The new email management application InboxZero is launching in Luxembourg – and worldwide this summer. The app helps you quickly find an email in your email conversations, stop being overwhelmed by newsletters, never forgot to do something or even browse the attachments exchanged with a contact in a snap. We asked Salvatore Curaba, EASI‘s Managing Director, to give us further details of the app and why he chose Luxembourg as a first stop to the global spread.
What is the purpose of the app InboxZero?
We wanted to create a perfect app, the most useful, beautiful and reliable. The purpose of this app is to reveal EASI to the world market and achieve a notoriety by bringing a real added value. We wanted to truly revolutionize the way people are using their emails.
The challenge to compete with giants like Google or Mailbox has also contributed to our motivation. (Salvatore Curaba, the Managing Director, is a former Belgian professional soccer player). When I went on the football field, I didn’t do that for money but for challenge. This philosophy is anchored in my person and in the InboxZero project.
Financially speaking, we want to make companies discover the big sister of InboxZero, SmartMail. This professional app offers extra functionalities and is specially intended for companies. Certain extra paid functionalities could also be offered in InboxZero.
What are the main functionalities of the app? How do you differentiate it to Google or Mailbox?
There are many functionalities that differentiate InboxZero from those competitors. I will list the main ones. I think you have to test the app to realize its huge added value.
- Emails are finally sorted in conversations. You can quickly browse all your emails exchanged with a contact in one unique conversation. Thanks to this app, finding a specific mail from a person becomes child’s play. It wasn’t possible before because you had the replies, fwd, … Therefore, emails were too long. We developed a smart algorithm to show only the essential part of an email.
- By a simple swipe, you can have a look at all the attachments exchanged with a contact. I am sure, you have lost a lot of time looking for a certain attachment.
- You conversations are smartly sorted in two categories: Conversations with people and Conversations with companies (newsletters). You can therefore focus on conversations with people and your Inbox is not overloaded by newsletters.
- Your mailbox evolved. You can now discover your Inbox and your Conversations. You really have to test the app to see how it is useful. When you receive a letter, do you put it back in your mailbox after you read it? Why do we do the same with our emails? We read an email and after that it stays in our Inbox. With the innovative email management app, InboxZero, we wanted to revolutionize this poor way of working. When you read an email in your Inbox, it disappears from it to be sorted in conversations. You do not have to archive it. If you want your email to reappear in your Inbox, you can simply add a reminder. Before InboxZero, you hesitate to archive an email or let it in your Inbox. This stress is now over.
- The Serenity Mode: You can also choose which emails show up in your Inbox thanks to the Serenity mode. For example, force newsletters from companies to never see the daylight of your inbox, but end up directly in your conversations. You can custom it. You have to try this mode, this is really innovative.
- You can even sync your Facebook account to get your contacts pictures. InboxZero also displays companies logos.
Is there a B2C version only? Or did you develop a B2B version as well?
We have a B2B version, SmartMail. It is a collaborative solution for enterprise. (Have a look to the website here – if you want to know more about it, of course!)
How long did it take to develop the app?
We stopped counting. When I just look at developers’ hours, we have more than 1000 days of development.
You have to add to it my personal work. Indeed, I am directly involved in the conception and development of the product. And we do not have to forget the work of the marketing team and the graphic designers. To create a unique product like InboxZero, we do not count hours.
How do you you make money?
As explained, we want to make companies discover the big sister of InboxZero, SmartMail. Certain extra paid functionalities could also be offered in InboxZero.
Your app is currently available in Belgium. Why did you chose to launch it in Luxembourg?
Being implanted in Luxembourg, we feel very close to this country. This is why we wanted to launch our app on this market.
Moreover, we know this market better than others. Finally, it is known that having different cultural backgrounds, Luxembourg is a good market to test a product.