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This is a great example of Fred sharing valuable info he gleans from his unique perspective as a VC who has managed to collect a lot of great Web portfolio comp

by bfe 15y ago

This is a great example of Fred sharing valuable info he gleans from his unique perspective as a VC who has managed to collect a lot of great Web portfolio companies. At the same time, the super eagerness he mentions here for companies to email people, and how AWESOME that is, is different for some of us users. I can't tell you how bitterly my opinion has turned against a lot of companies I've thought were cool and whose service I thought I'd enjoy and who I entrusted with my top level personal gmail, the one that notifies me on my android just like my work email, and who I trusted to email me JUDICIOUSLY, who have ended up sending me batshit-insane quantities of email and made me very quickly hate them and the next seven generations of their prodigy forever and ever.

robryan 15y ago
Yeah, at very least it should be opt in. Something like Convore which thinks it is a good idea to make daily update emails opt out rather than opt in. Quiet a few YC companies really, it's not something you expect from the brand.
- lsc 15y ago
  Yup. If you run opt-out rather than confirmed opt-in mailing lists, you will get blacklisted by spamhaus and the like, and kicked off of many ISPs. Opt-out, rightly or wrongly, is generally considered to be spam. Now, I'm not saying opt-out can't be effective; I'm sure it is, else people wouldn't do it. But it does show a certain lack of respect for my time.
ScottBurson 15y ago
Progeny.
fredwilson 15y ago
i'm not talking about unwanted email or unwanted notifications. you can turn off these emails and mobile notifications in all the major services. i do that myself. but many people like to get these emails and it does drive engagement
- bfe 15y ago
  Thanks Fred. I'm sure that is the case for all your companies. I've just had nightmare experiences with some companies such as, at the worst extreme, one company who had a marketing person actually email me in response to several emails I sent begging to opt out of their frequent marketing emails to say they refused to offer me any way out of continuing to receive marketing emails, and prompting me to have to engage with upper management to the point where their management ended up profusely apologizing for the belligerence of their marketing person and ensuring me that the marketing person was being dealt with appropriately.

by bfe 15y ago

robryan 15y ago

Yeah, at very least it should be opt in. Something like Convore which thinks it is a good idea to make daily update emails opt out rather than opt in. Quiet a few YC companies really, it's not something you expect from the brand.

lsc 15y ago
Yup. If you run opt-out rather than confirmed opt-in mailing lists, you will get blacklisted by spamhaus and the like, and kicked off of many ISPs. Opt-out, rightly or wrongly, is generally considered to be spam. Now, I'm not saying opt-out can't be effective; I'm sure it is, else people wouldn't do it. But it does show a certain lack of respect for my time.

ScottBurson 15y ago

Progeny.

fredwilson 15y ago

i'm not talking about unwanted email or unwanted notifications. you can turn off these emails and mobile notifications in all the major services. i do that myself. but many people like to get these emails and it does drive engagement

bfe 15y ago
Thanks Fred. I'm sure that is the case for all your companies. I've just had nightmare experiences with some companies such as, at the worst extreme, one company who had a marketing person actually email me in response to several emails I sent begging to opt out of their frequent marketing emails to say they refused to offer me any way out of continuing to receive marketing emails, and prompting me to have to engage with upper management to the point where their management ended up profusely apologizing for the belligerence of their marketing person and ensuring me that the marketing person was being dealt with appropriately.