I’ll be representing Boxbe in Austin, TX for the annual SXSW Conference today through next Tuesday.
I would love to meet up if you want to learn more about how to get rid of your unwanted email or if you have any questions, complaints, concerns, or praise for Boxbe. Give me a shout while we’re all in Austin – randy@boxbe.com.
Last Friday, we pushed a site redesign for the Boxbe main site. While no major functionality has changed, we think this makes it a little easier to find the things you’re looking for and is a bit easier on the eyes.
If you have comments about the new design or see any problems, send me email at randy@boxbe.com or comment below.
We’ve talked a little about at the service, but what about the people that make it tick? For now, I’ll introduce myself and the two founders of the company, Thede and Corbett.
I’m Randy Stewart, a Product Manager here at Boxbe, which means I help design features for Boxbe and work with engineers to implement and launch those features. In addition, I’m writing this blog to let people know what’s happening with the service.
Here’s a little about me: I’ve been a product manager at Yahoo! Shopping, Product Manager at Epinions, the community of product review writers and I’ve consulted for numerous early stage internet companies.
Thede and I met back in 1995 while we both worked at Match.com. I was an intern there and he was a lead developer. We’ve been good friends ever since.
Please contact me if you have any questions about Boxbe or have any suggestions for features that you would like to see. You can reach me at randy@boxbe.com
Hi, I’m Thede Loder, Co-founder and President of Boxbe. I’m excited about Boxbe because I believe we are enabling a revolutionary change in the world of email. I’m also happy to be building things again after a few years studying.
In 2004, I finished a grad program in Computer Science at Michigan. My focus there was on how to modify the rules that govern email so that email would be used more ‘efficiently’. By this I mean the economic notion of efficiency, where both a sender and a recipient of a message get positive value from it, and unwanted messages are discouraged and sent less frequently.
Prior to grad school, I helped build several Internet businesses. The first was Match.com in 1995, where I was the third technical employee. To launch and operate Match.com, we needed an application server, and since they didn’t exist at the time, we had to build one. In 1996, I co-founded Leverage Information Systems with two other engineers to help commercialize the technology. We eventually sold Leverage to Diamond Technology Partners, a strategic consulting firm, which is where I met my fellow co-founder, Corbett Barr.
Hi there. I’m Corbett Barr, Boxbe’s other co-founder (and COO). I use Boxbe every day, and I hope we can make it a must-have for you, too. My personal goal is to make a service that truly gives you control over your email communications in a way that is both easy and fun to use.
As Thede mentioned, he and I met at Diamond back in 2000, where I was a technology consultant. I spent about five years there helping big (Fortune 500 sized) clients make better use of technology. In addition to consulting, I’ve also worked as a software developer. My favorite job (by far), however, has been building the Boxbe service over the past year.
Look here for more details about how we plan to make email a better tool for all. If you have any questions or feedback about how we can make Boxbe better, feel free to write me at corbett@boxbe.com
Welcome to Boxbe! As President of the company, I want to officially welcome you to our new blog. This is a place where you’ll hear from many of the Boxbe team members (currently six of us) about what’s going on here, and other things we think you’ll find interesting.
If you’ve been following Boxbe thus far, you probably know that we launched the first beta of www.boxbe.com in November. Since then, we have been working hard to iron out the kinks and bring Boxbe closer to our vision.
What’s our vision exactly? Boxbe is (at its heart) a new kind marketplace. What you trade through Boxbe (or give away, the choice is yours), is “access to yourself”. For your work and personal correspondence, you can let access be free. For others, we help you set a price. Our goal is to give you control over your inbox, and through that, your time.
With your inbox cleaned up, you regain the breathing room to consider new relationships. There are companies who want to reach you, and many you would be happy to hear from. Boxbe helps you hear from the right ones. How? The payment you require is a form of screen. When advertisers are required to reimburse you for your attention, they have more reason to use your preferences to send something interesting.
We’re lining up some exciting advertisers who want to participate. They will become part of the Boxbe marketplace, and share our vision. We know it’s a lofty goal, but every revolution starts somewhere. This is where we can use your help.
In order to engage companies that you would want to hear from (and who would want to pay to reach you), we need a sizable member base. We’ll tell you more about how you can help in upcoming posts, but for starters, spread the word and tell your friends to use Boxbe!
Thanks again for checking us out. Stay tuned for more posts about us and things related. What we’ve launched so far is only the beginning!
Thede
thede@boxbe.com