Feel free to DM me on Twitter (https://twitter.com/foolywk) if you'd like to be added to our next Alpha release!

Re: Dropbox closing Carousel and Mailbox

#284

Post by aembleton »

vu0tran wrote: post #242
jonursenbach wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's your end goal with this? Surely it must be getting acquired by one of the big email providers.

Yup. Acquired for $101M then subsequently shut down in 1-2 years (just kidding of course). I don't know if it's in my best interest to answer this publicly, but screw it. The honest answer is I'm not entirely too sure, but an acquisition is always on the table for any startup IMO. I think whenever you ask a founder, "If someone offered you $100M, would you take it?", it's a pretty loaded question. There's really thre…

You can sign up for Facebook with just a mobile number through the app.

Re: Dropbox closing Carousel and Mailbox

#285

Post by shdon »

fooly_wk wrote: post #283

For those disppointed with Mailbox's abandonment, I'd love to hear your feedback on Polymail ( https://polymail.io ). We're in private Alpha right now, but we have many similar features to Mailbox like Read Later + some better ones like Email Tracking & Send Later. Feel free to DM me on Twitter ( https://twitter.com/foolywk ) if you'd like to be added to our next Alpha release!

It says only "coming soon on OS X". Does that mean it is an OS X desktop app only? (I currently use Mailbox on Android, and am very interested in finding a replacement, but could only care less about OS X if paid to do so).

Re: Dropbox closing Carousel and Mailbox

#286

Post by [deleted] »

untog wrote: post #190
mbesto wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But this totally negates your point about "there isn't enough money in an email app". Clearly Dropbox thought there was at least a $100MM opportunity...either talent to produce $100MM+ in value, customers to convert into $100MM+ value, or staving off competition that would result in $100MM in potential loss.

It's pretty clear that Dropbox valued Mailbox for its potential to be something other than the standalone email app it was. And you might be right - there might well be enough talent on the Mailbox team to produce $100M+ in value - but not making a standalone email app. If we're being ultimately generous with Dropbox then what they are doing is exactly correct - taking a team that can create a $100M+ product and reas…

[deleted]

Re: Dropbox closing Carousel and Mailbox

#287

Post by free2rhyme214 »

dmbaggett wrote: post #223
schneidmaster wrote: post #3

Ugh. Yet another intriguing email startup being acquihired and killed off by a more-established tech company (see also: Sparrow). It's 2015 and I still bounce around email clients every couple months because all of the major options have substantial flaws.

I co-founded ITA Software and have been using some of the proceeds from the sale to Google to fund an email startup. ( http://inky.com ) The challenges outlined in this thread are all accurate. If you're thinking about putting effort (or money) behind an email startup, think again. I simply don't believe it's doable for a normal startup (i.e., one without a crazy rich guy plowing money into it until it's good enough)…

In 1996 there was a huge need for airfare search. Look at the success you've had.

On the contrary email in 2015 isn't a huge need or a pain point for most people.

Since you're entering a crowded market your product has to be 10X better. Currently it's probably not which is why most people perceive Inky as a marginal improvement.

Still I'd love to see other projects you're working on Dave. Clearly you're talented and with the right idea I could see you getting back to where ITA & Crash was.

Re: Dropbox closing Carousel and Mailbox

#288

Post by mkhalil »

keehun wrote: post #97
mkhalil wrote: post #93

This is the reason why I stick to the native mail on iOS or Gmail app for the emails i need instantly without fetch. Yeah they may have their cons, but I don't have to worry about Apple dropping Mail app. Mail should be simple, I think the best apps are the lightweight ones that don't require too much work to keep alive, and definitely don't require a backend server process. Also, Mailbox had access to all your mail,…

What I've started doing is to filter via whether or not they're in my contacts. I have a folder (I don't use Gmail) where all non-contact-originating email goes into. That folder doesn't even ring up the new email count. I've immensely enjoyed this new system. I, like you, immediately unsubscribe from things that I don't even care about in the "good-spam" box. Only I am too lazy (or don't care enough) to maintain a h…

Nice. White list approach as oppose to black list. Makes sense. I would probably end up still using a filter though, because I don't want to have so many contacts for people I barely contact.

Re: Dropbox closing Carousel and Mailbox

#289

Post by eevilspock »

reverend_gonzo wrote: post #73
nathan_f77 wrote: post #36

I only recently switched to Mailbox because I got tired of an annoying UI bug in Sparrow that was never going to be fixed. I was just starting to get used to Mailbox. What mail app should I be using now?

Check out Spark by Readdle. It replaces Mailbox fairly well.

Agreed! It had great functionality, including customizabiltit and the best approach to separating wheat from chaff I've seen to date. Spark is entirely client side (Though they're hinting at adding server-side features; as long as it doesn't include server-side access to my email no problem).

Mac client slated for early 2016. They support plain IMAP (yes!) and even Exchange.

Re: Dropbox closing Carousel and Mailbox

#290

Post by joslin01 »

jacquesm wrote: post #262
staunch wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's far more likely that he was overly optimistic about Mailbox's chances of success at Dropbox. Founders are notoriously delusional about this kind of thing. Dropbox wasn't worried about maintaining the small existing Mailbox userbase, they were betting they could grow it by millions of users. When it didn't work, it messed up their plans (and promises). Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained…

> Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. As a CEO I'm not sure which of those two explanations I'd prefer.

Stupidity because people who act in malice are dicks. You can choose to be nice, but it's inevitable you'll be stupid at one point or another.
Post reply on HN