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Why email startups fail

(forwardemail.net)
140 points skeptrune | 3 comments | 01 Jul 25 00:41 UTC | HN request time: 0.512s | source
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albertgoeswoof ◴[01 Jul 25 07:18 UTC] No.44431411[source]▶
> Every single "email startup" is just building UI on top of existing infrastructure. They're not building actual email servers - they're building apps that connect to real email infrastructure.

This is something that shocked me when I built https://mailpace.com I just assumed that everyone doing email ran their own smtp servers. Turns out YC and others are funding wrappers on aws ses left right and center!

replies(2): >>44431708 #>>44435166 #
1. DrillShopper ◴[01 Jul 25 15:52 UTC] No.44435166[source]▶
> Turns out YC and others are funding wrappers on aws ses left right and center!

Given what a giant pain in the ass (for good reason, fuck spam) it is to get into the Gmail inbox I can understand why the spammers do it.

replies(2): >>44437899 #>>44441937 #
2. tracker1 ◴[01 Jul 25 20:51 UTC] No.44437899[source]▶
Dunno... I'm running a mailu box, without delivery issues to Gmail... now Outlook.com hosted mail (not o365) is another story.

I have forward/backward dns configured as well as dkim, spf, etc. With TLS endpoints configured for secure transmission. It's worked pretty well in general. That said, I'm not using it that much, and there's no spam coming from my server (dedicated box on OVH), I dedicated a VM/IP to the mail server.

3. krageon ◴[02 Jul 25 10:15 UTC] No.44441937[source]▶
This just isn't true. For some reason everyone keeps repeating it anyway, I suspect because they haven't tried it and someone told them confidently it wasn't practical.