A Conversation with Hop’s Erez Pilosof & Guy Gamzu – HuffPost 6.11.14
Mike Ragogna: Erez and Guy, let’s start off by going into what exactly the service is that your company provides.
Erez Pilosof: Hop makes your regular email effortless and natural – just like real conversation. It connects to your existing email service and automatically show all your messages by people and brands. Hop also makes sure your email works for you – rather than the other way around. So it sorts your incoming mail into active conversations and everything else. This way, friends and colleagues stay in your line of sight, while less-important emails stay in the background so you can focus on the messages that matter.
Guy Gamzu: The first email was sent in 1971. Today, 43 years later, the email is probably the only means of communication that everyone still uses. While email is an open and robust platform, very little has changed in the way we use it. We process email much like we go over our physical mail. Hop mission is to help people communicate better and we decided to start by disrupting email. Hop gives 2.5B email users a modern communication tool. It has everything you love about instant messaging, group chatting, photo sharing, voice and video communications all built into one slick app that sits on top of your regular email address. Hop will forever change the way you think and do your communication.
MR: What are the practical effects of not having threads and administrators and who would benefit most from Hop Groups?
EP: By not having the traditional old threads and administrators you reduce friction and complexity. Current email communication can be very formal and tedious. It is based on its predecessor – the old paradigm of letter communication – subject lines, from, to, cc, folders, etc. What good does it serve? Why do we need to converse using artificial hierarchies and formalities? Do we really communicate like that with people? is it natural? Groups is where email becomes real collaboration.
GG: The question should actually be, “What is the benefit of having a thread administrator?Anyone can join and leave from the group exactly like any email thread with multiple participants. We believe in simplicity. Unnecessary administration layers mean complexity. Hop is focused on enabling your conversations – friends & family, fitness & sports teams, education and study groups, lifestyle & points of interest (like design, art, cooking, etc), event driven groups (wedding, trip), and of course – business & working groups (like a product team, management, partners). Our imagination can only scratch the surface of all those amazing uses people will make with email groups. Remember, since it is based on email – the only requirement to join, read, post and be a group member – is to have an email address! I don’t think I know anyone who doesn’t have one.
MR: Is there anything similar to this on the market and are there additional services you offer that compliment Hop Groups?
GG: That’s the first time a consumer product lets anyone create and use email groups. And people love using groups. This trend is clearly seen with the ubiquitous use of digital groups through instant messaging applications (Whatsapp, Kik, Telegram) and social networks (Facebook, Linkedin).
The problem with those platforms is that they are closed. You must be a member of the service to be a member of the group. Why? If I want to communicate with my running team – why do I have to expose myself on Facebook? Why should I give out my personal phone number and become a Whatsapp user? Why should I force other members to do so?
Email is open and everyone has it. It is the only platform where you really own your information. Everything is stored and you can easily search and find anything you need.
Hop leverages the power of email and actually lets you create your group using a brilliantly simple way. In seconds, you, your colleagues & friends can kick off a discussion that anyone can easily follow.
EP: By design, Hop runs email at the speed of instant messages. When you Hop, threads turn into back and forth, real-time conversations without all the old-school subject lines, signatures and faux-letter formality. Hop groups automatically generates a unique web link to every group, so group members that do not use Hop can easily experience the the entire group timeline too. Hop is designed for creativity. It has built-in tools for drawing, taking photos, making videos and recording audio. It lets you integrate files and documents from Dropbox and Gdrive – so it’s easy to share with the group anything – right from the app.
MR: What is the history of the company and how far back does your partnership go, and how and when did you meet?
EP: Hop is a young startup. I started working on Hop a year and a half ago as I was totally frustrated from my own email experience. I decided to code something and see if I can fix it. I met Guy a while ago when I was working on something else. I actually liked the way he said no. Guy is a renowned angel investor in the Israeli tech scene, and when I showed him Hop – he immediately joined as a co founder and an investor.
GG: Erez is a serial entrepreneur. He was the founder of Walla! – the Israeli “Yahoo” – 20 years ago. He also happens to be the most talented person I have ever met. When Erez called me one morning to show me “something new” – I expected to see something amazing. But when I saw the prototype – I was really astonished. I couldn’t wait putting my own email into this magical App. We instantly realized that this is something we must build and share with everyone.
MR: Is there any service out there similar to yours and from your perspective, what are the differences?
EP: We are not aware of such service for email communication,but at the same time we do not restrict our service to the conventions of email communication. Groups is only the first example to what we can do with email. We have many more surprises to share in the future.
MR: How do you see the company and Hop Groups expanding or evolving in the future?
GG: We see ourselves as a modern communication company rather than a pure email App. Our product roadmap includes ideas and features that will let people express themselves in ways never seen before. Our society is undergoing a revolution that brings about many changes in the way we consume and produce information and services. Currently, the messaging space is fragmented and cluttered, sometimes even rigid and closed. Currently, Hop is just another part in this huge puzzle. Our mission is to be part of the team who will solve this puzzle and turn it into a clear masterpiece.