Re:Ask HN: How do you send email in your early stage startup?
by the_narrator on Sunday July 08, 2018 @08:01AM
(#17483374)
I don't think using a custom domain for company email is the "big leagues". It is only a minor effort to use your own domain and shows some semblance of a professional operation.
Re:Ask HN: How do you send email in your early stage startup?
by zakk on Sunday July 08, 2018 @08:19AM
(#17483414)
> The "handoff" for when I email him back out of the blue from my [email protected]
As far as I remember GMail can send emails on behalf of another address you own:
https://support.google.com/mail/answer/22370?hl=en
This way VC Mike will have a seamless experience writing you to your @foo.com address.
Re:Ask HN: How do you send email in your early stage startup?
by mchannon on Sunday July 08, 2018 @08:36AM
(#17483464)
Gmail used to do that for free, and if you signed your domain up, you're grandfathered in (I have a few domains still like that).
They don't do it for free anymore, and their mail hosting for new accounts is surprisingly expensive (though I suppose most things are, when you're used to getting them for free).
Re:Ask HN: How do you send email in your early stage startup?
by hashkb on Sunday July 08, 2018 @11:40AM
(#17484295)
I think you're talking about GSuite users. They are not free. Regular GMail can send mail as another account you prove ownership of. (For free)
Re:Ask HN: How do you send email in your early stage startup?
by kalmi10 on Sunday July 08, 2018 @09:10AM
(#17483602)
Disregard the comments saying that gmail aliases are no longer free. That is simply untrue.
Parent is not advocating for the use of Google’s G Suite. G Suite is indeed no longer free, but that’s irrelevant. Grandparent was using namecheap’s mail redirect. At no point were the parents suggesting the use of G Suite.
Re:Ask HN: How do you send email in your early stage startup?
by pieterhg on Sunday July 08, 2018 @08:36AM
(#17483466)
Not anymore. Only if it’s a Google Apps domain.
Say my startup is foo.com and I've registered it at namecheap. I'll get a corresponding gmail account ([email protected]) and use that for my outgoing correspondence.
Where you want to impress with your custom domain is incoming email, and in that case, you can set up mail redirects (catchalls in particular) for your new foo.com domain. So if I meet VC Mike at an event, I can direct him to [email protected] or [email protected]. The "handoff" for when I email him back out of the blue from my [email protected] can be a little fraught, but it's good enough until I want to afford actual gmail services or similar.
It's a great way to segment off new areas of your business, so if you hire Vickie in customer service, you can autoforward support@ to [email protected] or [email protected], until you hit the big leagues.