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Etacts (YC W10) releases first implementation of Gmail OAuth for IMAP

etacts.com

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Re: Etacts (YC W10) releases first implementation of Gmail OAuth for IMAP

#11

Post by yurisagalov »

A couple of comments/ideas/suggestions/feel free to ignore me/etc...

1. The lack of sign in button is confusing (this can be solved by simply renaming 'Go' to 'Login')

2. I've been waiting for etacts to finish importing whatever it is importing for almost 6 hours, and with no ETA / status bar / email update I'm inclined to feel that it's either not working, is heavily bottle necked, or something went wrong

3. Assuming the system is actually just busy doing all the processing on my emails, as an end user I would prefer it to do all this in the background, in a manner that is oblivious to me.

4. This means you could/should display 'incomplete' information, as long as it comes with the warning of 'We've still got XXXXXX emails to process' or something similar :)

I really just wanted to see what the interface/experience is like, regardless of exactly how much information you've processed (i.e. I'm ok with seeing a 'last contacted 3 years ago' message, even though I contacted them yesterday, because I realize you're still processing the information, but I want to see it now, not five hours from now :)

You do a great job at a very simple one-click login/signup, but having to wait forever to use this will (imo) lose a lot of people down the road who just "want to try it" (one of the best quotable comments I've heard a few weeks ago was from one of the founders of BackType -- "Your biggest enemy is the back button")

Anyway, I do look forward to using it asap :D

Re: Etacts (YC W10) releases first implementation of Gmail OAuth for IMAP

#12

Post by euroclydon »

First I've heard of etacts. Aside form their actual product, I'm more interested in them as a Ycombinator company, because I can't imagine what the growth/exit strategy for this type of company is. It seems to me that YC is looking for smart people that can crunch a bunch of data. In that sense, they are competing directly with hedge funds for talent.

So if you're smart, know some stats, and crunch a bunch of data for a few years, I'll bet you can then turn your collective brain power and IP and any problem you choose.

Re: Etacts (YC W10) releases first implementation of Gmail OAuth for IMAP

#13

Post by pg »

euroclydon wrote: post #12

First I've heard of etacts. Aside form their actual product, I'm more interested in them as a Ycombinator company, because I can't imagine what the growth/exit strategy for this type of company is. It seems to me that YC is looking for smart people that can crunch a bunch of data. In that sense, they are competing directly with hedge funds for talent. So if you're smart, know some stats, and crunch a bunch of data fo…

I can't imagine what the growth/exit strategy for this type of company is

Here's a related puzzle for you. In 1975 a company appears whose product is a Basic interpreter for a cheap microcomputer used by hobbyists. What is their exit strategy?

Re: Etacts (YC W10) releases first implementation of Gmail OAuth for IMAP

#15

Post by howsta »

yurisagalov wrote: post #11

A couple of comments/ideas/suggestions/feel free to ignore me/etc... 1. The lack of sign in button is confusing (this can be solved by simply renaming 'Go' to 'Login') 2. I've been waiting for etacts to finish importing whatever it is importing for almost 6 hours, and with no ETA / status bar / email update I'm inclined to feel that it's either not working, is heavily bottle necked, or something went wrong 3. Assumin…

Thanks for the feedback. 1) Login button text is fixed. 2) Sorry, having some delays from too many users trying to sign up. We're working on speeding up the import process now. Sorry for the delay!

Re: Etacts (YC W10) releases first implementation of Gmail OAuth for IMAP

#16

Post by yurisagalov »

euroclydon wrote: post #12

First I've heard of etacts. Aside form their actual product, I'm more interested in them as a Ycombinator company, because I can't imagine what the growth/exit strategy for this type of company is. It seems to me that YC is looking for smart people that can crunch a bunch of data. In that sense, they are competing directly with hedge funds for talent. So if you're smart, know some stats, and crunch a bunch of data fo…

I think this company has a HUGE growth potential. I know quite a few business men and women (especially in sales) who would pay a good amount monthly to have this as a tool at their disposal. If you need a concrete example, I'd highly recommend reading Keith Ferrazi's "Never Eat Alone", where he discusses how he manually enters all his contacts and reminders after each and every conversation to remind him to follow up and "ping" people. (Actually I'd say everyone should read that book in general)

Personal CRM is a hugely untapped market imo. CRM solutions exist in a thousand ways from salesforce and competitors, but they really don't deal with the "personal" aspect of relationships very well.

So in terms of growth I think they're fine. In terms of exits, I can't really speculate, but I think there's at least two really obvious ones (acquired by Google and integrated into Gmail / Google Apps / etc...., or acquired by salesforce or a related competitor)

Re: Etacts (YC W10) releases first implementation of Gmail OAuth for IMAP

#17

Post by yurisagalov »

howsta wrote: post #15
yurisagalov wrote: post #11

A couple of comments/ideas/suggestions/feel free to ignore me/etc... 1. The lack of sign in button is confusing (this can be solved by simply renaming 'Go' to 'Login') 2. I've been waiting for etacts to finish importing whatever it is importing for almost 6 hours, and with no ETA / status bar / email update I'm inclined to feel that it's either not working, is heavily bottle necked, or something went wrong 3. Assumin…

Thanks for the feedback. 1) Login button text is fixed. 2) Sorry, having some delays from too many users trying to sign up. We're working on speeding up the import process now. Sorry for the delay!

No worries on the delay, I know you're probably suffering growing pains, which, as we all know, are the best kinds of pains :P My comments were an attempt at looking at things from other users perspective :)

Re: Etacts (YC W10) releases first implementation of Gmail OAuth for IMAP

#18

Post by fjabre »

akardell wrote: post #14

Has there been an announcement on general availability of Gmail OAuth? Found the techcrunch article about an expected announcement, but no announcement as of yet.

I'd actually be really interested to look at those API specs. Anyone?

This has been a long time coming: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=849586

Re: Etacts (YC W10) releases first implementation of Gmail OAuth for IMAP

#19

Post by fjabre »

anthropocentric wrote: post #7

To be clear, you still need to give Etacts your password IF you use Google Apps (not simply gmail), right?

I just signed up with my domain account and I did not give them my password, although on their site they state that they need it for Google Apps accounts. Pretty odd.

It's still in the 'setup' state so I can't really do anything in their UI yet but it did let me login with my google apps email never the less.

Re: Etacts (YC W10) releases first implementation of Gmail OAuth for IMAP

#20

Post by jfarmer »

pg wrote: post #13
euroclydon wrote: post #12

First I've heard of etacts. Aside form their actual product, I'm more interested in them as a Ycombinator company, because I can't imagine what the growth/exit strategy for this type of company is. It seems to me that YC is looking for smart people that can crunch a bunch of data. In that sense, they are competing directly with hedge funds for talent. So if you're smart, know some stats, and crunch a bunch of data fo…

I can't imagine what the growth/exit strategy for this type of company is Here's a related puzzle for you. In 1975 a company appears whose product is a Basic interpreter for a cheap microcomputer used by hobbyists. What is their exit strategy?

A BASIC interpreter? I wish people would work on real problems, and not toys.
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