--- title: The Email Startup Graveyard: Why 80%+ of Email Companies... description: Email startups have an 80%+ failure rate because they try to solve problems that don't exist. Most build UI layers on top of existing infrastructure rather... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/the-email-startup-graveyard-why-80-of-email-companies-fail-7aqfco3wm twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: The Email Startup Graveyard: Why 80%+ of Email Companies Fail | daily.dev og:description: Email startups have an 80%+ failure rate because they try to solve problems that don't exist. Most build UI layers on top of existing infrastructure rather... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/the-email-startup-graveyard-why-80-of-email-companies-fail-7aqfco3wm og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/7aQFcO3WM.png og:image:alt: The Email Startup Graveyard: Why 80%+ of Email Companies Fail og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # The Email Startup Graveyard: Why 80%+ of Email Companies Fail **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 23 min read · 13 upvotes · 3 comments ## Summary Email startups have an 80%+ failure rate because they try to solve problems that don't exist. Most build UI layers on top of existing infrastructure rather than actual email servers. Companies like Skiff, Sparrow, and Mailbox were acquired and shut down, while successful email businesses focus on infrastructure (SendGrid, Mailgun) or enhance existing workflows rather than replacing them. The core email protocols (SMTP, IMAP, POP3) work perfectly and have massive network effects that make replacement nearly impossible. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@harryphung** · 0 upvotes > I love VueJS! **@sab\_001** · 0 upvotes > Really liked the point about impact of the network effect - clearly one of the biggest moats that exist today, especially in the age of AI. --- Tags: [#startup](https://daily.dev/tags/startup), [#infrastructure](https://daily.dev/tags/infrastructure), [#venture-capital](https://daily.dev/tags/venture-capital) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/the-email-startup-graveyard-why-80-of-email-companies-fail-7aqfco3wm) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"The Email Startup Graveyard: Why 80%+ of Email Companies Fail","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-email-startup-graveyard-why-80-of-email-companies-fail-7aqfco3wm","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-email-startup-graveyard-why-80-of-email-companies-fail-7aqfco3wm"},"datePublished":"2025-07-01T05:52:09.458Z","dateModified":"2025-07-01T05:52:40.318Z","description":"Email startups have an 80%+ failure rate because they try to solve problems that don't exist. 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