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Launch HN: EasyEmail (YC W18) – Gmail plug-in that helps compose emails quickly

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Launch HN: EasyEmail (YC W18) – Gmail plug-in that helps compose emails quickly

#21

Post by TheDong »

filipt wrote: post #12
yani wrote: post #8

I would love to use you service but it is not acceptable for me to share my email contents with someone else. Look at how mega cloud storage are protecting users files

Sorry to hear that! I'd love to find out more about how we could resolve that issue. Privacy and security are extremely high on our priority list since email is such an intimate communication channel.

> I'd love to find out more about how we could resolve that issue.

Perhaps you could have a privacy policy which clearly states no text from user emails will be looked at by humans.

It's possible, though not easy, for a limited form of client-side encryption to be used while still offering autocomplete; e.g. if each word is encrypted client-side with a per-client secret, an encrypted "next word" could be determined and returned without the server ever knowing the specific words and sentences it operated on (other than length). There are other caveats here.

> Privacy and security are extremely high on our priority list

The lack-luster privacy policy doesn't show that at all.

Re: Launch HN: EasyEmail (YC W18) – Gmail plug-in that helps compose emails quickly

#22

Post by namank »

filipt wrote: post #9
9erdelta wrote: post #5

What is the plan to make money off this? Sell what you read in my emails? Charge me a monthly fee at some point? Also my initial reaction was that I wasn't aware that composing an email is slow.

We're working on a business version of the product, which will be a monthly fee on a per user basis. We're unsure of the exact pricing yet. It definitely isn't slow for all users! However, there are some that send so many emails that any incremental speed-up is very helpful. Plus, we're looking to start working on mobile, where it should be most useful!

I think it's more than incremental speed up - it's the amount of mindspace it takes.

Re: Launch HN: EasyEmail (YC W18) – Gmail plug-in that helps compose emails quickly

#23

Post by codegeek »

It is interesting to see Chrome Plugins being accepted into YC. Is the potential really worth a billion dollar market ? I would think that YC wants to invest in startups that could scale to high growth in a short span of time. Are Chrome plugins really worth that much ?

Or perhaps this is just the MVP and idea is to scale it further ?

Re: Launch HN: EasyEmail (YC W18) – Gmail plug-in that helps compose emails quickly

#24

Post by filipt »

TheDong wrote: post #21
filipt wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry to hear that! I'd love to find out more about how we could resolve that issue. Privacy and security are extremely high on our priority list since email is such an intimate communication channel.

> I'd love to find out more about how we could resolve that issue. Perhaps you could have a privacy policy which clearly states no text from user emails will be looked at by humans. It's possible, though not easy, for a limited form of client-side encryption to be used while still offering autocomplete; e.g. if each word is encrypted client-side with a per-client secret, an encrypted "next word" could be determined a…

So sorry about that - we'll make sure to improve our privacy policy to reflect that better. Thank you for pointing it out!

We're working on client-side encryption right now actually, which will further help us be better about your privacy.

The only people who can read email sentences are our researchers - and even then the sentences are not identifiable. They are obviously bound by very restrictive NDAs.

Re: Launch HN: EasyEmail (YC W18) – Gmail plug-in that helps compose emails quickly

#25

Post by filipt »

ph0rque wrote: post #20
filipt wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Awesome, what are your initial thoughts? Would love to make it better for you. We'll be rolling out calendar integration in a day or two, so stay tuned

I'll give it a fair shake, then report back :)

Great, looking forward to it!

Re: Launch HN: EasyEmail (YC W18) – Gmail plug-in that helps compose emails quickly

#26

Post by hieu »

codegeek wrote: post #23

It is interesting to see Chrome Plugins being accepted into YC. Is the potential really worth a billion dollar market ? I would think that YC wants to invest in startups that could scale to high growth in a short span of time. Are Chrome plugins really worth that much ? Or perhaps this is just the MVP and idea is to scale it further ?

I think the fact that it looks like toy is a plus to YC. https://blog.ycombinator.com/why-toys/

Great founders + (seemingly) toy/stupid/too hard ideas = how YC selects.

Re: Launch HN: EasyEmail (YC W18) – Gmail plug-in that helps compose emails quickly

#27

Post by filipt »

TheDong wrote: post #19
filipt wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We get used in 15% of emails on average. That number tends to vary a lot from user to user though - we've got a few users who use us in 80% of their emails, and some that use us very sporadically. We don't have a number for the percentage of usage for what the user specifically types, but it sounds like definitely something we should have, so thanks for the suggestion!

> We don't have a number for the percentage of usage for what the user specifically types, but it sounds like definitely something we should have It sounds like a violation of user privacy. Data-collection and privacy is a fine line, and I'm pretty sure any numbers related to specific text users type in private communication being surfaced up to humans is across that line. I'm fine with my phone keyboard suggesting n…

Could you elaborate on that a bit? There's no one looking at your data in real time.

I'll make sure we review the privacy policy once again - you've been bringing up some extremely useful points, so thank you so much!

Re: Launch HN: EasyEmail (YC W18) – Gmail plug-in that helps compose emails quickly

#28

Post by filipt »

hieu wrote: post #26
codegeek wrote: post #23

It is interesting to see Chrome Plugins being accepted into YC. Is the potential really worth a billion dollar market ? I would think that YC wants to invest in startups that could scale to high growth in a short span of time. Are Chrome plugins really worth that much ? Or perhaps this is just the MVP and idea is to scale it further ?

I think the fact that it looks like toy is a plus to YC. https://blog.ycombinator.com/why-toys/ Great founders + (seemingly) toy/stupid/too hard ideas = how YC selects.

Thanks for the support! Really appreciate that :)

Re: Launch HN: EasyEmail (YC W18) – Gmail plug-in that helps compose emails quickly

#29

Post by filipt »

codegeek wrote: post #23

It is interesting to see Chrome Plugins being accepted into YC. Is the potential really worth a billion dollar market ? I would think that YC wants to invest in startups that could scale to high growth in a short span of time. Are Chrome plugins really worth that much ? Or perhaps this is just the MVP and idea is to scale it further ?

Great insight! Chrome extension is our MVP actually - over time we will certainly expand to other platforms (or even have our own email client!). We're already in the process for setting up a Gmail Add-on (https://blog.google/products/g-suite/do-more-your-inbox-gmai...)

It also seems like we can keep going with a Chrome Extension for a bit - Streak, MixMax or even Grammarly are good examples of companies who are focused around a Chrome extension.

What other platforms do you think we could focus on? Where would you like to see us most?

Re: Launch HN: EasyEmail (YC W18) – Gmail plug-in that helps compose emails quickly

#30

Post by kazanz »

I find a couple things irksome, if not malicious.

1. The link to the privacy policy comes AFTER you take all my data. 2. If I uninstall your extension you have it programmed to give me an exit survey, but it doesn't prompt me to revoke access for your app from my account? So you can continue to read all my communications. At the very least tell me how to remove it when I uninstall your extension, or fill out your exit survey. Don't just hide the fact that you retain access indefinitely. 3. You are appending your marketing to the bottom of every email regardless if it used your product or not. Thats crap, I don't want to spam every single person I communicate with. Let me opt in, or only append when your plugin is used.

I get its a prototype, I get the "potential", but it seems you put 0 critical thought into making the app safe.

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