Shortwave Snail Mail • Hacker News Board

Re: Shortwave Snail Mail

#11

Post by jlund-molfese » Tue, Nov 23, 2021, 4:50 AM UTC

jacob019 wrote: post #6

If you are not paying for the product then you are the product. They are not transparent at all about how they are monetizing this, which seems really scammy.

If you go through the process, it seems pretty benign. Looks like the stationary has an ad for Shortwave at the bottom, and it unobtrusively reminds you that it’s a Shortwave service throughout.

I think it’s clever, a marketing stunt like this is memorable and makes me curious about the company sponsoring it. Plus, the cost of acquiring a new lead can be pretty high for many SaaS companies. So Shortwave spending less than a dollar per prospect here isn’t suspicious.

Re: Shortwave Snail Mail

#12

Post by infinityplus1 » Tue, Nov 23, 2021, 5:41 AM UTC

rockwotj wrote: post #9

jacob019 wrote: post #6

If you are not paying for the product then you are the product. They are not transparent at all about how they are monetizing this, which seems really scammy.

Hey I'm an employee at shortwave.com (the startup behind this). I totally understand the pessimism - to be totally transparent, this is a marketing campaign to get our name out there. We're an email company, so why not send "real" mail during the holidays. We're not trying to make money doing this and it's a limited time offer :) There is really just a couple people with some printer templates, stamps, letters and so…

There is no pricing information on your main site either.

Re: Shortwave Snail Mail

#13

Post by Animats » Tue, Nov 23, 2021, 6:20 AM UTC

pa9am wrote: post #3

I thought this was going to be about Winlink for some reason..

I was thinking SailMail, which is a shortwave system for sending mail to small sailboats with limited electrical power.

Re: Shortwave Snail Mail

#14

Post by ale42 » Tue, Nov 23, 2021, 11:11 AM UTC

... being an ham radio operator, I was hoping to see a shortwave-to-snailmail gateway... or maybe some historical information about some shortwave telegraphy system used somewhere in the past century to send actual mail from abroad...

Re: Shortwave Snail Mail

#15

Post by rockwotj » Tue, Nov 23, 2021, 2:01 PM UTC

infinityplus1 wrote: post #12

rockwotj wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey I'm an employee at shortwave.com (the startup behind this). I totally understand the pessimism - to be totally transparent, this is a marketing campaign to get our name out there. We're an email company, so why not send "real" mail during the holidays. We're not trying to make money doing this and it's a limited time offer :) There is really just a couple people with some printer templates, stamps, letters and so…

There is no pricing information on your main site either.

We're a still in private testing and don't have pricing yet

Re: Shortwave Snail Mail

#16

Post by rockwotj » Tue, Nov 23, 2021, 2:02 PM UTC

elil17 wrote: post #10

rockwotj wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey I'm an employee at shortwave.com (the startup behind this). I totally understand the pessimism - to be totally transparent, this is a marketing campaign to get our name out there. We're an email company, so why not send "real" mail during the holidays. We're not trying to make money doing this and it's a limited time offer :) There is really just a couple people with some printer templates, stamps, letters and so…

Are there other ads besides the wax seal? Am I going to end up sending my grandmother a packet of information about your company along with my holiday card?

There is a small bit at the bottom of the letter. You can preview it before you send.

Re: Shortwave Snail Mail

#17

Post by unsignedint » Tue, Nov 23, 2021, 7:47 PM UTC

mds wrote: post #8

Or if you actually want to send shortwave snail mail: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARRL_Radiogram

I thought of this, too, but with this, rather than delivering a physical piece of paper, they tend to call the recipient and deliver the message over the phone.