How Mailbird Enhances Efficiency for Email Management

In this exclusive interview, we sit down with Michael Olsen, the CEO and CTO of Mailbird, a leading email management tool. Based in Copenhagen, Denmark, Michael is a seasoned entrepreneur with over a decade of experience. Co-founding Mailbird in 2012, he has leveraged his strong background in information technology, holding an Associate’s Degree in Datamatiker from Niels Brock. Michael shares his insights on email management, business strategy, growth, and the unique dynamics of running a remote-first company. Join us as we delve into the journey and vision behind Mailbird.

About Mailbird

Co-founders: Michael Olsen and Michael Bodekaer Jensen
Featured in: TechCrunch, Forbes, Bloomberg, The Verge, Inc., HuffPost

Mailbird is one of the most popular email management tools in the world, with more than four million downloads to date. It lets you bring all your email accounts onto one platform and manage all your inboxes in one place. With Mailbird, you can keep your personal and business emails separate but also manage them together and stay up-to-date on all messages.

What’s more, you can avoid app overload as Mailbird integrates with social media, productivity, and team collaboration apps such as Asana, ChatGPT, Google Calendar, WhatsApp, Slack, and Google Hangouts. Voted “the best email client for Windows” (PCWorld), Mailbird is just about to expand to Mac in October 2024. 

Inspiration Behind Mailbird

SBS – What inspired you to create Mailbird? How did you approach the initial stages of developing Mailbird?

Michael – As with most products, you get inspired by looking around and wondering if you could create something even better. In our case, it was an email client for Windows. My co-founder, Michael Bodekær, and I identified a gap in the market for a user-friendly, efficient, and integrated email client. We envisioned it specifically for Windows users, as there wasn’t any reliable solution of this kind on the market at the time. 

We were also influenced by the success and positive reception of Sparrow, an email client for OS X, later acquired by Google. Our goal was to create a similar experience for Windows users and help them save time by managing all their inboxes from one place.

As for the initial development stages, you want to get your product out there and test it as soon as possible, which is what we did. That initial feedback is vital to iterating and improving your product, so get it in front of people early. You need their insights. Don’t worry if things aren’t perfect; you can always enhance them later and see how you can implement your users’ suggestions.

Early Development Challenges

SBS – Can you describe a significant challenge you faced in the early days and how you overcame it?

Michael – Mailbird was built from the ground up, so we didn’t have any legacy code to contend with, which made things go pretty smoothly in general. However, we did run into a bit of a challenge when it came to integrating a third-party browser for displaying and editing emails.

After some research and experimentation, we opted to use Awesomium, a .NET wrapper on top of Google’s open-source Chromium project, the one that also drives Chrome. We went with this approach, since building our own browser in addition to an email client would have been very time-consuming and unnecessary when there was a great alternative out there.

But, since Awesomium (and Chromium under it) was primarily built to display web pages, we ran into various issues when trying to make it work with emails. Editing emails, especially, was a challenge. Also, getting it to play nice with multiple emails and windows open at the same time, potentially switching between them quickly, dragging and dropping attachments, etc., was a challenge.

The way we solved it was how you solve most big challenges, though — by splitting them up into manageable chunks and then solving them one by one until you’re done. Otherwise, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and frustrated.

Core Business Values

SBS – What are the core values that drive Mailbird’s business strategy?

Michael – The number one value that drives our business strategy is a focus on our customers. When we first developed Mailbird, we asked ourselves: What would they most appreciate in a product like this? Twelve years later, we still try to see our platform from our customers’ vantage point so we can continue to improve. 

This mindset has allowed us to build a user-centric product offering relevant features that make people’s lives easier. That’s the end goal. We value innovation and quality over quantity. So, instead of adding lots of bells and whistles to Mailbird, we worked hard to perfect several features that make the most sense to our daily users.

As a tech startup, we also need to be agile and responsive to a fast-changing market. To give you an example, aside from pre-made, custom email templates you can reuse, Mailbird also integrates AI to help you save time and energy on writing emails. 

Effective Growth Strategies

SBS – What strategies have been most effective in growing Mailbird’s user base?

Michael – Word-of-mouth has been one of the most effective strategies in growing our user base. It may sound simple, but it takes a lot of team effort to earn positive reviews and organic adoption. This ties back to our core value, which is creating a product that’s truly relevant to people by solving a challenge they face. 

Another area we’ve invested effort in has been SEO, and it’s played a vital role in our growth. Putting out useful content and focusing on PR, especially in our first years, helped us gain awareness and new users. I believe that educational content, along with other inbound marketing initiatives, is still the way to go if you want to stand out in your niche.

Finally, our entire team believes in testing everything. We’ve run hundreds of tests for our product to understand how we can better serve our audience — and win them over.

Staying Competitive in the Market

SBS – How do you ensure Mailbird remains competitive in the evolving email management market?

