3
3 Comments

Build or bail?

There were some fundamental errors in my approach to a recent idea I had for an email alias service (minmail). I've already shared my thoughts on this, but to recap, I should have:

  • searched more thoroughly when initially looking around for existing offerings
  • reached out to IH and/or other communities for feedback on the idea

This post isn't about the mistakes I made, but rather, what to do with what I learned.

Diving into a project with little validation is a habit formed from years of being more interested in creation than monetisation. This is okay when you're just interested in learning or building for yourself, but inhibiting if you're hoping to build a business of any sort. Though I stumbled somewhat with minmail, I did eventually take the above steps before I got in too deep.

Step one: finding existing providers

My initial search (e.g. this one, among others) for existing email alias providers gave me the false impression that there weren't many offering the service I needed. I did, however, come across a useful article that introduced Firefox Relay: a Firefox add-on that allows you to generate aliases by clicking a button (that it inserts) next to an email field. I liked the idea but, for my needs, it had significant limitations:

  • only 5 aliases
  • addresses were completely random and couldn't be customised

Most of the other services I found were of the "temporary mailbox" variety. I gave up on searching and got to building. I know, I gave up too easily, but building is always way more fun and feels more productive than scouring the web. (O_o)

Step two: reaching out

After hacking together a PoC, I reached out to you guys for feedback — it was incredibly helpful! As a result, I was made aware of a few related services:

  • Mailbox
  • Burnermail
  • Throttle
  • Simple Login

I tried each one of them and compared what they were offering to what I was hoping to bring to the table. After evaluation, Burnermail and Simple Login were the only ones I considered real competition. And I took the fact that there is competition as a positive sign, because it indicates that there's some demand for such services. I also still felt there was room for minmail, as I was hoping to capture more mainstream — and less technical — users. My vision was for a feature-packed service that's incredibly easy to use, as well as low-maintenance.

Step three: revisiting step one

Inspired by the results of reaching out to IH, I re-thought my approach to finding competitors. Rather than relying on generalist search engines (duckduckgo, google, etc.), I started searching specifically on sites like Hacker News, Reddit, Product Hunt, Beta List and Alexa. It's far more time-consuming than a general search, but also more fruitful. It revealed even more services:

  • 33mail
  • c0x0
  • Privasea
  • AnonAddy
  • Paced Email
  • altmails

They vary from Chrome extension (c0x0) to fully-featured alias services. 33mail falls into the latter category and has been around for over a decade; it recently hit $8K MRR. AnonAddy appears to be only a couple of years old but has a solid ranking on alexa.com, and seems to be one of the most popular services in this space, based on the stats and forum discussions.

Step four: fight or flight

AnonAddy, 33mail and Simple Login all have strong, feature-rich offerings, competitive pricing, as well as a considerable headstart. Many of their features overlap with my own, but they also offer some things I can't/won't initially. In particular, AnonAddy and Simple Login both have the following going for them:

  • external domain support
  • mobile apps
  • browser extensions
  • self-hosting
  • open-source

The potential advantages minmail might have are:

  • generous free tier
  • ease of use
  • child accounts
  • workflow means no need for browser extension
  • PWA means no immediate need for separate mobile app

Based on the above, I think I've decided on the course of action to take, but I'm turning to the IH community again, because I'd love for you to offer your opinions. Would you bail out, or keep building?

I've invested relatively little so far, so don't feel like I would be losing if I dropped this idea. At the very least, it has been educational. On the other hand, it feels like there's potential and a whole segment of the market who aren't being reached.

What would you do? Please cast your vote and, even better, leave a comment!

As always, if you've made it this far, thanks for reading!

Build or Bail?
  1. Build
  2. Bail
Vote
  1. 1

    There's probably no one who can make this decision for you:

    • Nobody will have the same passion as you for the idea.
    • Nobody will have to put in as much time as you.

    However, I would try to approach it like this:

    • Can you solve the problem better than the competition? (Having more features does not necessarily solve the problem better.)
    • Can you distribute your product better than the competition?
    • Is there anything else you can do better than the competition?

    Additionally, I'd recommend reading this IH post: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/how-to-brainstorm-great-business-ideas-ab51c3d51c

    1. 2

      Thanks Niklas, that's sound advice, and it's appreciated. I honestly wasn't looking for anyone to answer the question for me, it was more of a sanity check.

      That IH post is excellent, one I will re-read, I'm sure.

      1. 1

        Good luck, man! I'll follow your progress.

        That IH post is excellent, one I will re-read, I'm sure.

        Yes, it really is. There's a reason why it's the most upvoted post on IH. I've re-read it like 10 times already.

Trending on Indie Hackers
How I grew a side project to 100k Unique Visitors in 7 days with 0 audience 55 comments Competing with Product Hunt: a month later 33 comments Why do you hate marketing? 29 comments My Top 20 Free Tools That I Use Everyday as an Indie Hacker 18 comments $15k revenues in <4 months as a solopreneur 14 comments Use Your Product 13 comments