Runbox - The Road Ahead

hanslysglimt · 30 Nov 2005, 06:18 PM

Runbox – The Road Ahead

Note from Runbox founder Hans Lysglimt to users of Runbox.
November 30. 2005.

Hi everyone,
I would like to clarify a bit around the road ahead for Runbox. Runbox has during 2005 seen continued growth in the personal email market where most of Runbox revenue is. In the fall of 2005 we have also launched our Email Hosting services targeted at the Small and Mid size Business (SMB’s) market. Runbox has made a decision to expand and also focus on the SMB email hosting market as this market allows for the higher margins needed for Runbox to continue growing and to continue developing the Runbox premium email platform even further.

Independent studies have shown that the SMB email hosting market will see strong growth through 2009. The Radicati group just published a 200+ page report on this. (I wish I could share the entire report with you but it is copyrighted – here are some of the content however.):

http://www.tekrati.com/T2/Analyst_Re...sp?Newsid=5783
http://www.radicati.com/uploaded_fil...edEmail_PR.pdf

The conclusions of this report are the same as Runbox has arrived at independently. The email hosting market will see strong growth. Runbox is positioned to build market share in this growing market.
As you will see from a Google search for “email hosting” (the most searched for term in this market). Runbox is also well positioned in the search engines for this very competitive key word segment and we have significant clicks from such searches.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...=Google+Search

After having run our Email Hosting service for a few weeks now and having made good sales we are much encouraged to continue on the SMB path. This path will be beneficial for all parties, personal email and email hosting customers alike. Runbox will get more revenue to continue growing and improving the Runbox Mail Manager platform.

Runbox partner and part owner Linpro is encouraged by this development and shows willingness to make investments towards this market together with Runbox. Linpro is seeing strong growth and profitability under the leadership of their new CEO who holds an MBA from Insead.

Increased willingness to invest with Runbox also applies for our hosting partner Comnet who have funded hardware to Runbox for significant amounts during 2005, most recently the new setup of two new EMC AX100 3000 GB (3 TerraByte) storage servers that will go live this December.

You can therefore expect to see Runbox focus a bit more on the SMB email hosting market going forward. This will over time give Runbox a bit more professional and corporate appearance. This will only be for the good of your personal email Runbox account as we will further improve the platform. You should expect our communication to become more corporate like, do not be surprised if you see corporate looking images on the front page etc.

As to the service development we will focus even more on the needs of serious email users like most of you reading this and corporate customers. This include things like storage, backup and backup recovery, reliability guarantees etc. Our roll out plan for new features on the application stands. I would say that if you are serious about your email the road ahead for Runbox will only be beneficial for you. The price hike from January 1. 2006 is also a reflection of our ambition to provide professional level premium email. As we see that the cost of providing a premium email of service has increased we have increased the price a bit. To be fair to all valued loyal long time customers we have allowed plenty of time for everyone to renew their accounts at the old prices.

In all we believe our strategy is in line with the original vision of Runbox as being a leader in premium email. We have a vision of providing great premium email and what this should be that we continually strive for. Our excuses if our resources and efforts do not always allow us to fully live up to our vision and ambitions, our goal is nonetheless to make really great premium email. We have been loyal to our vision for 6 years and will continue to be so.

When I lift my perspective up and look at email as a whole I still see many many unresolved issues. Email is becoming more and more important for everyone but most email users world wide experience great “pain” with their email usage. Secure storage, backup recovery, search and retrieval are still far far from perfect. The problem with spam, virus and other malware is only increasing. The problem of phising in all its forms is even worse. There is a great number of things for a company like Runbox to keep working on.

The road ahead for Runbox is to continue our vision of truly great premium email.

Thank you.

Regards,
Hans Lysglimt
Founder - Runbox

carverrn · 30 Nov 2005, 08:46 PM

Thanks for posting this Hans!

Regards,
Rich

hanslysglimt · 30 Nov 2005, 09:16 PM

Sure thing Rich!

As you know I am just not able to follow up properly on all the questions and issues that goes on on the forum.

There is however a lot of things going on.