Michael – Making data-driven decisions has been a healthy approach to ensure we stay competitive in our market. Sometimes you can have a gut feeling about the direction you’re supposed to take with your product. But in business, analyzing data gives you more realistic and practical insights.

We regularly review data we collect through SEO, in-app actions, retention and conversion rates, and A/B testing. We don’t collect personal data, but over the years, we’ve studied our users’ behavior and preferences to understand what they most like and need. 

Thus we know what features to prioritize— otherwise, we’d be diluting our efforts. We get feature requests and suggestions from so many people, and we used to feel this pressure of trying to make everyone happy. But because we look at our data, we know that the decisions we make at a particular moment are right for our customers as well as for our business. 

Key Partnerships and Integrations

SBS – Can you discuss any key partnerships or integrations that have significantly benefited Mailbird?

Michael – The integrations that benefit us the most are actually the ones that benefit our users the most. Aside from being able to bring all their inboxes into one single platform, our users can further streamline their day-to-day by integrating their favorite apps into Mailbird.

Our platform integrates with a variety of popular apps like Google Calendar and Docs, Slack, Dropbox, Evernote, and even social media channels like Facebook and X. 

I don’t think I’m the only one feeling overwhelmed by being on so many apps at the same time. Each solves a challenge or fulfills a need, so it’s great that we have them, but it’s so much easier to manage them from one place. It saves our customers a lot of time and energy. 

Our most successful and long-lasting partnership has been with ZeroBounce, the email validation platform. Our services are complementary, and our vibe and culture are very much alike, so it was a perfect match for both our products and our teams. We’ve collaborated on numerous co-marketing initiatives that were a win-win, and it’s a relationship we continue to cherish.

Read also: How ZeroBounce Helps You Find Valid Emails

Advantages of Remote-First Approach

SBS – What are the advantages of Mailbird being a remote-first company?

Michael – Mailbird has been remote from the first day we launched, in 2012, before remote work was “normal” and way before all of those great applications came out that help remote companies work efficiently and stay productive. 

From the beginning, my partner and I strongly believed in the advantages of working remotely. Ironically, some of the examples below also pose challenges, but we make it work:

• International talent pool — Running a remote company means you’re not limited by the geographical location of your perfect candidate. The entire world is your talent pool, which I find amazing. At the same time, learning how to reach those talents was a big challenge. Over the years, it’s become a lot easier, though.
• Higher-quality customer support — The quality of customer support is vital for a tech business like ours. Working with people from all over the world allows us to cover different time zones. This also means we always have support available in case of any issues with our website or app. 
• No physical office expenses — One obvious advantage is that we have no business expenses in relation to office space and utilities. We’ve been investing those resources into product development and the team instead.
• Increased productivity — This is a point some companies wouldn’t agree with, especially in the context of so many return-to-office mandates in tech. However, we found that our remote setup, for the most part, has worked in our favor in terms of productivity. Our team gets to set their work schedule. They choose the time of the day they feel most productive. While we have meetings scheduled and some team members who need to work at specific times, we don’t have any requirements for a “core” time that everyone needs to be online. The challenge that would also be the main argument against this setup is two-fold. First, not everyone is suitable to work remotely or without any given times they need to be working. This is not a bad thing, but it’s important to find out during the hiring process how a future team member can adapt. Second, for this setup to work, we focus on setting the right objectives and goals for each team. This way, they know exactly what’s required of them and when. We trust them to set up their schedule accordingly. This sounds very straightforward in theory, but it can be a process.
• More diverse hiring — One last but very important advantage we see more and more is that our hiring approach can be much more diverse and barrier-free. Many factors that may impact a candidate’s hiring chance do not apply to us. Some examples from our team are parents needing to work around their children’s schedules.

Fostering Remote Workplace Culture

SBS – How do you foster a positive workplace culture in a remote setting?

Michael – It’s always a work in progress, but we strive to foster a positive culture by: 

• Being communicative and responsive on our communication tool (Slack). The way we communicate every day really impacts our overall company culture. 
• Having a safe space for positive and constructive feedback. Our HR manager, Milana, created an insightful guide to help us understand how our team best gives and receives feedback. This can be a challenge within companies as feedback can be perceived and given differently depending on cultural backgrounds. 
• Hiring people that fit into our existing culture — we have specific cultural fit interviews with all candidates.
• Regular all-team meetings.
• Gaming sessions for the team. Our HR manager is really on top of making sure we give the team the option to meet in a casual setting. She organizes regular exploding kittens games, an online escape room, and other fun gaming sessions for us. 
• Regular well-being surveys on topics we can use to understand whether our team culture is genuinely healthy.
• Making sure people are happy and motivated at work. We offer generous paid vacation days, check in to see how people are doing, and make sure they still feel motivated to work at Mailbird. A great source of motivation is feeling that they’re still growing within their role.
• Communicating Mailbird’s purpose and goals. This is in the works as we want to be more transparent in this regard. Doing so would allow people to feel more aligned with our overall business goals and continue to contribute to the team culture.

