OpenMail was founded in October 2013. OpenMail LLC was filed on March 26, 2014 by Michael Blend in Santa Monica CA and a trademark for OpenMail was actually filed prior on 2/10/2014 for:
[icon name=”icon-pin”] Technology that enables email marketers to more efficiently target emails and email promotions to their customers
[icon name=”icon-pin”] Providing a website featuring technology that enables users to more efficiently target emails and email promotions to their customers
OpenMail.co was re-registered on 9/21/2013 under whois privacy (so maybe OpenMail was really founded in September 2013?).
What is OpenMail?
OpenMail believes in the power of more relevant and targeted email. We are a group of experienced entrepreneurs and data scientists obsessed with one thing: making your email better.
A lot of start-ups launch on domain names other than what they end up using later on, after funding many times etc. and every story on how they end up securing “the perfect domain” is different and also likely interesting.
Well, today I noticed that Hewlett-Packard Company was no longer the owner of OpenMail.com but the domain is under privacy at eNom after transferring out of domain name registrar MarkMonitor. Since ownership is under whois privacy it is hard to see who really owns the domain. A step to help is simply visiting the domain, which I did and the site is a mirror of OpenMail.co!
So, OpenMail LLC has purchased/secured/obtained the domain name OpenMail.com from HP. Pretty impressive! OpenMail founders are Chuck Ursini, John Fries and Michael Blend. They are bootstrapped. Maybe one of them had a connection to HP or knew somebody. It isn’t easy buying a domain name from a massive company!
I reached out to OpenMail to see if they could share the story on how they obtained the domain but I haven’t heard back all day, so I’m assuming they wish not to share but I will update if they do reply.
HP history of OpenMail Servers which was shut down in 2001.
