Insights Into Transforming Email With Productivity Tools

Recently, I visited Dogpatch Labs to meet with Alex Moore (founder) and Mike Chin of Baydin with the aim to learn what's new with this startup. This platform’s journey highlights that even in established and seemingly complete sectors, there is still room for innovation. 

Baydin was a Boston startup building a plugin to improve the way we use email. A former TechStars graduate, part of their accelerator program, Baydin has launched a few different products to make using email better in MS Outlook. One of their most prominent products is Unsearch, which won this year's Enterprise 2.0 Launchpad competition, and Boomerang, the "email snooze button."

Although Baydin initially built these tools for Microsoft Outlook, with professionals that handle large volumes of email every day being the target audience, it quickly expanded into Gmail, offering its Boomerang tool. This product, which is one of the flagship offerings from the company, offers users the ability to delay sending messages, put the ‘snooze’ feature on emails, as well as set reminders, to get greater control over how they manage emails, time their follow ups, and in general have more control over email communication with other parties.

As email continues to be an essential part of business communications, streamlining interactions to prevent overload of email is essential, and it is exactly what Baydin targets. However, Baydin’s journey was certainly not an easy one. However, the support gained from TechStars, along with the local ecosystem, provided it the momentum needed to establish its identity, after which, it gained quick interest from its target audience- professionals and businesspeople, because of the efficiency its solutions promised. 

Lessons To Learn From Baydin

Timing is everything in life, and I was happy to learn a couple of big new developments at this emerging company. 

• First, Baydin has recently launched a Gmail version of Baydin, and I was treated to a beta version, which can be seen in the video below. You can view and download the Boomerang tool for Gmail beta here.
• Second, in the video below, Alex also discusses the next big thing that they are working on as a new game related to "getting people to inbox zero." When I asked Alex to elaborate on how he's bringing game theory to the typically mundane task of email, he told me that most people check their email first thing in the morning, and now they will have to do it "on the clock."

With the introduction of Boomerang, Baydin essentially expanded its market by a lot, through just one product, and what made it a hit? Its simplicity. Now, although only its beta version is out yet, I can tell, from my experience of it, that its features resolve problems which are very common, but till now, have gone unnoticed. Moreover, it offers these functionalities so seamlessly, that it is bound to become a popular product that everyone adopts in an instant. It will not only revolutionize emails for professionals, but for everyone who uses it, whether professionals, students, businesses, or other people. 

Something that really excited me was the fact that Baydin is working on a tool that will gamify reaching ‘inbox zero’. Focused on game theory, this wool will be designed to encourage individuals to adapt practices for better inbox management, by integrating a fun, game-like, competitive element into it. 

What We Learned: Baydin’s journey is an example of the fact that there is no limitation to innovation, even in areas where people may commonly feel that they have reached the peak. All it takes is identifying a gap, no matter how small, and solving it through creative solutions.