Engaging Remote Teams

SBS – What are some strategies you use to keep your remote team engaged and productive?

Michael – I think we’ve had an advantage here as Mailbird has always been remote, so we’ve had many years to perfect these strategies. Here are some of the things that work best for our team:

• Encouraging a healthy balance between work and personal life. The more you find that balance, the more productive you are. 
• Being open to change. We have to constantly evolve and improve as the industry and everything around us is changing, too. 
• Milana regularly organizes team-wide initiatives that serve to connect us and get us to engage more with each other. Usually, these involve sharing pictures and personal stories or notes on Slack or running fun picture competitions.
• We also have a “unicorn” point system that we use to give shout-outs to team members for great engagement and productivity. Each of us has a certain number of “unicorn” points that we can send to other team members throughout the month. Then, our employees can redeem those points as a cash reward, Amazon vouchers, or donations to a cause they believe in. 
• Being transparent about our evolving platform. Of course, not everyone can be involved in everything, but being transparent with a lot of the projects and asking for feedback fosters engagement and motivation within the team. People get excited to work on those projects when they can envision the positive impact it will have on our customers. 
• Removing the time tracking tool we used in the past. Our engagement and productivity went up!

Future of Remote Work

SBS – How do you see the future of remote work evolving, and how is Mailbird adapting to these changes?

Michael – For some roles, it seems to be harder to find people who are willing to dedicate their efforts and time to just one company. Within those specific roles, people tend to take on more outside projects. This, of course, impacts their work quality and output at a company. 

We’re trying to adapt to these changes by finding the right candidates and by making sure our goals and objectives are clear and that everyone is aligned. As long as people are achieving goals, their other projects aren’t a problem for us. 

Advice for Tech Entrepreneurs

SBS – What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs looking to start a tech company?

Michael – First, don’t overthink it. I’m a perfectionist and love it when I’m able to release a project into the world that I know is in excellent shape. But in tech — as well as in other industries — things can be a bit messy in the early stages. Try to find joy and contentment in that initial “chaos,” as in those early days, you’ll also find a lot of clarity and purpose. 

Next, measure everything from the beginning. Tech companies can be stretched so thin at first. You don’t want to spend your energy and resources on efforts that don’t propel you forward. So analyze your results, see what performs best, and double down on that. 

Also, avoid putting 99% of your efforts into something that makes 1% of your users happy. Accept that there will always be someone who’s going to be unhappy about a decision you make. Be ok with that.

Finally, complaints will always be louder than appraisals. Don’t let that discourage you. Take the time to celebrate your small achievements and then take the next step. 

Managing Work-Life Balance

SBS – How do you manage work-life balance, and what practices do you recommend for remote workers?

Michael – The one thing I prioritize is regular exercise. I’ve been playing badminton for 20 years and I also enjoy soccer, inline skating, and tennis. During COVID, I even learned to use an electric skateboard and ride an EUC (electric unicycle). This variety makes things more fun, so I’m more likely to get out there and move. For me, it’s a vital source of energy and positivity, which reflects so much in my work. 

The food we eat can also make such a difference in our day. While I do eat non-red meat occasionally, I mostly choose fish and try to eat as much fresh food as possible. 

Making time for other things we enjoy outside of work is also high on my list. You go back to your desk with more enthusiasm after you had coffee or lunch with a friend or with your family. 

Upcoming Mailbird Features

SBS – What are some upcoming features or developments for Mailbird that you’re excited about?

Michael – Last October, we released a big update to our Mailbird for Windows product and more features are coming soon.

Some of these features have been customer suggestions, and I can’t wait for everyone to enjoy them:

1. AI replies — This is a pretty cool feature. Based on previous replies, Mailbird’s AI tool can suggest a contextual answer. Combined with some of our existing features, like Unified Inbox and Email Templates, AI replies can enhance your email management flow and productivity.
2. Inbox categories — Based on multiple surveys and other (non-personal) data, we found that many users enjoy the categories they know from their web-based email inbox — Gmail. That’s why we’re planning to add inbox categories to Mailbird for Windows, too. It can save people a lot of time as it automatically sorts emails based on categories, like your primary inbox and promotions inbox. Right now, you can have a similar experience with our filters and rules. 
3. Advanced email signatures — We already have email signatures available in Mailbird. I can’t share too many specific details yet, but the advanced feature will be a great improvement to the existing one.

Another new product that’s on the way and that our entire team is working tirelessly on is Mailbird for Mac. We’re so stoked to present it to the world in October this year! While it’s more light-featured than our Mailbird for Windows version, Mac users will find similar (or the same) core functionalities in both our products. Some of them are Unified Inbox, Email Tracking, Folders, Advanced Search, and Signatures, to mention just a few.