Regards,
Hans

**ReuvenNY** · 30 Nov 2005, 09:26 PM

This was a very forthcoming and informative posting, Hans. Thank you!
Could you tell us what kind of specific things you are talking about when you say "There is however a lot of things going on"?

simonb · 30 Nov 2005, 09:32 PM

Hans
It is really decent of you to post such a full and frank version of your strategy for Runbox going forward. I have watched with interest the recent comments about what you should or shoudn't do with your business and sometimes you would have had my complete sympathy and support if you had replied to some of those comments in a less than favourable way. No one of your customers can appreciate the unique pressures that apply only to you in relation to the running of your business, and therefore no one should comment as to whether any decision you make is right or wrong. Merely that it may not be right for them.
It is clear from your post that you care about your customers but also that you have to make decisions that may not please everyone. I was always taught that, first and foremost, you must make your decisions on the criteria that represent the best choices for the business. If Runbox does not survive then a lot more people would be complaining.
I for one would like to offer my wholehearted support, and all best wishes to you and your amazing team for a truly successful and exciting future.

Simon.

rabbit · 30 Nov 2005, 11:21 PM

All I want is decent, reliable webmail...please...

hanslysglimt · 3 Dec 2005, 12:08 AM

Since we are speaking of email hosting all good ideas on how Runbox should do that is most welcome.

Thank you.

Regards,
Hans

William9 · 4 Dec 2005, 01:39 AM

The way I see it, an e-mail service provider either has to charge subscribers enough to have very good hardware, developers and employees or the provider has to get enough revenue from advertising to pay for running the company. Business and professional users/customers are willing to to pay for superior service and features.

speedoflight · 6 Dec 2005, 07:45 AM

Hans:
While your blurb outlines a little bit of your strategy going forward, it is FAR FAR FAR from telling why Runbox's fans should stick with it.

I'd still like to see you outline the roadmap to the features you have listed on the Runbox site, i.e. Calendar, Tasks, Message Flagging, Message Priority, Message Read Receipt, etc. etc. that paid customers should have. Today as it stands, Runbox is but an email service with a container for file storage and nothing more. Business customers (if you so desire to reach that market) want more features. I've mentioned about this so many times and maybe it keeps getting missed. What about a new Web interface?????? The one you have now yes it works but it has usability issues. It's so painful to manage folders, insert addresses in.

Please tell me and many others why we should fork out money to keep subscribing. I'd like to have reasons such as a product roadmap with scheduled releases and upgrades to enable users to have more features.

**Shelded** · 6 Dec 2005, 11:02 AM

I'll agree that calendar (integrating with the universal Outlook) and some limited message-read status would be quite important in making this a corporate product. All else you have said is very welcome.

You could knock the market for a loop if you somehow incorporate instant messaging. My acquaintances think I am so behind the times because I don't IM. I ask if there's something wrong with their email system that IM is needed. But having both in one place would be nice.

speedoflight · 6 Dec 2005, 03:31 PM

While instant messaging (IM) is nice, it's not a show-stopper if you don't have it as reality is, a lot corporations do not allow their employees to IM (IM ports are blocked).

Calendar, message read is SO important for business users. It's standard feature for people to send out email with a read receipt requested so that they can follow up if that person has not read or opened their email. In this day and age with spam filters, email server issues, etc, it's really problematic if you don't know if your business email is being read and you're waiting on the other end for a reply. I've many times sent stuff out via Runbox only to be told it never arrived or it got yanked by their spam filter, etc. and I did not know since Runbox's Web interface does not allow for read receipts. I'd asked Runbox to add this in but they keep blabbing about privacy issues and implementation issues. I don't buy this at all for even SquirrelMail has a message read receipt option. And IMO, there are no privacy issues concerning read receipts. Most email client ask the reader if they would like to return the receipt, so the person does know if something is being sent back. Like I'd said, the value of having it FAR outweighs any issue. If you want to reach business users, give them business options!!!!!!

So, once again, what is the timeline for the launch of the features list that is listed on the Runbox site?

carverrn · 6 Dec 2005, 08:16 PM

Read Receipt is a two part issue. First you have to have the sending client set that you want a Read Receipt in the message header. Second you have to have a receiving client that will send the receipt when you read the message.

I personally dislike Read Receipts. It's no ones business expect mine if I've actually read a message or not. So if they are going to implement Read Receipt, they need to give people the option to disable it for their account.

For my business email I use an autoresponder to let the senders know that I received their message. This is just a delivery confirmation as it does not indicate that I've actually read the message.

When I send messages that are important I ask the sender to reply to confirm they received the messages.

Regards,
Rich

carverrn · 6 Dec 2005, 08:21 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by speedoflight
So, once again, what is the timeline for the launch of the features list that is listed on the Runbox site?

I don't think I've ever seen any business publicly post schedules for implemention of features. So I wouldn't expect Runbox to do it.

