Startup Spotlight #31: Emailio

Emailio tracks four wellness goals to help you use email less and have more time, priority and focus for the important things in life.

Sep 20, 2020

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I got the chance to speak with Martin Stoyanov, co-founder and CEO of Emailio, about what he’s working on at his startup, and any advice he has for emerging entrepreneurs.

Stoyanov and his team have been working with email for the past 7 years. He started Emailio in 2013 after dropping out of high school. His co-founder Teo joined a bit later and after a few months of work, we got into the YC W14 batch. Stoyanov was the youngest founder to have gotten in at the time, at 16. We started by making an email app for just one user: Sam Altman. The idea was an extreme version of YC’s motto “make something a few people love” by focusing on one very demanding user who knows all the options and isn’t shy to give us harsh feedback.

Over time the idea evolved, and now Emailio is ready to release our flagship product focused on email wellness and helping you build healthy email habits.

Startup Spotlight: Emailio

Emailio cofounder Martin Stoyanov.

Problem: Email inundates you, gives everyone equal access to your inbox, and most inboxes lacks structure, thus you are not in control. The costs of email end up being three-fold: cost of well-being, cost of productivity, and cost of time.

Market: There’s 5.5B email accounts in the world: 92% of Gen X, 89% of Millennials, and 85% of Gen Z have one. We aim to capture 0.5% of the market or 27,500,000 users by charging 80$ a year, resulting in a target ARR of $2B+.

Solution: We’ve built a wellness system that tracks four wellness goals and uses gamification and behavioral science to help you spend less time on email, receive fewer emails and eliminate interruptions. The result is that just by using Emailio you easily build better email habits and find a healthy balance between work and wellness.

Team: Our team is a multi-disciplined group who worked in Amazon, built electric cars from scratch and are Thiel Fellows. Dan Ariely is a founding member - he’s considered the most famous behavioral scientist by many.

Recent Success:

Stoyanov: I believe we were successful at creating email experiences that a few people love. The training we got at YC by building an app for Sam gave us the skills to scale that approach to a select group of few people. In fact, that is how Dan joined - we built an email app just for him that he was so happy with he wanted to join our team.

Recent Struggle:

Stoyanov: Back when we started, we found it hard to differentiate ourselves. Email clients have been around forever and all look pretty much the same, so finding that unique niche where we operate took us 5+ years. It was hard to find out what people want just by asking them and that process took a long time. Thankfully, over time our struggle developed into a coherent product vision and an actual product that’s a lot better than what is out there already.

Founder Advice:

Stoyanov: Before you start a company, be sure that this is the thing you have passion for that you will want to be working for the next 10+ years. The reason I’ve managed to stay and work on Emailio since 2013 is that I couldn’t help not think about Emailio and how much better email can be. Do not start a company because it’s cool to do so - companies are hard work. Be prepared to sacrifice wages, even family time, and every other opportunity you come across for a long time. Once a founder, take care of your mental wellbeing and physical health and never put your startup before your relationships.

Three Cool Founders You Should Know About:

Stoyanov: Here are three founders you should check out next!

Josh Farahzad, Founder of WhatImBuilding: WhatImBuilding is aplatform to help project enthusiasts display progress, promote 'verified' skillsets, and find potential collaborators for their projects.
Ivan Dimitrov, Founder of Momentum: Momentum ties moments in your life to automatic donations.
Bolun Li, Founder of Zogo: Zogo inspires the underbanked to become financially savvy.

Who should I profile next? Leave your suggestion in the comments:

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