I dont get what problem this company is solving?
Time, organization-improving of Gmail UI, basically UX, if I'm understanding correctly.
Email startup Superhuman lays off 22% of staff
91–100 of 108 posts
Re: Email startup Superhuman lays off 22% of staff
#92I really don't like services that are invite only. Just let me sign up and give you my money. It took them about a year to send me an invitation. Of course I lost interest in the meantime.
Gmail was invite only at one point. I remember when everyone was clamoring for an invite. I wonder if it would’ve had the same success without that hype.
The success came from the fact that it was so much better than competitors (more storage, a better interface and better search. All that matters in email). The invites were just an irritating hurdle to get past to have something good.
Re: Email startup Superhuman lays off 22% of staff
#93If it’s email productivity you’re after, take a look at the email service I built that batches your mail into digests:
Re: Email startup Superhuman lays off 22% of staff
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
"f 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." Yeah that's not a valid excuse. There are innumerable product categories where such problems exist. Every product you could imagine is more useful for one group than another. He is creating a MLM-ish ex…
It seems like it's pretty standard advice that it's better to have 100 customers who absolutely love your product and never churn than 10K customers who have a slightly positive impression of it and 10% of them churn out every month.
I think the years long waiting list and manual selection of who you let in could be an attempt to game these metrics. (I'm not saying that's a valid excuse for doing it, because after 3 (2?) years, the need for such gaming suggests to me that the product isn't in the first category. It might still be OK and a viable business, but it's probably not going to turn into gmail.
Re: Email startup Superhuman lays off 22% of staff
#95Earlier 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.
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…
You misunderstand me. I am saying that I don't think this user story requires a standalone email client. You could replicate most of the key value propositions (if not the specific feature implementation) as extensions to Chrome and Gmail. That would be both a feasible solo dev idea and a more reasonable $5-10 a month rather than $30.
Sure, throw a couple hundred million at the same problem and you'll overbuild it into a monster. But that doesn't mean it's the right business model.
Re: Email startup Superhuman lays off 22% of staff
#96I know their Privacy Policy is pretty standard but if you look at the background of the founders it all deals in selling data. I would be very careful using them for email.
Superhuman Privacy Policy
> Personal Data We Receive From Third Parties: From time to time we may receive information about you from third parties and other users, including your job title, employer, and location. We may also collect information about you that is publicly available. This may include your publicly available social media information, or your contacts' publicly available social media information. The data we receive is dependent upon your and your contacts' privacy settings with the relevant social network.
> Vendors and Service Providers: To assist us in meeting business operations needs and to perform certain services and functions, we may share Personal Data with service providers, including web hosting, debugging services, email and productivity services, survey providers, data base and sales/customer relationship management services, customer service providers, payment processors; web and app analytics services, and data brokers. Notwithstanding the foregoing, we only share Email Content Data with our hosting provider (Google, Inc.). Pursuant to our instructions, these parties will access, process or store Personal Data in the course of performing their duties to us.
Re: Email startup Superhuman lays off 22% of staff
#97Maybe I'm the odd one out, but I've been using Superhuman for years and it definitely helps me get through the 50+ emails that are awaiting me each morning significantly faster than either GMail's web or mobile client or Outlook on mobile. I'm quite happy to pay for it as it easily pays for itself. Rahul has frequently personally responded to my inquiries about the product as well as recommendations. They definitely…
Can you give a sense of how Superhuman helps you get through those emails faster?
50 emails does not sound like a lot to me; I’m not sure how I could get through them any faster than I can now using the default MS365 web Outlook + Mail app on my iPhone.
Re: Email startup Superhuman lays off 22% of staff
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 worki…
> Would you rather they parse all your private communications for advertising profile purposes and keep it free-as-in-Facebook?
Is this sarcasm? You know they literally do this, right?
And even if they didn't, not doing it doesn't give them a pass to promise people something and then take it back.
Re: Email startup Superhuman lays off 22% of staff
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
"f 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." Yeah that's not a valid excuse. There are innumerable product categories where such problems exist. Every product you could imagine is more useful for one group than another. He is creating a MLM-ish ex…
It seems like it's pretty standard advice that it's better to have 100 customers who absolutely love your product and never churn than 10K customers who have a slightly positive impression of it and 10% of them churn out every month. I think the years long waiting list and manual selection of who you let in could be an attempt to game these metrics. (I'm not saying that's a valid excuse for doing it, because after 3…
"It seems like it's pretty standard advice that it's better to have 100 customers who absolutely love your product and never churn than 10K customers who have a slightly positive impression of it and 10% of them churn out every month."
??? What, no.
Do the math on what you just said.
You'd have to charge 100x the price to have only the 'beloved customers'.
'Churn' is a normal part of business. 100x the customer based, for 10x churn? I think most people would take that.
'Years long waiting list' - is mostly rubb hype, a marketing tactic.
You are not going to be on the waiting list, if they think you are important.
My 'wait' was maybe 3 months, probably because I have 'some banking' elements on my profile. If I was a founder, probably 1 month.
It's a matter of who they think is willing to pay - and - a 'scarcity' tactic that feeds right into the egos of the kinds of people who would want that product.
Their tactics may be reasonable - it could be optimal for them ...
... but my issue is - they are not rational tactics in a competitive market.
Someone could 'copy the whole thing' and give it away for $1 a month.
'Churn' is not hugely relevant.
Which makes me believe that the features are just not that valuable.
They are trying to be a premium brand product in software.
I think 10% layoff is probably just an excuse to cut some fluff and R&D during a downturn. They can harvest cash a little bit before expanding.
Re: Email startup Superhuman lays off 22% of staff
#100Earlier 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.
What are you talking about?