The only time I've seen others post anything is when they're close to finishing it and are confident they'll release when they publicly say they will.

Regards,
Rich

**Shelded** · 7 Dec 2005, 12:02 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by carverrn
Read Receipt is a two part issue. First you have to have the sending client set that you want a Read Receipt in the message header. Second you have to have a receiving client that will send the receipt when you read the message.

I personally dislike Read Receipts. It's no ones business expect mine if I've actually read a message or not. So if they are going to implement Read Receipt, they need to give people the option to disable it for their account.

For my business email I use an autoresponder to let the senders know that I received their message. This is just a delivery confirmation as it does not indicate that I've actually read the message.

When I send messages that are important I ask the sender to reply to confirm they received the messages.

Regards,
Rich

I'm basically agreeable with all that in the personal email market. But in a corporate environment I think it has a place, even if it can be disabled. Seems better to me to send an automated request for receipt than to have to spell it out in words. And also to do that occasionally rather than on every message with an autoresponder (two messages for everything I send?!?)

carverrn · 7 Dec 2005, 02:16 AM

I don't disagree that some people may find it useful. As long as it is an option I don't have a problem with it. I just don't want the Runbox Mail Manager automatically sending Read Receipts to anyone requesting one.

Here's a reason why my clients will not get a Read Receipt from me. My time is mine to organize and prioritize as I see fit. If I read their message today but decide that an answer will have to wait until tomorrow then that's my choice. With a Read Receipt they will know that I read their message on a certain date at a certain time and you know there will be some clients that will want to know WHY you didn't respond immediately.

While receiving a Read Receipt confirms a message was read, not getting a Read Receipt could be due to a number of reasons. The message might never have left the outgoing server (has been known to happen), it could have been blocked at the receiving server, it could have been marked as spam and deleted or sitting in a spam folder, it could have been delivered but just not read yet, it could have been read and the receiver refused to send the Read Receipt or the receivers email client may not support Read Receipts.

To me an autoresponse is sufficient to meet the goal of confirming that the message arrived at the destination and wasn't blocked or flagged as spam. This is a courtesy I extend to my clients so they don't have to wonder if the message arrived or not.

In lieu or a Read Receipt, people can also just simply say in their message "Please let me know if you get this message". I do that when I really want to know they got the message.

Personally I would like to see the Runbox filters capable of sending an autoresponse so that I can customize my autoresponses per client and only send autoresponses if from my clients. Now that would be very useful for my business needs.

But as I said, as long as I can disable any Read Receipt responses for my account I don't have a problem with it being there.

