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Email startup Superhuman lays off 22% of staff

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Re: Email startup Superhuman lays off 22% of staff

#61
post #30

OT: I've been trying recently to find something that works like the old Google Inbox project. Inbox was the only time I've ever reached inbox 0 , and it annoyed the hell out of me when they cancelled it. Has anyone seen/used anything that comes close?

Shortwave, imho, comes really close to the old Inbox experience. I'm not sure that I recommend it, but it was good when I was trying it out compared to vanilla Gmail.

Re: Email startup Superhuman lays off 22% of staff

#62
post #30

OT: I've been trying recently to find something that works like the old Google Inbox project. Inbox was the only time I've ever reached inbox 0 , and it annoyed the hell out of me when they cancelled it. Has anyone seen/used anything that comes close?

Readdle's Spark[1] has been my Inbox replacement since Google killed it. It has pin/snooze functionality and a similar concept of grouping emails by category and letting you easily mass mark-as-read. Plus, you can connect multiple email accounts rather than just being limited to your Gmail account. It's also nice because you can have a "team"; my wife and I use it to share important messages and help each other draft…

I've been using Spark for years and love it. Snoozing is great though it is not an exclusive feature any more. I believe there are some privacy concerns with Spark but I'm very happy with it overall.

Re: Email startup Superhuman lays off 22% of staff

#63
I pay for Superman (well my company pays for it).

Their 1:1 onboarding was got me hooked. I use Superman everyday multiple times a day.

It’s a pretty amazing piece of product. Their focus on UX speed is impeccable.

I legit loathe using gmail interface even though Superhuman is an extension of gmail data and api capabilities.

Re: Email startup Superhuman lays off 22% of staff

#64

I ditched Superhuman for Simplify: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/simplify-gmail/pbm... It’s cheaper and pretty much the same features without the bugs of Superhuman.

Thanks for sharing this. I installed and read their site a couple times - I'm having trouble figuring out what it does outside of simplify the design.

Re: Email startup Superhuman lays off 22% of staff

#65
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah this is a solid chrome app store kind of solo dev project. 100 employees is absurd. I think they had a lot of early adopter VC users who really liked it and let their personal bias overwhelm better TAM analysis.

people said that about Honey (just a chrome app store solo dev project) and look how much they got acquired for. Don't underestimate them.

[deleted]

Re: Email startup Superhuman lays off 22% of staff

#66

I remember when this startup came out, all the VCs, angel investors and tech founders were singing songs of praises (and raises) about how this was going to disrupt email and gating the product an 'exclusive' access to a waitlist. I find it sus when VCs have to keep overhyping their portfolio companies, especially when they don't even make money. Anyway, I checked it out and found that this really isn't novel at all…

I have to disagree with you. The guy built a niche product, an email program that offered productivity benefits just for those dealing with hundreds of emails a day. Maybe the top 1-2% of email users would find it useful.

But this presents some big problems for his go to market plan. If he opens it up to everyone with no restrictions he will face tremendous churn. Plus 98% won't see any value at all and will bash the product online perhaps discouraging those who would benefit from even trying it.

By forcing people to answer questions that allow him to only allow those who would potentially benefit from signing up for the trial he eliminates all those problems. As a result from what I can see his users are fanatical in their praise.

You might ask how does he earn a profit on the top 2% of email users? The overall market is so large that even a tiny sliver of those users who willing pay for the product is a pretty large market.

Re: Email startup Superhuman lays off 22% of staff

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That may be but this app has a limited market regardless how good it is. Its not a VC/hypergrowth product and only possible exit is acquisition.

Yeah this is a solid chrome app store kind of solo dev project. 100 employees is absurd. I think they had a lot of early adopter VC users who really liked it and let their personal bias overwhelm better TAM analysis.

I think you underestimate how complex email clients are. Table stakes from Gmail: You need to be able to display arbitrary HTML safely, full text search, remove the embedded history in emails, robust sync with Gmail (or insert your IMAP server), a rich text editor, and there are even small things that end up being complex like parsing an email (people send all sorts of non compliant mail and Gmail is pretty darn good at accepting most of it). That's just table stakes, let alone the features that make superhuman distinct.

Re: Email startup Superhuman lays off 22% of staff

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Invites weren't what got me hyped about Gmail. My Yahoo and Hotmail accounts had 2-5 MB storage limits at the time. Gmail offered a 1 GB storage limit. The idea that I'd never have to delete an email again is what had me hitting up old friends on AIM for an invite.

Ironically, now that they've locked everyone in, they're demanding that you pay or delete emails. Scumbags.

Is it scumbag of them, or are we the scumbags for refusing to adopt any software unless it’s free?

Would you rather they parse all your private communications for advertising profile purposes and keep it free-as-in-Facebook?

It was basically a decade-plus free trial. I can’t see how that was a bad deal.

I pay for email(Fastmail) because I want to support the team working on keeping my main communication channel working smoothly, and would rather not have my emails parsed by the advertising surveillance state.

Re: Email startup Superhuman lays off 22% of staff

#69
post #66

I remember when this startup came out, all the VCs, angel investors and tech founders were singing songs of praises (and raises) about how this was going to disrupt email and gating the product an 'exclusive' access to a waitlist. I find it sus when VCs have to keep overhyping their portfolio companies, especially when they don't even make money. Anyway, I checked it out and found that this really isn't novel at all…

I have to disagree with you. The guy built a niche product, an email program that offered productivity benefits just for those dealing with hundreds of emails a day. Maybe the top 1-2% of email users would find it useful. But this presents some big problems for his go to market plan. If he opens it up to everyone with no restrictions he will face tremendous churn. Plus 98% won't see any value at all and will bash the…

> The guy built a niche product

Proponents never call it a niche product, though. They talk like it’s the one productivity tool to rule them all. Such attitude is the problem, not the business’s success.

Re: Email startup Superhuman lays off 22% of staff

#70

I remember when this startup came out, all the VCs, angel investors and tech founders were singing songs of praises (and raises) about how this was going to disrupt email and gating the product an 'exclusive' access to a waitlist. I find it sus when VCs have to keep overhyping their portfolio companies, especially when they don't even make money. Anyway, I checked it out and found that this really isn't novel at all…

It took literally _5 years_ for me to get through the waitlist. I signed up in 2016 and got an automated email “from” the founder in May 2021 excitedly inviting me to fill out a questionnaire in order to gain access… Asking me to do work after waiting 5 years seemed crazy so I ignored it and got another automated email “from” the founder nudging me to take the questionnaire a few weeks later. Strangest set of interactions I’ve ever had with a product. I have no idea whether their product is good or bad and I stopped caring many years ago.
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