Ritu Jha-
He is a man with an ever-expanding green footprint in cloud space and an entrepreneur whose heart beats for nature.
Vijay Chetty[Above right], Founder & CEO at Digital Mailbox, Inc., Zipinmail says Feb 9, 2021, was the day he had a eureka moment while he was picking up his mail, and since then has been working 80-85 hours a week building a startup company.
“It was my wife’s birthday,” Chetty said with a little smile, “So I remember this day. The idea had struck me quite out of the blue.” Chetty named his idea – Zipinmail, a mailbox in the cloud with a purpose.
“My passion has always been to reduce paper. I love nature and trees, and I have been working for the past 20 years of my life on various technologies to reduce the consumption of paper,” Chetty, a serial entrepreneur told indica, why he wants to go paperless.
In the US 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. The paper industry is the third largest polluter of air, water, and land.
Chetty refers to Zipinmail 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!
Businesses across the globe, he says, spend over $1.6 trillion every year on 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 picking up mail, opening it, and eventually ending up trashing almost all paper mail.
Chetty promises to provide a clean, digital alternative through Zipinmail. He says that this unique and innovative solution will solve all the problems of paper mail. Businesses will get the impact of direct mail at 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.
The soft launch took place in April and earlier this month, on September 3rd, the company started marketing the product to consumers and businesses. Chetty who has been working on this project for the past 20 months says on signing up 600 consumers. “It’s very rewarding to see the product live and it feels great.”
The Company is also under discussion with various cities, universities and key strategic partners to bring Zipinmail to market. The Company has been part of The Clean Tech Open program and was selected as one of the top 10 Companies within the Clean Tech Open program. Chetty says, “Zipinmail is gaining momentum all around”
He added that consumers and businesses both are signing up for Zipinmail. Sounding optimistic about the outcome of his pet project, Chetty stated, “It [Zipinmail] is a profitable company waiting for a real power until then we are in a real pressure.”
“But the challenge is, we are running out of capital. The financial pressure is high and we need money to sustain this project and its momentum,” he said.
Asked about how much he plans to raise, Chetty said, “We are looking to raise $5 million.”
Zipinmail’s mailbox in the cloud is for every residential, commercial, and PO Box address. You can send and receive all your mail from your mailbox in the cloud using a physical mailing address without email or sharing links.
Before venturing into Zipinmail, Chetty was the President & CEO of Click & Clear Communications, Founder & CEO of ScanAps; Chief Financial & Operating Officer of Destiny Marketing Group of Companies; CFO of Kent & Spiegel; and Audit Manager at Duitch, Franklin & Co. Chetty has also sold direct mail through Click & Clear Communications for the past 9 years.
Asked who are his target customers, Chetty said that the company is targeting those consumers who are coupon users, who seek paper, online or mobile discounts. “Travelers and consumers who travel a lot and want access remotely to the mailbox and people who hate paper will see a lot of value in Zipinmail,” he said.
Chetty added: “Nature lovers and green-oriented consumers who are willing to support the cause will see the value of this project. People who already have a PO box, and there are over 21 million PO box holders in the country, those consumers will value Zipinmail as soon as the ‘Digital PO Box’ platform is launched..” Chetty says, “we have many more products in our pipeline such as Certified Mail, Cash Rewards, Digital PO Box, Digital Notary, Digital Currency and Digital Mail-In Ballots”.
