

Review my startup: HelloFax, the easiest faxing service on the web - guiseppecalzone

www.hellofax.com<p>There are some huge online faxing players, like eFax, but we're trying to emphasize usability in a way that none of the other players are doing.<p>1. If you were making the ideal / online faxing startup, what would you do?<p>2. A different business model?
-The standard model is users pay a monthly X dollars for Y faxes, usually around $10 for 400 faxes.  But, these players lose out on lower volume customers who don't want to pay monthly rates
-Skype-style pre-charge with the option of a monthly rate for those who want a unique fax number.  20 cents a page. But, if a user spends $10 in one month, we give him/her a few hundred free pages for that month.
-What do you think?<p>3. What features would it take to get you or people you know to use it? 
-We're thinking about different "killer features" we could use to pull people in.<p>If you want to test hellofax, it comes with 3 pages automatically. But, ping me at joseph@hellofax.com and I'll give you more credit.<p>I really, really appreciate feedback.  Thanks for reading.
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briandoll
I love this idea. I keep asking friends about a reasonable online fax service,
and the only one that keeps coming up is eFax, which seems good for
businesses, doesn't seem to serve individuals well.

Most of us never need to send faxes, until we need do. When we need to deal
with faxing, it's likely related to some event. A job offer, housing
paperwork, refinancing, etc.

I would love the following two payment options:

\- $1-$5 to send a fax. This seems totally within reason. Driving to find
someplace with a fax, waiting in line, exposing your document to some clerk,
etc. The one-time fee gives me the service I want with no commitment.

\- $10-$20 for bigger faxing 'events'. I should be able to send unlimited
faxes (which in reality will be <10 but makes me feel better they are not
metered) AND have a temporary incoming fax number that I can receive faxes on,
which forward to an email address. This service could be available for 30
calendar days from the moment you buy.

Nail those two things and I think you've nailed the modern use cases for
faxing.

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guiseppecalzone
This comment is really, really helpful.

-We get the one off faxing market.

-But, we continue to pursue the business part of the market as well.

I was talking to my co-founder about having a free, advertised tier as well.
We don't do random adds. Rather, we do cover page which talks about hellofax.
Might be a good way to expand our user base. What do you think?

I appreciate the feedback!

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AlexBlom
I'm a fan. I'm from a niche market who need to receive faxes more than I send
them. I'd kill for a small, annual plan that just lets me receive without
signing up for monthly payments or attaching it to sending credits.

A la carte all the way. I'm unsure if competitors offer this.

Hope this helps.

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guiseppecalzone
Very helpful. Thank you!

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maccman
Useful startup. I had to send a fax recently to renew my SSL cert - and a lot
of your competition are sharks - trying to trick people into paying monthly
(and making those subscripts hard to cancel).

So, some practical advice:

* I would implement Amazon FPS. Your target audience is likely to have an Amazon account - so FPS would make it quick and easy to pay.

* I would keep the per-page model.

* I couldn't see an email-to-fax feature, but that would be a useful one.

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guiseppecalzone
Thanks for the advice. The monthly fees kept me from online faxing for a long
time.

-Definitely. For payment, we were thinking of pay pal, amazon, and google checkout.

-Email-to-fax feature. Great to hear. That's one of the features we have listed. We're just waited for comments like this one to implement it.

-Per-page model. \--->Out of curiosity, how much would you or other people be willing to pay per page?

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Zelphyr
I like it! I've had to use one of the other online faxing services a couple
times lately and a per-month fee was way too much for sending a whopping two
faxes.

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garyleib
I have been an eFax user for many years. I completely overpay for the service
(monthly charge) since I only send a receive faxes occasionally. Neverthless I
still need the service for the sending of fax from my computer and the
receiving of faxes into my computer. I no longer own a fax machine. I would
like to see a side by side chart comparison between your service and eFax to
help make a decision to switch.

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guiseppecalzone
Yeah, eFax is definitely on the pricey side. We only send faxes for the
moment. So, if you need to receive, you can stick with them. But, when we have
that feature, I'll let you know and make a side by side comparison with eFax.

I appreciate the feedback.

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chrisgoman
As far as pricing, you may have to do better.

Outgoing: I use greenfax.com for sending 7 cents per page, 5 cents per page
after with no setup fees.

For receiving, used Packetel for unlimited fax-to-email (PDF) for $3.95/mo,
they have since been acquired so now I use: Popfax $5.49/mo - unlimited
incoming

I suppose if it's easy to use on a web browser, it may not be too bad.

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guiseppecalzone
For greenfax.com, did you charge your account with $25? I can see why they
made it that high. Otherwise the transaction fees really eat into revenues.

Popfax: 5.49/month for unlimited receiving. That's not bad.

What would we be the model that would sway you to combine the service into
one? Is it mainly a money proposition or could we add value in another way
(Apple computer style ) that would make some extra money worth it?

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asimjalis
I use onesuite.com to receive faxes. They charge $1 per month and forward
received faxes by email. There is no per fax fee.

The thing they are missing is a way to send faxes. I usually go to Kinko's and
spend a dollar a page to send. I guess if I used it more I'd think about
optimizing.

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guiseppecalzone
Thanks for the feedback. Does that come with a unique phone number as well?

I'm curious, if you could change something to make onesuite into an awesome
fax service, what would it be?

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asimjalis
OneSuite doesn't let me send faxes. For receiving it seems to be fine. So if
they enabled sending that would make them awesome. Since they don't, next time
I have to send a fax I'll try HelloFax.

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JayZon
Check Onesuite fax page to see the fax feature with sending capability
<http://www.onesuite.com/products_OneSuiteFax.asp>

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paulsingh
I love this. I don't usually have to fax stuff but, when the need arises
(usually 4-5 times a year), this is how I'll send them.

I've used a few of the other online services before but canceling a monthly
plan was like pulling teeth. I love the idea of being able pay by the page.

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megamark16
I can't say enough how much I love your design. Super simple, super sleek,
just awesome.

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robert_mygengo
We were joking that we were going to try to pitch a fax-based startup to VCs
this year - just to see what their reaction would be.

Actually this is kind of cool though :)

I think if you keep it simple and convenient, it's nice.

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guiseppecalzone
Haha. With some VC cash in the pocket, we could really run fast with this.
But, something tells me this isn't up their alley :)

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meelisah
How much is your rates? Can you do a prepaid plan like Onesuite? Onesuite
rates is good for both medium and low volume users. Also how about sending
international fax?

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guiseppecalzone
Your account is one day old. Are you trolling?

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Qz
As for features, drag and drop to attach files ala GMail would be excellent
(if it doesn't already work).

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guiseppecalzone
Will write that down. Thank you.

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pw
Clickable:

<http://www.hellofax.com>

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reuel
when i signed up the password was in plaintext..

what are the country restrictions?

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guiseppecalzone
Thanks! We'll fix that.

So far, we only allow faxing to the US. But, if there is interest, we plan on
expanding to other countries.

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clammer
I use Grasshopper, but they can't send a fax. This looks like a service I was
looking for a couple of months ago, but couldn't find.

Everything wanted me to sign up for $5 a month or more. Or I could send one
fax for $3 dollars. I forget the exact numbers, but I remember being annoyed.

You are now bookmarked! Though, you'll be lucking to make $10 per year off me
given my limited faxing needs.

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guiseppecalzone
Thanks for the feedback! I'm a huge, huge fan of Grasshoper.

I have a quick question for you. We can make the service cheap, but credit
card transaction fees get expensive. If it were available, would you be
willing to pre-charge your account with $5 or $10? What would be your ideal
cost for faxing?

