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

111–120 of 280 posts

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

#111

Post by dublinben »

cracell wrote: post #71
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.

I'd love to see companies whose charters legally make them impossible to acquire. No idea how this would work in practice or if you could actually make it enforceable under US law. But I'm so sick of startups just being R&D for corporations and screwing over their userbase once they get acquired. Or even worse is companies that only get off of the ground because of user support via kickstarter or similar fund raising…

A worker-owned cooperative would be seemingly impossible to "acquire" since it is wholly owned, and operated, by those working in the organization. If the corporate charter does not allow outside shareholders, that would prevent the most common forms of acquisition.

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

#112

Post by antjanus »

ITT: People no longer dazzled by innovative startups that promise to not go away any time soon, and that promise to change very old tech.

We're all being pessimists today and for a good reason. In the past several months alone, we've been hit by plenty of companies that trumpeted, "We're not here to get bought out!" and get bought out, and that say, "Now that we're bought out, nothing will change!" and everything changes.

Same goes with companies that try to fix age-old broken models, "We saw how fucked up [insert 20+ year old tech] was, so we fixed it!" but have either slow adoption rates, or hit brick walls when trying to solve the problems that age-old tech solved in a very messy way, or they hit the problem of not satisfying the "core necessary features" that seem to vary from individual to individual.

So, as far as this email platform goes I say, "Good luck!" and I hope it goes well but I won't be surprised if in five months I'll see a post-mortem of the company, or a "bought out" sign on their home page.

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

#113

Post by Dylan16807 »

wldcordeiro wrote: post #104
Dylan16807 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disagree. It's harsh to make a point that there is no evidence they're telling the truth, not to be edgy or get attention. It would be better without the 'shut up' but a bit of an 'angry' tone is fitting. Really, I'm more uncomfortable with a link to a webcomic joke as an argument point...

I'm just citing where I got the 'theory.' The OP of the comment could have made their point just fine without being confrontational or 'angry' as you put it. I don't see why people are defending someone's rudeness, you can get your point across without being a jerk about it.

It's more subtle than that.

The 'shut up' detracts from the comment. Being a jerk is bad.

But being confrontational is in this case a benefit. The first line is "Your claim that your product will not be discontinued is worthless." This is confrontational in a good way, and this line is not being a jerk. It's pointing out a serious flaw without attacking anyone.

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

#114

Post by sroerick »

jmacdotorg wrote: post #55

Ha ha! I clicked on this article's HN comments thinking "Wow, this sounds a company ready for their Incredible Journey to begin." (c.f. http://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com ) And lo, the most upvoted comments here are all expressing the same sentiment. I do not recall before today just looking at a new company's elevator pitch and muttering "Best wishes with the acquihire, y'all". Something subtle's shifted in the…

Turns out it's more profitable to do R&D using VC than it is to do it in house.

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

#115

Post by dublinben »

rosser wrote: post #103
unfunco wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Because self-hosting a mail service is totally something my mom can do... (As the sibling comment notes, I'm talking from the perspective of the end user, not that of a technologist. We need to remember who we're ultimately building these things for...)

So your theoretical (straw man) user cares enough to not want their email in the hands of a third party service provider, but is unwilling to run their own service? Maybe this user should deliver their messages by hand directly to the recipient, because their demands are unrealistic.

Self-hosted services are a significant step forward from the corporate trap of the 2000s. Offering paid hosting plans is the most logical, sustainable revenue source for the companies writing this software.

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

#116

Post by bengali3 »

cracell wrote: post #71
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.

I'd love to see companies whose charters legally make them impossible to acquire. No idea how this would work in practice or if you could actually make it enforceable under US law. But I'm so sick of startups just being R&D for corporations and screwing over their userbase once they get acquired. Or even worse is companies that only get off of the ground because of user support via kickstarter or similar fund raising…

I'm guessing a limit on possible exits would be a red flag for investors who are looking for a return.

Having clauses with each investor that let you purchase back your shares from them at predetermined times and rates (returns would need to be healthy for them) limits their upside, but lets you buy back control whenever. - assuming you can afford it

for public companies in the US, also see "Poison pill":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shareholder_rights_plan

http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/06/30/dealpolitik-poison...

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

#117

Post by potatolicious »

logicallee wrote: post #86
stephen wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Or exercise their Board powers and fire the CEO when push comes to shove.

Nobody spends millions of dollars on something to make themselves powerless in it.

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

#118

Post by gnuvince »

So, I really don't understand what Inbox is. From what I'm reading, it looks like an API to access email messages: perform queries, modify them, etc. Does that sound right?

If it is, then what are the "email applications" that require this API? To me, the problems with email are its plain-text nature, spam and managing the vast quantity of mail we get. Does Inbox help here?

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

#119

Post by jkarneges »

ammmir wrote: post #78

it's great to see friendlier APIs for working with email! is Inbox intended more for building email clients, compared to something like Switchboard ( http://switchboard.spatch.co/ ) which is more for processing inbound email? any plans for a WebSocket API? seems like it would be easier to receive pushed emails on an existing socket, than registering a webhook and then sending a push notification out-of-band to the cl…

In the meantime, WebhookInbox is useful for making client apps able to receive webhooks.

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

#120

Post by btown »

logicallee wrote: post #86
stephen wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

To elaborate on this point: if your current VCs aren't able to change your mind, and they get angry as a result, just their absence alone from future funding rounds will make it nearly impossible to get other investors interested. So they basically have you by a chain.
Post reply on HN