Many are trying to re-invent email. Big ones like Google’s Gmail have made personal email pretty hard to mess-up thanks to their intelligent “Priority Inbox” system that is scary accurate in bringing to front only the relevant mails. But it doesn’t scale well to a team environment where the de facto way of dealing with communication is to simply forward it to a bunch of individual inbox.
Dealing with codes have become much easier for teams because of Git which makes collaboration a breeze. Helpmonks is aiming to do that and more for team mails.
About the Startup
In December 2013, Denise McCort and Nitai Aventaggiato started Helpmonks. The team has 30 years of combined experience in developing software applications. Denise McCort did her masters at MIT and has held various technical positions as a software lead and software architect. Nitai Aventaggiato is a serial entrepreneur and Helpmonks marks his sixth startup venture.
Helpmonks is like a “shared inbox” – all of the mails are available to search, manage and collaborate over from a central location. Nitai explains, “Keeping a team on the same page in regards to the company’s email communication is a challenging issue. There is no way to assign a task from a mail, set up a reminder, or track a customer’s mail history. If new members join your team they will not have access to email communications of the team prior to their set up date.”
Existing options are to either create a Google group or setup a shared inbox using Microsoft Exchange. Both solutions are really nothing other than creating a distributed mailing list. There is no reporting, no collaboration features and there are no personalization options. Using Helpmonks, you can embed notes in an email for the team or privately for yourself; these notes are never shared with customers. In addition, emails can be assigned to team members and have a reminder set to ensure it is brought back to your attention. There are plugins as well which allows further complex actions right from your inbox like being able to create a Github issue with one click.
About their Competitors
Helpmonks faces competiton from GrooveHQ and HelpScout. But while Helpmonks is a self-contained email solution that companies can directly implement, the competition’s product is more of a HelpDesk, says Nitai, “Many businesses have taken to HelpDesk solutions but that’s just yet another client to deal with. Helpmonks is not trying to make companies abandon their current email solution – it integrates with existing architecture and simply works in the background.”
Helpmonks can be used for internal teams, as well as for creating mailing lists, something that requires separate systems today.
About their Plans
Getting your startup recognized and getting the word out is one of the biggest challenges and requires a lot of our effort and attention. “I think this aspect is one of the most underrated tasks of being a startup. Right now our focus is on growing our user base as well as continually adding plugins.” We at Startup Dope recognize and promote great solutions like Helpmonks.
The service is targeted at SMBs and is available as a hosted solution (SaaS) with a choice of three subscription plans. Pricing starts at $49/month with their popular unlimited plan costing $199/month. For teams who only need one shared inbox there is also a free plan. Additionally, Helpmonks offers a managed dedicated server option and an unique option to deploy with on-premise subscription.
Special Offer!
Our readers can avail free 3 months of Helpmonks by using the promo code help3monks during sign up.
