Interview with Randy Morin on Rmail

I interviewed Randy Charles Morin about Rmail and his recent sale of Rmail. I also asked him for tips to give someone thinking of starting their own business.

How did you get the idea for Rmail?

I didn’t. I was using existing RSS to email solutions for my own blogs, but these solutions were unreliable and usually didn’t work at all. So, I wrote a webpage on kbcafe.com called Rmail that would service my blogs. I didn’t preclude other people using it for their own blogs. And other bloggers started using it.

How have things changed from that initial idea?

Rmail eventually turned from a webpage to a website as more and more users needed it. I’ve added tons of features, but the core purpose remains the same; turn RSS into emails.

You wrote on February 8th 2007 that Rmail reached 50,000 users. How has that growth been driven?

The growth has been mostly word-of-mouth. I’ve never spent much time marketing the idea.

What is your big announcement today?

I sold the website to NBC.

Why sell the company now?

NBC is much more capable of turning Rmail into a success via its marketing engine.

What were the challenges of running it all by yourself?

There were big challenges. Scaling an application and dealing with all the legalities was very difficult.

What will your role be under the new ownership?

I will continue to run the Rmail website for now and transfer it to NBCs servers in time.

How will things change at Rmail?

With some money behind it, the sky is the limit.

How do you plan to continue Rmail’s growth?

This is now NBC’s game plan, not mine.

And lastly, do you have any tips for someone starting their own business?

Let’s start by saying that 95% of Americans and Canadians don’t know what an honest days work is. Most people reading this will likely say they are part of the 5% that do. Those people should ask themselves a simple question. Do you honestly work 40 or more hours per week? Remove lunch. Remove water-cooler downtime. Remove all breaks. Remove personal phone calls. Remove solitaire. If you are part of that 5%, then do it. But don’t quit your day job. Do it part-time until you can pay the bills.