Once upon 2011, Michael Bodek忙r and Michael Olsen, the two starting co-founders, brought their two minds together after discussions during an entrepreneurial event. It quickly became clear that there was imminent frustration with email, especially on the Windows OS platform.
At the time, Andrea Loubier worked for a software company in Ohio before meeting Michael & Michael. Little did she know, she鈥檇 be a key driver in taking to new heights 鈥� a dream that would soon come to fruition.
Andrea and the two Michaels came together to build it from the ground up.
Mailbird 鈥媗aunched on April 2, 2013. The timing was everything; the press pegged it, the 鈥淪parrow for Windows鈥�. They were onto something big and could feel it.
Today, Mailbird鈥檚 brilliant minds (the team) boast a fully flexible work/life balance. They are situated cross-continentally, as a fully remote organisation.
They recognise that individuals and businesses need an email management system that is easy to use, robust and reliable, to increase their productivity. So today, they continue to put people鈥檚 needs and well-being first when it comes to email management.
The grandiose vision? To enable people to have more freedom, all while their businesses thrive by keeping their communication workflow seamless. Now that鈥檚 what they call a healthy relationship with email.
听
More from News
- From Workouts To Managing Jetlag: The British Tech Scale-Up That Just Hit One Million Users Globally Appoints New CEO
- Hackers Tricked Instagram鈥檚 AI To Leak Your Log In Details 鈥� How Can Users Stay Protected?
- New Research Reveals The UK鈥檚 Top 10 鈥淔uture-Ready鈥� Cities
- New Research Shows How Elections Are Impacting The Job Market 鈥� Here鈥檚 How
- Is London Becoming The World鈥檚 Next AI Capital?
- Google鈥檚 AI Can鈥檛 Even Spell 鈥淕oogle鈥� 鈥� So Why Is It Replacing Search?
- Will AI Labels Actually Save YouTube From AI Slop?
- The Rise Of 鈥淣ew Brand鈥� Cybercrime Groups And The Business Of Ransomware
听
We talk to Michael Olsen, CEO of Mailbird, to get his take on the journey that鈥檚 spanned 10 years.
听
What have you learnt so far?
My background is in software development; I鈥檝e learnt a lot of things since starting Mailbird. In the beginning, I poured my soul into the development of our email client, the product, not being involved in much else. Then, later on, as time passed, those responsibilities have grown to be more business-oriented, outside of just the development aspects. Marketing, growth, leadership, finance etc.
The biggest revelation was recognising that if you have a customer-centric product, there will always be users interested in it 鈥� despite competing with the likes of Microsoft Outlook. So don鈥檛 be discouraged by competition. In fact, the competition just means there鈥檚 a market out there. Use that to fuel your drive to succeed.
听
What challenges have you overcome? How have you responded during Covid?
One of the main challenges we鈥檝e had to overcome is how to be efficient and structure things, being a fully remote-first company. This remains a work in progress, particularly as we鈥檙e expanding our operations.
However, one of the key learnings is to have the right tools to allow people to work in different time zones at various times on the same things.
When Covid hit, we didn鈥檛 experience a significant disruption to our way of working since our team already operated remotely (most from home).
听
What are your plans for growth?
Our main plans revolve around diversifying our product line (of course, all email related products). In addition, we鈥檙e aiming to expand into new markets 鈥� starting with the big highlight of the near future, Mailbird for Mac. I鈥檒l tease that out, but we鈥檙e keeping our cards close to our chest regarding other product developments beyond that. Watch this space.
