The Salt Lake Tribune has an article on Sendside that includes a shot of the Wall of Shame.

From the article: They call it the "Wall of Shame" - those hundreds of pieces of mail, bills, statements, legal documents and faxes pinned to the walls of the offices at Sendside Networks. It is the shame of the waste of paper and the clutter it created, but perhaps most of all, it is the inconvenience and cost that it represents.
    For the Midvale company, the wall also presented a business opportunity, a chance to address the issue with a new way of doing e-mail, a way that promises secure communications for businesses and individuals.
    For banks, credit card companies, health care providers, law firms or any company that relies on paper statements, bills and sensitive documents sent by mail, carrier, overnight or fax, Sendside says it has a solution that guarantees security and can dramatically lower costs.
    "We're a potentially disruptive technology," said William Borghetti, founder and CEO, about the company's impact on the U.S. Postal Service and companies such as FedEx and United Parcel Service. 

Of course, we're not in Midvale, but we are disruptive. Sendside is jumping the curve away from paper documents, delivery, filing, storage, to a virtual network where every user is identified and all content and delivery is secure.

WIth the 30th anniversary of the first spam message, it seems that there's a never-ending supply of stories that show the ineffectiveness and shortcomings of the public email system.

BBC: Spam - the scourge of every e-mail inbox - celebrates its 30th anniversary this weekend.

The first recognisable e-mail marketing message was sent on 3 May, 1978 to 400 people on behalf of DEC - a now-defunct computer-maker.

The message was sent via Arpanet - the internet's forerunner - and won its sender much criticism from recipients.

Thirty years on, spam has grown into an underground industry that sends out billions of messages every day.

 Of course these stories about email will never end since the shortcomings of SMTP can't be overcome inside of the current open and completely anonymous system. So spam and spam filtering of email messages will continue to be an ongoing arms race between security companies who try to isolate and filter email messages (after they're already in your inbox) and the spammers, who are increasingly sophisticated and who are now employing sophisticated techniques that can even target email recipients on an individual level.

The inadequacies of email won't, and indeed can't be solved inside the current system of SMTP. A new paradigm is needed to jump the curve and address the real needs of both businesses and individuals. A system where spam and malware is stopped on the sending side rather that trying to filter the spam after it's already in the inbox.

Fortunately, that system's now here, and it's free for individuals.

Sendside Networks has been chosen by Red Herring's editorial team as one of the top 100 most promising startups in North America.

Via Red Herring: 

"For over 10 years, the Red Herring editorial team has diligently surveyed entrepreneurship around the globe. Technology industry executives, investors, and observers have regarded the Red Herring 100 lists as an invaluable instrument to discover and advocate the promising startups that will lead the next wave of disruption and innovation.

Past award winners include Google, Yahoo!, Skype, Netscape, Salesforce.com, and YouTube."

 Via Podtech:

"William Borghetti, founder and CEO of Sendside Networks, is no stranger to big ideas–he sold his last startup, Campus Pipeline, to Sungard after automating inefficient “stand-in-line” processes at Universities. Now, in the same way FedEx revolutionized traditional mail with overnight delivery, Sendside Networks aims to provide an entirely new way for individuals and organizations to interact and transact electronically. Borghetti and team see a future where businesses replace paper, postage, and delivery time. Instead Borghetti expects businesses to offer an exchange of rich, interactive messages, documents, even full-blown web applications in a trusted messaging environment free of spam, fraud, and phishing scams.

Borghetti’s shares the story with Brad Baldwin from Rocky Mountain Voices and explains why Sendside created an entirely new technology offering for sensitive and confidential communication. Sendside believes SMTP and “bolt-on” solutions (like encryption) just can’t extend SMTP’s life. To protect its vision, Sendside created an IP arsenal filing 16 patents.

Want to send or receive secure messages with complete tracking and guaranteed retraction–even after someone opens it? Sendside Networks opens for public sign-up April 3, 2008."

The open house we hosted on the 3rd was a fantastic success with close to 200 individuals showing up to see some of what Sendside can do.

 

Our development team was on hand to field specific technical questions about encryption, data storage, traffic and the like while others of us addressed adoption and ease of use. The ease of the eSignature tool and the easy document handling were features that garnered tremendous interest along with the security and sender controls. (The ability to send self-destructing messages and recall a message after it's been sent were also eye-opening for many.)

Perhaps the most common question I was asked was, "When can I have it?".

Our roll-out of Sendside Business Edition begins shortly. If you're interested in arranging a demo to discover what all the hubbub's about, contact us here and we'll be happy to show you.

When: Thursday, April 3rd, 5:00 pm - 7:30 pm

Where: 6440 South Millrock Drive, Suite 190, SLC UT 84121

> Google Map of Sendside's new location

Sendside's technology has the potential to forever change how individuals, companies and their customers communicate and interact online. And after nearly two years in development, it's ready for its premier.

