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

MIT And Dropbox Alums Launch Inbox, a Next-Generation Email Platform

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 280 posts

Re: MIT And Dropbox Alums Launch Inbox, a Next-Generation Email Platform

#81

Post by stephen »

grinich wrote: post #21
Agathos wrote: post #10

“Inbox is an email company. Google is an advertising company. This product is our focus, and will not be ‘discontinued’ unexpectedly.” Burn! Very amusing. But for all we know they will be acqui-hired, maybe even by Google, and then shifted to a different project.

I said this in the other thread and I know it sounds cliché, but we're not planning to "go away" or get acquired or something. We've always positioned this company as a long-term play, and made that very clear when hiring, raising money, etc. It's just not possible to go after something big if you plan to "flip" the company quickly.

> but we're not planning to "go away" or get acquired or something

If you've taken VC money, haven't you already gave up that choice? Despite pretenses, the VCs are going to want: a) IPO or b) acquisition.

Since you assert b) is not your plan, do you really think you can become a $100m/year company (IPO) by charging for something that Google/MS/everyone else provides for free?

Perhaps I am too pessimistic (or realistic?) about VC goals/control.

Re: MIT And Dropbox Alums Launch Inbox, a Next-Generation Email Platform

#82

Post by nightski »

unfunco wrote: post #29
rosser wrote: post #16

Right, so now all of my email can go through some third party's systems. That's exactly what we need in a post-Snowden world.

It's on GitHub, you can self-host it if you wanted to. It's not a service yet .

I believe he was looking from the view point of an end user, not the developer integrating with Inbox. To be honest his reaction was exactly the same as mine - I wouldn't really want to use any service that uses Inbox, because now all my email has been synchronized to some other third-party service.

Re: MIT And Dropbox Alums Launch Inbox, a Next-Generation Email Platform

#83

Post by nawitus »

grinich wrote: post #50
gwillen wrote: post #24

Your claim that your product will not be discontinued is worthless. If you're so sure of that, put your money where your mouth is, and offer an SLA with a contractual minimum duration you promise to keep the service up, and significant monetary penalties if you fail to meet it. Doesn't sound like a good idea? Then shut up.

(Michael from Inbox here.) Ouch. We're just a few hackers trying to fix broken developer tools. Any claim is just a claim, for sure. We know that it's a long road to earn trust of other developers. One of the (many) reasons we made the sync engine open source was so that developers could run it on their own metal without trusting us. Transparency is really important to us. This is just the beta announcement of our AP…

But if you believe in the claim, why not sign a contract that brings some validity to the claim?

Re: MIT And Dropbox Alums Launch Inbox, a Next-Generation Email Platform

#84

Post by nawitus »

grinich wrote: post #56
extesy wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also disagree with the tone but I understand the reason. They will gladly shut the service down once someone offers them enough money in aqui-hire.

They will gladly shut the service down once someone offers them enough money in aqui-hire. It's a bummer this is the status quo with startups. To me, it's the most disappointing thing about the tech world. I actually interviewed at other companies first, and only cofounded Inbox when I couldn't find anywhere else to solve this problem. Probably the only convincing thing I can say is that if you wanted to build a comp…

But if you don't plan to be acquired, why not sign a contract in that effect?

Re: MIT And Dropbox Alums Launch Inbox, a Next-Generation Email Platform

#85

Post by GuiA »

personZ wrote: post #18
Agathos wrote: post #10

“Inbox is an email company. Google is an advertising company. This product is our focus, and will not be ‘discontinued’ unexpectedly.” Burn! Very amusing. But for all we know they will be acqui-hired, maybe even by Google, and then shifted to a different project.

Indeed, the probability of this being discontinued, if it follows normal trends, is dramatically higher than pretty much any Google product, and worse the notion that the "product is their focus" is specious: getting investment cash or a buyout is their focus, as it is with virtually all startups. Moralizing or taking shots at competitors is a dangerous tactic when you live in a glass house.

> Moralizing or taking shots at competitors is a dangerous tactic when you live in a glass house.

Especially when you all live in the same glass house.

Re: MIT And Dropbox Alums Launch Inbox, a Next-Generation Email Platform

#86

Post by logicallee »

stephen wrote: post #81
grinich wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I said this in the other thread and I know it sounds cliché, but we're not planning to "go away" or get acquired or something. We've always positioned this company as a long-term play, and made that very clear when hiring, raising money, etc. It's just not possible to go after something big if you plan to "flip" the company quickly.

> but we're not planning to "go away" or get acquired or something If you've taken VC money, haven't you already gave up that choice? Despite pretenses, the VCs are going to want: a) IPO or b) acquisition. Since you assert b) is not your plan, do you really think you can become a $100m/year company (IPO) by charging for something that Google/MS/everyone else provides for free? Perhaps I am too pessimistic (or realist…

who cares what they want? If they put in the money as a minority shareholder, their options are to follow the CEO or try to change his/her mind.

Note: they're very good at the latter.

Re: MIT And Dropbox Alums Launch Inbox, a Next-Generation Email Platform

#88

Post by higherpurpose »

To me a next-gen e-mail platform is one that has end to end encryption enabled by default, like say what Dark Mail is trying to achieve. Seeing how Dropbox has never once considered to add E2E encryption for its storage service, and how they're hired the anti-champion of privacy, Condoleezza Rice, I'm not expecting that to happen here - ever.

Re: MIT And Dropbox Alums Launch Inbox, a Next-Generation Email Platform

#89

Post by pessimizer »

pc wrote: post #53
gwillen wrote: post #24

Your claim that your product will not be discontinued is worthless. If you're so sure of that, put your money where your mouth is, and offer an SLA with a contractual minimum duration you promise to keep the service up, and significant monetary penalties if you fail to meet it. Doesn't sound like a good idea? Then shut up.

> Doesn't sound like a good idea? Then shut up. Your comment is needlessly mean-spirited. The top-voted comment on the recent Show HN thread would seem to apply here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7984826

>Instead of "you're doing it wrong", suggest alternatives.

Re: MIT And Dropbox Alums Launch Inbox, a Next-Generation Email Platform

#90

Post by buttsex »

grinich wrote: post #21
Agathos wrote: post #10

“Inbox is an email company. Google is an advertising company. This product is our focus, and will not be ‘discontinued’ unexpectedly.” Burn! Very amusing. But for all we know they will be acqui-hired, maybe even by Google, and then shifted to a different project.

I said this in the other thread and I know it sounds cliché, but we're not planning to "go away" or get acquired or something. We've always positioned this company as a long-term play, and made that very clear when hiring, raising money, etc. It's just not possible to go after something big if you plan to "flip" the company quickly.

Everybody has a price. It is hard to take a promise like this seriously this early. Hopefully I am proven wrong.
Post reply on HN