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Cloud Printing and Shipping Service Lob (YC S13) Raises $2.4M Seed Round
- aelaguiz 13y agoNice work Harry & Leore
- generj 13y agoI love the concept of Lob, especially the CDN for mail. I do wish the processing time was much lower. 2-3 days is quite a lot of time to wait on-top of the already slow USPS delivery. "All printing is processed typically within 2-3 business days then mailed right after." https://www.lob.com/docs https://www.lob.com/docs Is there a reason the processing time is so long? I understand Lob relies on other parties to print and send the mail. Ideally there would be same-day printing - I submit a job at 9am and it is printed and in USPS's system by 5pm. Combined with the CDN printing & mailing close to the destination, the mail should then arrive within 2 days of the job submission. EDIT: And congrats to the Lob team! You guys are solving a real pain-point, and it won't be long until you've moved from $1 million in checks to $1 billion.
- rebel 13y agoFrom my experience they have processed same-day or next day, although YMMV.
- generj 13y agoWhich is great, but I can't build an app on that. What I'd really like is a delivery estimate API, so I could stagger job submission to ensure an entire batch ended up in my user's hands on the same day.
- rebel 13y agoAgreed, if your use case requires precise delivery times then it won't work. I also would love a delivery estimate API, I wonder if they could make that happen.
- waterside81 13y agoThey should be able to. All major shipping companies' API provides an estimate for delivery. So it's a matter of adding up the estimate days with the printing lead time and returning that (along with a disclaimer!)
- aefeuer 13y agoCongrats guys! We've loved using Lob, and really exciting to see everything taking off!
- j0ncc 13y agoHuge fan of this company. Great job guys!
- rebel 13y agoCongrats Leore and team! So far my experience with Lob has been fantastic. Can't wait to see what's next.
- nemesisj 13y agoI'm hopeful this means they can start offering their services in the UK! We'd love to integrate this in our app.
- fudged71 13y agoCongrats! Cloud printing is a huge market. We're doing something very similar with 3D printing.
- waterside81 13y agoFor those who use this service, which part of it appeals the most? Is it removing the hassle of finding a printer? Is it the API part? Is it the shipping/logistics aspect? I ask because Lob is a generalized version of what we (http://www.littleheroes.com http://www.littleheroes.com) do every day. I never considered our platform to be a service unto itself so I'm curious which aspects in particular resonate with people.
- earless1 13y agoWe don't currently use Lob, but we use a service like it and for us it's the printing and mailing functionality that makes it appealing. Giving our customers the ability to send things like invoices directly to their customers from the application is a feature that gets lots of utilization.
- peterjancelis 13y agoWhat I like most is that they position themselves as a utility for one's app. I don't have to worry about them trying to impose their branding on my customers and it's one less thing to worry about, which is especially nice as it's a service that most companies did not automate before I imagine.
- gfodor 13y agoCongrats guys!
- DenisM 13y agoSo I just googled "print photo api", and found a while bunch of similar things, like http://www.pwinty.com/ http://www.pwinty.com/ Is Lob different?