On Thursday, April 3rd we're hosting our own coming out party and you're personally invited.

Sendside's startup team, investors, users, partners, and everyone we know will be there. If you're interested in networking, technology, partnerships, understanding how Sendside is going to revolutionize human communications online, or just looking for some free finger-food, you're invited to stop by and kick our tires.

 

New Carpet. . . Fresh Paint. . . Covered Parking. . .

Those who understand the Sendside culture will think we chose our new office space for its proximity to the Cottonwood Canyons and the deep snow at Snowbird and Alta. And while our new location certainly makes it easier to ski early and still be in the office by lunchtime, the real reason is a bit more practical.

We simply outgrew the old digs. In just over a year, we’ve more than tripled in size, building a powerful roster of FTEs, board members, advisors, contractors and developers.

 So while we miss our old class C space (not really), and we’re enjoying the new carpet, the smell of fresh paint and covered parking. . .we’re already working on locking down a larger space to accommodate our growth…and yes, it’s even closer to great skiing.

…when it comes to personal, confidential, and or important information.

On the surface this sounds preposterous but, when you really think about it, how many of your bank statements, health insurance information, EOBs (those wasteful one-page notices that are sent out informing you that you, or someone in your family, just went to see the doctor) credit card statements, financial updates, invoices, contracts and other legal documents actually arrive in your email inbox? If you’re like 99% of the connected world, practically none. This type of information does, however, get delivered by the truckload via your mailbox. It amazes me that, given how constantly connected we all are, that we continue to get as much mail as we get.

There are two primary reasons for this.

The public email system, which uses SMTP has its foundation, is not secure and is easily forged, manipulated and lacks the functionality to make it an appropriate delivery method for personal or confidential material. This is not to say that getting something delivered via the US Mail is secure (my stuff gets delivered to my neighbor on a weekly basis). So in an effort to make old-fashioned email more secure, a plethora of new companies have emerged that offer complicated and cumbersome ways to encrypt, and eventually decrypt, plain old boring text. Although secure email companies have found a nice niche protecting email communications from a parent company to a subsidiary or, from an organization to a vendor or supplier, it’s just too much of a pain to go through for the customer (which, ironically, is the person you REALLY need to communicate with securely). Secure email solutions are all unique, one-off solutions that offer the end-user the benefit of aggregation. Which, of course, means that all the trouble you just went through to communicate securely with your bank, is not going to work with your insurance company, your credit card company, your law firm, accountant, employer, etc.

The other primary reason we continue to have all this stuff delivered is convenience. Who wants to login to 10 websites every morning just to receive messages and retrieve documents? And just think of the organizations that are chomping at the bit to get you to go to them (and login, of course). I don’t know about you but logging into my phone company, utility company, health insurance provider, etc., just isn’t very compelling or respectful of my time. And, logging into to some organization’s website to retrieve a message or document is, technically speaking, still a one-way activity.

To submit your name for our Beta, take a second and fill out this 16 second form.

Due to the number of requests we're receiving, we may have to limit membership for a short time. If you think someone you know would also like to be included, now's the time.

Trust. Control. Empowerment. 

Welcome to the Sendside.

 

 

Power to the Sender!
Utah Company Builds a Better Email
By Pamela Ostermiller, Digital IQ Story

Down a meandering hallway diffused with fluorescent lighting, in a squat two-story 1980s office complex like the one where your dentist works, is the door to Sendside Networks, Inc. Through that door you won’t find a sleek reception desk, a backlit logo, modern art, or anything else that says, “Welcome to a cutting-edge corporation, to the offices of a company that is changing the way you do business!” Rather, guests are greeted by…The Wall of Shame. Not papered with finger-pointing posters nagging you to quit smoking or gambling or visiting certain unsavory Websites – no – the red-faced source of this wall is mail. Ordinary U.S. mail and envelopes from FedEx and the like. From ceiling to baseboard, a crate’s worth of catalogs and cardboard dangles from tacks like scarlet letters.

“Our wall of shame is merely a two-week example of mail we’ve received here in the office,” says William Borghetti, CEO of Sendside. It is all mail that the company wants to be sent via the Internet and the “channel” Sendside is creating, a new category of electronic communication that promises to be highly secure, interactive and productive.

Imagine a week (or month) of your mail or, to save time, let’s talk about mine: Numerous statements from credit cards and banks. Reports and updates from my financial advisor and mutual funds. A delightful, lengthy exchange with the Veterans’ Administration over a relative’s benefits, requiring copiers and additional machinery. Queries from an insurance company that demand written responses.

