[wallawe]

> why build out hardware vs. outsource the printing / mailing?

we wanted the handwriting to feel as real as possible. to that end, my cofounder wrote an algo that varied each character slightly, the robots held real pens, etc. We couldn't find anyone to outsource the fulfillment to that matched this level of authenticity. Some competitors used lob.com and simply print an image of handwriting which actually can work pretty well, but is definitely recognizable if you look closely.

> re: margins, you could have raised prices but that would have made you not competitive?

This was a big point of contention between me and my cofounder. We raise them towards the end some but not enough. After selling, the company that bought us raised them substantially and are doing very well from what I understand. We should have done this early on, but focused too much on winning the deal which is what burnt us out in the end (too much business too quick, lots of sleepless nights).

[petra]

How can you spot the difference between a robot written letter and a printed one?

And what about volumes, is each letter has different text? Should have slightly different writing?

Or are there some volumes in the system?

[wallawe]

There are variations in pressure that are really easy to recognize.

Not sure I understand the second question.

Edit: Do you sometimes print the same letter(or a templatized letter) 100/1000 times ?

This would have been a good optimization but we did not. Every letter generated was unique even if it was a templatized piece.

[petra]

Do you sometimes print the same letter(or a templatized letter) 100/1000 times ?