There didn't seem to be a lot of startups getting attention amid the glut of launches during DEMOfall and TC50, but one that seems to be generating some interest is Austin-based startup OtherInbox. I had the opportunity to talk to OtherInbox CEO Joshua Baer last week about the service and why anyone would need yet another email address.
OtherInbox is a service that allows you to create new email addresses on the fly, with no administrative work required. Want to set up a filter for all your Amazon notifications? Register your account with CyndyAmazon@userid.otherinbox.com. When filling out one of those silly online surveys that requires a valid email address simply type in CyndyJunk@userid.otherinbox.com and you'll never have to see the spam they send you. You can even delete the folder as soon as you use it. I was intrigued with the idea, but skeptical of its implementation.
Cyndy: What is your vision for OtherInbox?
Joshua Baer: OtherInbox focuses on two big things. One, the most obvious, is bringing transparency and accountability to email marketing, putting the consumer in control of their inbox. The other is looking at "email overload."
Forgetting about the spam, many users get more email than they really want or have time to read, and that's only going to become more common as we do more online, as well as offline. For example, shoppers in the brick and mortar Apple Stores have the option of having their receipts emailed to them, and services like OnStar also allow you to receive email status messages regarding your car's condition, service schedules, etc. As more and more information comes through email, we're looking at a process to help people deal with that influx.
What services do you offer for those who don't want to use the OtherInbox.com domain?
The free version uses the otherinbox.com domain. Anyone using the fee-based service can use a vanity domain.
Many online sites are already blocking things like the Gmail "+" extension to keep users from junking their emails. Won't the same thing happen with OtherInbox email addresses?
First, OtherInbox doesn't use any of those extensions, so those sites would have to block the entire domain. We don't use any additional characters or extensions, and for those using the fee-based service with a vanity domain, the sites wouldn't have any way to block it at all. Lastly, I believe that good retailers will like and appreciate it. The bad retailers who don't want to let customers escape from their email addresses will resist anything. For the good retailers, however, they are actually getting a guarantee of 100% deliverability. There's no automatic spam filtering since users are filtering their mail based on addresses they create.
What about server administration? Is all the email handled by OtherInbox or will individuals maintaining their own servers [like me] have to deal with things like forwarding, etc.?
Server administration really gets handled by OtherInbox. This is not a corporate solution, but more for individual users. If more than one user is going to be using it, you'd each have your own domain name. You can still set up individual email forwards that would give another person one of those emails, but the functionality of sorting, etc. is gone; it's just another email.
Do you have any plans to offer this as a solution for businesses or families who might want to share a domain?
There are a few small business users using it now. For example, if you had a domain of acme.com each user would have something like josh.acme.com as subdomains, preserving the functionality for each user.
What happens when you kill an email address? Does that mail just disappear? Do senders receive some type of automatic response?
We thought a lot about that solution, and our current solution for killing email addresses is the
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