Regards,
Rich

30 Nov 2005, 06:18 PM	#1
hanslysglimt Essential Contributor Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Oslo Norway Posts: 210 Representative of: Runbox.com	Runbox - The Road Ahead Runbox – The Road Ahead Note from Runbox founder Hans Lysglimt to users of Runbox. November 30. 2005. Hi everyone, I would like to clarify a bit around the road ahead for Runbox. Runbox has during 2005 seen continued growth in the personal email market where most of Runbox revenue is. In the fall of 2005 we have also launched our Email Hosting services targeted at the Small and Mid size Business (SMB’s) market. Runbox has made a decision to expand and also focus on the SMB email hosting market as this market allows for the higher margins needed for Runbox to continue growing and to continue developing the Runbox premium email platform even further. Independent studies have shown that the SMB email hosting market will see strong growth through 2009. The Radicati group just published a 200+ page report on this. (I wish I could share the entire report with you but it is copyrighted – here are some of the content however.): http://www.tekrati.com/T2/Analyst_Re...sp?Newsid=5783 http://www.radicati.com/uploaded_fil...edEmail_PR.pdf The conclusions of this report are the same as Runbox has arrived at independently. The email hosting market will see strong growth. Runbox is positioned to build market share in this growing market. As you will see from a Google search for “email hosting” (the most searched for term in this market). Runbox is also well positioned in the search engines for this very competitive key word segment and we have significant clicks from such searches. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...=Google+Search After having run our Email Hosting service for a few weeks now and having made good sales we are much encouraged to continue on the SMB path. This path will be beneficial for all parties, personal email and email hosting customers alike. Runbox will get more revenue to continue growing and improving the Runbox Mail Manager platform. Runbox partner and part owner Linpro is encouraged by this development and shows willingness to make investments towards this market together with Runbox. Linpro is seeing strong growth and profitability under the leadership of their new CEO who holds an MBA from Insead. Increased willingness to invest with Runbox also applies for our hosting partner Comnet who have funded hardware to Runbox for significant amounts during 2005, most recently the new setup of two new EMC AX100 3000 GB (3 TerraByte) storage servers that will go live this December. You can therefore expect to see Runbox focus a bit more on the SMB email hosting market going forward. This will over time give Runbox a bit more professional and corporate appearance. This will only be for the good of your personal email Runbox account as we will further improve the platform. You should expect our communication to become more corporate like, do not be surprised if you see corporate looking images on the front page etc. As to the service development we will focus even more on the needs of serious email users like most of you reading this and corporate customers. This include things like storage, backup and backup recovery, reliability guarantees etc. Our roll out plan for new features on the application stands. I would say that if you are serious about your email the road ahead for Runbox will only be beneficial for you. The price hike from January 1. 2006 is also a reflection of our ambition to provide professional level premium email. As we see that the cost of providing a premium email of service has increased we have increased the price a bit. To be fair to all valued loyal long time customers we have allowed plenty of time for everyone to renew their accounts at the old prices. In all we believe our strategy is in line with the original vision of Runbox as being a leader in premium email. We have a vision of providing great premium email and what this should be that we continually strive for. Our excuses if our resources and efforts do not always allow us to fully live up to our vision and ambitions, our goal is nonetheless to make really great premium email. We have been loyal to our vision for 6 years and will continue to be so. When I lift my perspective up and look at email as a whole I still see many many unresolved issues. Email is becoming more and more important for everyone but most email users world wide experience great “pain” with their email usage. Secure storage, backup recovery, search and retrieval are still far far from perfect. The problem with spam, virus and other malware is only increasing. The problem of phising in all its forms is even worse. There is a great number of things for a company like Runbox to keep working on. The road ahead for Runbox is to continue our vision of truly great premium email. Thank you. Regards, Hans Lysglimt Founder - Runbox Last edited by hanslysglimt : 30 Nov 2005 at 09:08 PM.

6 Dec 2005, 03:31 PM	#11
speedoflight Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 50	While instant messaging (IM) is nice, it's not a show-stopper if you don't have it as reality is, a lot corporations do not allow their employees to IM (IM ports are blocked). Calendar, message read is SO important for business users. It's standard feature for people to send out email with a read receipt requested so that they can follow up if that person has not read or opened their email. In this day and age with spam filters, email server issues, etc, it's really problematic if you don't know if your business email is being read and you're waiting on the other end for a reply. I've many times sent stuff out via Runbox only to be told it never arrived or it got yanked by their spam filter, etc. and I did not know since Runbox's Web interface does not allow for read receipts. I'd asked Runbox to add this in but they keep blabbing about privacy issues and implementation issues. I don't buy this at all for even SquirrelMail has a message read receipt option. And IMO, there are no privacy issues concerning read receipts. Most email client ask the reader if they would like to return the receipt, so the person does know if something is being sent back. Like I'd said, the value of having it FAR outweighs any issue. If you want to reach business users, give them business options!!!!!! So, once again, what is the timeline for the launch of the features list that is listed on the Runbox site? Last edited by speedoflight : 6 Dec 2005 at 03:37 PM.

30 Nov 2005, 08:46 PM	#2
carverrn Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 5,606 Representative of: Runbox.com	Thanks for posting this Hans! Regards, Rich

30 Nov 2005, 09:16 PM	#3
hanslysglimt Essential Contributor Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Oslo Norway Posts: 210 Representative of: Runbox.com	Sure thing Rich! As you know I am just not able to follow up properly on all the questions and issues that goes on on the forum. There is however a lot of things going on. Regards, Hans

30 Nov 2005, 09:26 PM	#4
ReuvenNY Moderator Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: New York Posts: 4,259	This was a very forthcoming and informative posting, Hans. Thank you! Could you tell us what kind of specific things you are talking about when you say "There is however a lot of things going on"?

30 Nov 2005, 09:32 PM	#5
simonb Member Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: London, UK Posts: 48	Hans It is really decent of you to post such a full and frank version of your strategy for Runbox going forward. I have watched with interest the recent comments about what you should or shoudn't do with your business and sometimes you would have had my complete sympathy and support if you had replied to some of those comments in a less than favourable way. No one of your customers can appreciate the unique pressures that apply only to you in relation to the running of your business, and therefore no one should comment as to whether any decision you make is right or wrong. Merely that it may not be right for them. It is clear from your post that you care about your customers but also that you have to make decisions that may not please everyone. I was always taught that, first and foremost, you must make your decisions on the criteria that represent the best choices for the business. If Runbox does not survive then a lot more people would be complaining. I for one would like to offer my wholehearted support, and all best wishes to you and your amazing team for a truly successful and exciting future. Simon.

