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Email startup Superhuman lays off 22% of staff

businessinsider.com

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Re: Email startup Superhuman lays off 22% of staff

#101

Post by lupire »

alanbernstein wrote: post #44
iqkznnft wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

My inbox is almost full, so they're hassling me about this. I did some investigation and found that over 1GB of the data in my inbox is email history quotes from a long-running email chain. Of course it's impossible to delete those without deleting each email they belong to. Conspiracy theory: Google refused to implement an option to disable inserting email quotes in responses, knowing that such an option would make…

Text content of email is 0.

Quota is used by attachments, which Google refuses to let you delete, because they want you tomoay for storage.

Re: Email startup Superhuman lays off 22% of staff

#102

Post by rockwotj »

propter_hoc wrote: post #95
rockwotj wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 in…

Yeah you're describing of https://simpl.fyi/ which is one person's chrome extension.

Re: Email startup Superhuman lays off 22% of staff

#103

Post by almostthere01 »

sn0w_crash wrote: post #2

Rahul is a focused founder, really top notch and works hard. They have a great product and I hope they can navigate this.

We will get through this. We have the whole Series C and some more left. This was a move to put our heads down and get to work without worrying about fundraising for at least the next five years but potentially ever.

Re: Email startup Superhuman lays off 22% of staff

#105

Post by itsjloh »

latchkey wrote: post #31
gsibble wrote: post #27

Maybe 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…

I've been using Mimestream for my desktop Gmail experience... fantastic product.

+1 for Mimestream! Fantastic client. I'm hoping they'll add support for other services like Fastmail through JMAP but honestly, just Gmail support alone makes the app worth it.

Re: Email startup Superhuman lays off 22% of staff

#106

Post by ggnall »

jollybean wrote: post #77
hardwaregeek wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's classic productivity app bias. You start using a new app and because of the newness placebo, you get a boost in performance. You post about how amazing and cool it is, tell all your friends, then you get that crash back to baseline. At best, it just becomes a regular part of your routine. More commonly you dump it for the next cool productivity tool.

I'm doubtful it's a 'productivity' issue so much as a 'status' issue. The product is positioned as a brand, not a tech. It's actually a confusing thing in marketing. Products that are sold for aesthetic reasons - i.e. fashion - well that's obviously aspirational. But most products that are sold even on the basis of features - those features are never used. It's the features themselves that are aspirational. There's a…

It's both of these. I see the "new productivity coolness" cycle over and over again and Superhuman is a part of that.

But their "innovation" and growth was primarily driven by the status you get from having the icon on your homescreen and tweeting about it.

Re: Email startup Superhuman lays off 22% of staff

#107

Post by ggnall »

kirso wrote: post #79
laserlight wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

They didn't move mass market right away though. Funnily I am the one who always said - why do you need Superhuman if you have multiple inboxes in gmail and filters + shortcuts to cater for probably 80% of the functionality free. But the OP of the comment has a very good point: >he will face tremendous churn The pricing didn't reflect the value for mass market. They started with SV execs. Them slowly improved and decr…

Here's some instructions on this! https://www.grahamgnall.com/blog/2020/10/14/how-to-create-su...

>why do you need Superhuman if you have multiple inboxes in gmail and filters + shortcuts to cater for probably 80% of the functionality free.

Re: Email startup Superhuman lays off 22% of staff

#108

Post by throwaway2037 »

whiplash451 wrote: post #86
throwaway2037 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree: A waitlist on a pure SaaS product is absurd. The only reason why I can think they have it: To require 1:1 onboarding that gives their sales team an opportunity to upsell you. That said, they could have decoupled the two.

The waitlist is an all-to-standard tactic used by B2C SaaS companies. It is designed to create a sense of scarcity and FOMO.

I concede: Your point is very well made. It is the manufactured / induced aspiration!
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