iNDICA NEWS BUREAU-
A mailbox in the cloud for every residential, commercial, and PO Box address
Now, get ready for a new mode of mail and be prepared to say goodbye to the conventional paper mail.
Referred to as the future of mailbox and a new way to send and receive mail, Zipinmail promises to not just rewrite the rules of conventional paper mail, but also keep the planet’s green cover intact by realizing its vision – Save the trees, improve air quality and preserve our nature for future generations!
Powered by Digital Mailbox, Inc. Zipinmail was born from a eureka moment combined with passion, faith, domain knowledge, entrepreneurial experience and willingness to take the risk. The core team of Zipinmail has a combined experience of over 100 years in direct mail, big data, technology, startups, operations, team building, investments and strategic alliances.
Businesses spend over $300 billion every year for paper mail primarily for visibility and brand recognition without getting any real data about how many people opened, read or took action from that paper mail. On the other hand, people spend so much time in picking up mail, opening it, deciding what to keep or trash, organizing them and eventually end up trashing almost all paper mail.
Zipinmail drives home its point with this grim fact — In USA 68 million trees are destroyed and 400 million trees globally every year for paper mail and almost all of it is thrown in the trash. Paper industry is the third largest polluter of air, water and land.
Zipinmail promises a clean, digital alternative. It has created a mailbox in the cloud for every residential, commercial and PO Box address to facilitate exchange of information between mailboxes in the cloud using physical mailing address without email or sharing links.
The creators of Zipinmail believe that this unique and innovative solution will solve all the problems of paper mail. Businesses will get the impact of direct mail for the cost of email and get detailed measurement metrics. People can access all their mailboxes under one account from anywhere on any device and keep all their documents organized in Zipinmail while saving time and money.
To learn more about Zipinmail’s future plans its founder and serial entrepreneur Vijay Chetty[Above photo] shared with indica about the product and his vision going forward. Here are some excerpts of a digital interview:
What inspired Zipinmail and what are the challenges that you face?
I have worked for the past 20 years with various technologies to reduce consumption of paper. I’m a hiker and love nature. Every time I threw paper mail in the trash, it bothered me that we are killing the trees for paper mail. On Feb 9, 2021 when I was picking up the mail, it just dawned on me: ‘Why can’t we take the physical mailbox to the cloud?’. That was the ‘Eureka’ moment. I’m an entrepreneur and a risk-taker. I started working 80 hours a week, researched, wrote a patent, formed a Delaware C Corporation, invested $520k of my money, built a team, built the product, went live and now we are raising capital so we can start selling to businesses and marketing to consumers – never looked back.
Problems that Zipinmail seeks to address:
Consumers have to pick up mail, figure out what to open and trash. Lots of paper mails are misplaced, lost or stolen, and the consumers get hit with late fees and penalties if they don’t pay bills on time. There’s no proof of delivery, have to be at home or office to pick up mail – can’t access while traveling and change of address makes things worse. The entire paper mail is a painful, cumbersome, and tedious process for consumers.
Businesses spend $320 Billion in the USA and $1.6 trillion globally for paper mail without getting any measurement metrics or ROI. They don’t know who opened, read or took action from their paper mail. Businesses are well aware that more than 95% of their paper mail is not opened or read by consumers. Yet, they continue to send paper mail primarily for visibility, grabbing eyeballs, and brand recognition. Businesses are facing the pain – they are experiencing a continuing decline on ROI.
We kill 68 million trees in the USA and 400 million trees globally every year for paper mail and all of it is thrown in the trash. Paper industry is the 3rd largest polluter of air, water and land. The Paper industry uses a lot of chemicals in its production process and contaminates our rivers and oceans. Trees absorb carbon dioxide and heat, and give us oxygen. Trees are the lungs of our planet earth and air circulation on planet earth is a natural cleanser of germs and viruses. Covid-19 has taught us all a lesson and it’s about time to stop killing the trees shamelessly for paper mail that is thrown in the trash. We believe Zipinmail technology will reduce global temperature by 1 degree per year and 10 degrees over the next 10 years.
How will Zipinmail solve that problem?
VC: Reducing the consumption of paper mail will reduce the number of trees killed for paper. For centuries, ever since paper and ink were invented, paper mail has been the mode of communication. Even with email invented about 40 years ago, paper mail volume has increased consistently by 1% – 2% every year for the past two decades per USPS.Zipinmail is an evolutionary virtual mailbox platform to transmit data using a mailing address. Zipinmail is the first to market with an open, end-to-end virtual mailbox platform to send and receive mail using a mailing address, without email or sharing links.
Zipinmail is designed like an email, and works like an email, but uses a mailing address to transmit data. From compose Zipinmail, just type the full mailing address, type any content in the body of Zipinmail and attach any file format, and it will be delivered to the mailbox in the cloud for that mailing address.
Often businesses are unable to reach their target audience using an email address for many reasons. Zipinmail, on the other hand, is for a mailing address. Just like there is only one mailbox in front of your home, Zipinmail has created one permanent Zipinmail for each residential and commercial address.
All individuals within a mailing address have their own individual virtual mailbox that is linked to the mailbox in the cloud for that mailing address. Whatever is mailed to you with your name and address is routed to your individual virtual mailbox. Whatever is mailed to your wife, children or others in that same mailing address is routed to their individual virtual mailbox.
