

Cloud Printing and Shipping Service Lob (YC S13) Raises $2.4M Seed Round - harryzhang
http://techcrunch.com/2013/11/04/cloud-printing-shipping-service-lob-raises-2-4-million-seed-round/

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waterside81
For those who use this service, which part of it appeals the most? Is it
removing the hassle of finding a printer? Is it the API part? Is it the
shipping/logistics aspect?

I ask because Lob is a generalized version of what we
([http://www.littleheroes.com](http://www.littleheroes.com)) do every day.

I never considered our platform to be a service unto itself so I'm curious
which aspects in particular resonate with people.

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earless1
We don't currently use Lob, but we use a service like it and for us it's the
printing and mailing functionality that makes it appealing. Giving our
customers the ability to send things like invoices directly to their customers
from the application is a feature that gets lots of utilization.

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aonic
What service do you use? Does it also have an API?

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earless1
[https://www.trypaper.com/](https://www.trypaper.com/)

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generj
I love the concept of Lob, especially the CDN for mail.

I do wish the processing time was much lower. 2-3 days is quite a lot of time
to wait on-top of the already slow USPS delivery.

"All printing is processed typically within 2-3 business days then mailed
right after." [https://www.lob.com/docs](https://www.lob.com/docs)

Is there a reason the processing time is so long? I understand Lob relies on
other parties to print and send the mail.

Ideally there would be same-day printing - I submit a job at 9am and it is
printed and in USPS's system by 5pm. Combined with the CDN printing & mailing
close to the destination, the mail should then arrive within 2 days of the job
submission.

EDIT: And congrats to the Lob team! You guys are solving a real pain-point,
and it won't be long until you've moved from $1 million in checks to $1
billion.

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rebel
From my experience they have processed same-day or next day, although YMMV.

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generj
Which is great, but I can't build an app on that.

What I'd really like is a delivery estimate API, so I could stagger job
submission to ensure an entire batch ended up in my user's hands on the same
day.

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rebel
Agreed, if your use case requires precise delivery times then it won't work. I
also would love a delivery estimate API, I wonder if they could make that
happen.

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waterside81
They should be able to. All major shipping companies' API provides an estimate
for delivery. So it's a matter of adding up the estimate days with the
printing lead time and returning that (along with a disclaimer!)

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DenisM
So I just googled "print photo api", and found a while bunch of similar
things, like [http://www.pwinty.com/](http://www.pwinty.com/)

Is Lob different?

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j0ncc
Huge fan of this company. Great job guys!

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aefeuer
Congrats guys! We've loved using Lob, and really exciting to see everything
taking off!

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nemesisj
I'm hopeful this means they can start offering their services in the UK! We'd
love to integrate this in our app.

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rebel
Congrats Leore and team! So far my experience with Lob has been fantastic.
Can't wait to see what's next.

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fudged71
Congrats! Cloud printing is a huge market. We're doing something very similar
with 3D printing.

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aelaguiz
Nice work Harry & Leore

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gfodor
Congrats guys!

