

Netflix-style Start-up Scans, Digitizes, and, if Needed, Shreds Your Files - breck
http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2008/07/20/is_paper_piling_up_send_it_off_to_pixily/?page=full

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mechanical_fish
_Pixily has economized by building the entire website atop Amazon.com's Web
services infrastructure..._

Dateline on this article: This morning, just in time for Amazon S3's eight
hours of downtime.

I wonder if a PR person is being talked off a ledge right about now.

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jonknee
<http://www.earthclassmail.com/> does a similar thing, but a bit more hardcore
(your mail goes to them first). They are featured in a TV show called Startup
Junkies on MoJo HD. <http://www.mojohd.com/mojoseries/startupjunkies/>

I like this method though, at least as a choice, since I can keep my address.
I wouldn't be interested in joining until I can just return back the documents
I want (most likely very few). Perhaps eschewing returns could get me another
envelope to send stuff in?

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code_devil
The first thought that goes through my mind is that the employees scanning the
docs will be able to read the docs. So I am guessing, you will only mail
documents which you don't consider private.

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modoc
From their security page:

"All the mailed in documents are scanned in Pixily facilities located in USA.
All the authorized personnel who scan your documents go through necessary
background checks. Under normal load circumstances all the documents you mail
are scanned and sent back to you the within 2 working days."

Doesn't seem any more risky than IronMountain, the local garbage/recycling
company, or anyone else taking your documents.

And honestly, especially now that they're in startup mode, the staff is likely
to have equity and be real believers in the business. They are much better off
building the business and not snooping on some of the thousands of incoming
sheets. I'm sure they drop a stack into a sheet feeder, and drop them into an
out-going envelope when they're spit out.

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martinflack
Did anyone else slap their forehead and go why didn't I think of that? I've
got an office full of paper...

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modoc
I'm totally going to make use of this service. I have a file cabinet full of
old documents I need to keep around. I meant to scan them all into PDF myself,
but I have a slow flat-bed scanner which makes it too painful. This looks to
be a life-saver.

Searchable PDFs + OS X Spotlight (or any comparable search) is a dream combo.

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pchristensen
This awesome! I've been meaning to do this myself (not as a business, just for
my own docs) for about . . . 10 years or so, but it sounded so boring. I'm
pretty sure I'll send off some of those green envelopes!

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jauco
[http://www.43folders.com/2007/10/23/fujitsu-scansnap-
workflo...](http://www.43folders.com/2007/10/23/fujitsu-scansnap-workflow)

I guess it's a lot cheaper, faster and more secure in the long run.

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mechanical_fish
A Scansnap is $400 or so, equivalent to about 2 years of Pixily. That doesn't
count the labor cost of scanning and organizing the docs yourself - given that
this is Pixily's core business, they probably have decent defaults for that.

Obviously, if you have five file drawers to plow through you might want a
Scansnap, at least for a while. But the beauty of Pixily is that you can _test
drive_ the concept first by paying _a la carte_ , then use Pixily for
maintenance after finishing your initial scanning run and selling your
Scansnap on eBay.