Everything is personal, secure and no one else can access or view the contents of your Zipinmail (just like an email). If you move, we de-link your individual virtual mailbox from your old address and link it to your new address. Zipinmail address is the same as your mailing address. So, businesses can use all the available demographic data (legacy data) to target their audience.
We have filed a global patent (PCT Application) and filed Accelerated Examination with USPTO.
The timing is perfect for Zipinmail. Consumers hate paper mail and businesses are experiencing declining ROI. Zipinmail is the first to market an evolutionary technology to send and receive mail using a mailing address. Zipinmail has built the product, launched it in the market and proved the technology is working. Zipinmail is very well positioned to take off immediately upon funding and disrupt a massive $1.6 Trillion direct mail industry.
Products & Features:
Mass Zipinmail: Our Mass Zipinmail platform enables businesses to search & select their audience based on a variety of demographic data such as city, zip code, gender, age, marital status, children, income, education, type of home (single family, multi-family dwelling unit), own/rent, year built etc. Businesses can design their own template by adding their logo, images, text etc., and blast Mass Zipinmail to selected audience in just 5 minutes and get detailed measurement metrics from Campaigns Dashboard. Businesses will save 90% or more of the cost of paper mail.
Compare that to Paper Mail: The lowest postage for Bulk Mail under EDDM (Every Door Direct Mail) is 19 cents and First-Class postage starts at 60 cents (more based on size & weight). When you add the cost of paper, ink, design & labor, the total cost ranges from 30 cents to a few dollars per piece based on what you mail (such as a magazine or catalog). Further, it takes anywhere from 2 to 8 weeks from start to finish for the consumer to receive the paper mail. In addition, businesses have no clue who opened, read or took action based on their paper mail.
Security: All data transmission in Zipinmail is encrypted end-to-end. We use AWS for all our infrastructure and data storage. We use the same security protocols used by Fortune 500 companies. All the data in Zipinmail is significantly less sensitive compared to financial institutions and brokerage firms, yet, we use similar security protocols. We do not share or sell any of our users data to any third party.
Coupon Management: Businesses can upload coupons by zip code directly into their customer’s Virtual Mailbox without inundating their inbox for just $25 per coupon per zip code per month. No mail, no email and no spam. Businesses control the start and end date of their campaign. Plus, businesses can upload one coupon for one zip code per business absolutely free.
Consumers can access those coupons from ‘Offers & Coupons’ section. Consumers can also take a picture of any coupon they like and save it in Zipinmail. Consumers can just show their coupons to Merchants from their Cell Phones to redeem them.
Compare that to mailing coupons via postcards, envelopes or shared mail. It will cost businesses anywhere from $300 per zip code (via shared mail like Valpak) to about $5,000 or more for solo piece mail such as postcard or envelopes.
Cash Rewards: Zipinmail will be launching a new ‘Click & Earn’ program soon. Businesses can send Mass Zipinmail to thousands of targeted homes with Cash Rewards such as 25 cents or 50 cents per click, absolutely free. Consumers will be paid cash rewards (such as 25 or 50 cents determined by the business) for just clicking that Zipinmail.
Since there is no cost to send Mass Zipinmail under the Click & Earn program, businesses are willing to pay cash to targeted consumers as an incentive to just click and read their Zipinmail. When a consumer reaches accumulated cash value of $20, Zipinmail will send them cash via Venmo, Zelle or Paypal. Note this is a Cash Rewards program and not a points-based program so the consumers can use that cash for anything. Zipinmail will charge a fee per click to the business. This is a Win-Win-Win for businesses, consumers and Zipinmail.
Future Products in Pipeline: Zipinmail has many more products in its pipeline such as Digital PO Box, Digital Notary, Digital Mail-In-Ballots, Digital Currency etc.
How big is the market for the industry in which your product/service competes?
1) Market Opportunity: USA: $320 Billion; Global: $1.6 Trillion
2) Zipinmail has the opportunity to be a monopoly primarily because consumers are unlikely to sign up for multiple virtual mailbox platforms. Whoever captures the consumers first is likely to be a monopoly or a huge winner in this space. To the best of our knowledge, there is no one else with an end-to-end virtual mailbox platform.
What specific revenue streams has your company established? Revenue Model: Business
a) Subscription Plans: Basic: Free; Premium: $100 per month; Enterprise: $350 per month
b) Mass Zipinmail: 5 to 15 cents per transmission based on Subscription Plan – includes data, search & templates
c) Coupon Management: $25 per coupon per zip code per month
d) Cash Rewards: Fee per click
e) Additional Mailboxes: $3 each per month
2. Revenue Model: Consumers
a) Subscription Plans: Basic: Free; Premium: $6 per month
b) Compose Zipinmail: Free (Transmission of data using Compose Zipinmail is free)
c) Mass Zipinmail: 5 to 15 cents per transmission based on Subscription Plan – includes data, search & templates
d) Offers & Coupons: Free
e) Cash Rewards: Consumers get paid in cash for just clicking Zipinmail
f) Additional Mailboxes: Free.
What specific perks are you offering to investors?
We are offering securities at a minimum investment of $300 and it’s open to the public through our equity crowdfunding campaign. The company also offers bonus rewards for higher investments. For more information, people can visit startengine.com/zipinmail.
What keeps you up at night? What challenges will you have to overcome?
At present, our primary challenge is raising capital. Raising capital for a pre-revenue company in today’s market conditions is challenging. Once we raise the capital, we are confident we will get the businesses and consumers to sign up. The value proposition for both businesses and consumers is very strong and compelling.
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