30 Nov 2005, 11:21 PM	#6
rabbit Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 98	All I want is decent, reliable webmail...please...

3 Dec 2005, 12:08 AM	#7
hanslysglimt Essential Contributor Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Oslo Norway Posts: 210 Representative of: Runbox.com	Since we are speaking of email hosting all good ideas on how Runbox should do that is most welcome. Thank you. Regards, Hans

4 Dec 2005, 01:39 AM	#8
William9 The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: San Francisco Posts: 2,281	The way I see it, an e-mail service provider either has to charge subscribers enough to have very good hardware, developers and employees or the provider has to get enough revenue from advertising to pay for running the company. Business and professional users/customers are willing to to pay for superior service and features.

6 Dec 2005, 07:45 AM	#9
speedoflight Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 50	Hans: While your blurb outlines a little bit of your strategy going forward, it is FAR FAR FAR from telling why Runbox's fans should stick with it. I'd still like to see you outline the roadmap to the features you have listed on the Runbox site, i.e. Calendar, Tasks, Message Flagging, Message Priority, Message Read Receipt, etc. etc. that paid customers should have. Today as it stands, Runbox is but an email service with a container for file storage and nothing more. Business customers (if you so desire to reach that market) want more features. I've mentioned about this so many times and maybe it keeps getting missed. What about a new Web interface?????? The one you have now yes it works but it has usability issues. It's so painful to manage folders, insert addresses in. Please tell me and many others why we should fork out money to keep subscribing. I'd like to have reasons such as a product roadmap with scheduled releases and upgrades to enable users to have more features.

6 Dec 2005, 11:02 AM	#10
Shelded Moderator Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: USA Northwest Posts: 3,849	I'll agree that calendar (integrating with the universal Outlook) and some limited message-read status would be quite important in making this a corporate product. All else you have said is very welcome. You could knock the market for a loop if you somehow incorporate instant messaging. My acquaintances think I am so behind the times because I don't IM. I ask if there's something wrong with their email system that IM is needed. But having both in one place would be nice.

6 Dec 2005, 08:16 PM	#12
carverrn Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 5,606 Representative of: Runbox.com	Read Receipt is a two part issue. First you have to have the sending client set that you want a Read Receipt in the message header. Second you have to have a receiving client that will send the receipt when you read the message. I personally dislike Read Receipts. It's no ones business expect mine if I've actually read a message or not. So if they are going to implement Read Receipt, they need to give people the option to disable it for their account. For my business email I use an autoresponder to let the senders know that I received their message. This is just a delivery confirmation as it does not indicate that I've actually read the message. When I send messages that are important I ask the sender to reply to confirm they received the messages. Regards, Rich

7 Dec 2005, 02:16 AM	#15
carverrn Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 5,606 Representative of: Runbox.com	I don't disagree that some people may find it useful. As long as it is an option I don't have a problem with it. I just don't want the Runbox Mail Manager automatically sending Read Receipts to anyone requesting one. Here's a reason why my clients will not get a Read Receipt from me. My time is mine to organize and prioritize as I see fit. If I read their message today but decide that an answer will have to wait until tomorrow then that's my choice. With a Read Receipt they will know that I read their message on a certain date at a certain time and you know there will be some clients that will want to know WHY you didn't respond immediately. While receiving a Read Receipt confirms a message was read, not getting a Read Receipt could be due to a number of reasons. The message might never have left the outgoing server (has been known to happen), it could have been blocked at the receiving server, it could have been marked as spam and deleted or sitting in a spam folder, it could have been delivered but just not read yet, it could have been read and the receiver refused to send the Read Receipt or the receivers email client may not support Read Receipts. To me an autoresponse is sufficient to meet the goal of confirming that the message arrived at the destination and wasn't blocked or flagged as spam. This is a courtesy I extend to my clients so they don't have to wonder if the message arrived or not. In lieu or a Read Receipt, people can also just simply say in their message "Please let me know if you get this message". I do that when I really want to know they got the message. Personally I would like to see the Runbox filters capable of sending an autoresponse so that I can customize my autoresponses per client and only send autoresponses if from my clients. Now that would be very useful for my business needs. But as I said, as long as I can disable any Read Receipt responses for my account I don't have a problem with it being there. Regards, Rich