Now picture all of this happening online, safely, without a hitch, knowing you received, they received – done and done. Envision a secure portal to interact and transact with all of these individuals and institutions – folks of your choosing whom you know and trust – through which you can accept, sign and return large documents. View statements and make payments without additional passwords and the click-click-click of following link after link or logging in to other Websites. Attach e-signed power of attorney papers and shoot them to the federal government and know they were recieved without interception. This is what Sendside Networks is creating – a gigantic, secure pneumatic tube from you to your sources and back.

Sendside’s network isn’t designed for all mail, but for the “layers that matter,” says Geoff Kahler, the company’s VP of marketing and sales. It’s not for protecting pictures of your pet fish and sharing with everyone on your mailing list. “Will the network entirely replace traditional email?” Kahler asks. “Not in the short term. It’s more likely to become an immediate replacement for paper-based communication,” a way to avoid the mailbox and the FedEx guy, saving billions in paper and mailing costs, including losses due to fraud, scams and lost productivity.

The idea for Sendside Networks, Inc. was hatched a couple of years ago, when, Borghetti says, “the light bulb came on for us” while going through mail and paying bills. “You may log onto your bank…so the bank has that going for it, in that you will initiate the self-service mode, but no one wants to log into the County of Salt Lake. No one wants to log into their accountant’s Web service, or lawyer’s.”

Borghetti continues, “Overall, [Sendside] is a way of restoring a two-way balance to communication in many respects. The organizations we’re talking to – not just banks, but credit card companies, insurance companies, law firms – they want to be able to send confidential information quickly, easily, cost-effectively. And the only way to do that is FedEx, U.S. Mail or the online ‘come and get it’ method, meaning there’s something important for you but you’ve got to log in and get it.”

The “come and get it” method of delivery of information – an email from your bank notifying you that your new statement is available when you click your mouse twice and type the magic words – is where a lot of time on the Web is wasted. Yes, the fact that we can pay bills online, securely, is more than we could do a decade ago, but has email and secure communication really come that far? Borghetti says no. “The world today, electronically, is a frenetic work-around to email’s shortcomings. Email encryption is a classic example of bolting on something that should be scrambled and non-viewable in transit anyways.” 

Email, or really the Internet, promised a lot of things in the beginning. Weren’t we going to save billions of trees back then because we wouldn’t be needing pesky old printers anymore, or moth-eaten books? It’s more likely (hasn’t someone out there done a study?) that we’re now able to work and produce and waste paper more rapidly than ever. Who doesn’t still subscribe to the Sunday paper, just because it feels good to open and flip and fold up each section when finished? But no one enjoys reading a financial statement (maybe some people do) or legal contracts over a cup of coffee. These are items we want to deal with as quickly, securely and professionally as possible and this is what Sendside is all about.

“We’re often misunderstood,” says Borghetti. “Is this a security thing? Is this an encryption company? What is Sendside Networks? It’s really none of those things. The heart of Sendside is being a trusted network providing the technology to allow organizations to connect to each other but also to connect to individuals. It’s not just secure email. There are a lot of secure email solutions out there, but they’re a pain in the butt for the consumer. We are creating a multi-faceted way of presenting information that is unique and novel and had never been done before.”

As founder of other technology-based companies including Campus Pipeline, a Web platform for universities that Borghetti started in his garage, the man is no stranger to new territory or the state’s start-up scene.

Jeff Barson, founder of Surface Medical, entrepreneur, networker of CEOs, blogger and “Chief Evangelist” for Sendside (according to his LinkedIn profile) writes, “William seems to be the group’s entrepreneur in residence and I find myself agreeing with him completely regarding his views with the state of startups in Utah. While it takes only a small amount of wine [to] get William’s views of the Utah capital markets and the way they work, I couldn’t agree more…William’s also philosophically inclined to give back, which I find refreshing. He’s got some good policies including buy-me-lunch-and-I’ll-tell-you-stuff, and no-need-to-call-in-on-powder-days.”

Still in the audit phase, Sendside Networks is up and running today and offering three products or levels of service. The first is Sendside.com, designed for individuals and available free of charge but by invitation only. Sendside Professional was developed for small- and medium-sized businesses, and for large organizations with millions of customers, there is Sendside Enterprise.

And while pricing for the professional versions is yet to be determined, Kahler says it will be a “no-brainer, approachable” alternative to the costs of regular mail and courier/shipping services. “We have an organization in California that needs to distribute quarterly updates to contracts to 850 providers at a cost of probably $25 per FedEx and usually the guy on the other side is sending a FedEx back with the signed contract, so they have a paper copy that they can shove in a file,” he says. “Why not give that organization a license, if you will, to send as much information as they want to that organization, quarterly updates, etc. for $25 a year, per customer? We’ve reduced their costs by 75 percent.”

Now, that would inspire a significant clearing of anyone’s wall of shame. In Sendside’s case, their wall may be disappearing altogether, unless someone plans to reinstall it in the company’s new modern office space in the East Cottonwood area of Salt Lake City.