Archives For helloinbox

Universal inboxes united: HelloInbox acquired by Unified Inbox

February 8, 2013

Well I guess the news is already out, HelloInbox is bought by Unified Inbox. I’m so proud of the achievements we have made and the acknowledgements of that.

What does it feel like to sell your company and become part of another? Kind of weird, but also good. It is a major milestone in the life cycle of your company, and a great one to celebrate. You join a team that has been working at very similar problems as you are, but from a different angle. New blood to help you achieve your goal: building a company with lasting impact. Also giving up control, surrendering your CEO title. Well let me tell you, it is all worth it. Being able to concentrate more on product and achieve more with a larger team beats running your own shop hands down. Let’s see where the new collaboration is going!

I have become part of the mobile team at Unified Inbox as an advisor, and will continue working on Mobtest.

 

 

In helloinbox
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How I am improving the idea behind HelloInbox

July 1, 2011

Right, so I got feedback about the idea behind HelloInbox and there is work to do.  So the main question you need to answer as a entrepreneur: can I build a company with this idea that will be around for some time. In FI speak: build a meaningful and enduring company.

What the idea behind HelloInbox seems to be missing right now is:

  • does it really solve a pain felt by a lot of people
  • how big  is the market for this type of product
  • what is the secret sauce that HelloInbox uses to solve the problem

These are really fundamental questions. So the good thing is, we already have a beta out there in the Dutch market. This gives us a group of users that we can 1) analyse their behavior and 2) ask questions. In Lean Startup spirit, let’s do some customer-centric development. Get feedback and iterate on that. So the plan to be executed now is to dive into the big database and run some in-depth analysis to see how customers use the tool, and put together a survey and send that out to them.

Customer feedback and analytics will only partly do the job. I will get feedback from peers and fellow entrepreneurs also. Secret sauce needs some cooking, and that’s my job. Well my name is De Kok right?

In founder institute, helloinbox, idea, lean startup
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