Scott here! It’s been a while, and there’s a reason for that.

Over the past few years, my energy levels have cratered. You can see it in the lack of posts I’ve made here and the relative paucity of updates to Purelymail itself. It’s not because of Purelymail- running this company has been amazing, and most of you guys are pretty great customers. It’s been a health issue, and one I’m just starting to recover from.

Purelymail has essentially tripled in customers over the last year. A lot of people really enjoy the service, way more than I ever expected when I started making it 6 years ago. And while nobody knows more about the system I’ve built than me, I think it could be even better if someone with energy tackled its development.

That’s why I was open to the possibility of selling Purelymail if I found the right buyer. I needed somebody who would do right by my customers and who shared the same no-bullshit approach that I’ve always had. And I think I found him! My read is that Kevin will be a good match to develop Purelymail further. (And if I’m wrong, I made sure they’d keep the service running and not do anything nefarious in the contract.)

I’ll still be around to offer support as needed, but I will otherwise be minding my health. And if that goes well, maybe even starting something new.

Introducing Kevin

Hi everyone!

I’m Kevin. I bought Purelymail from Scott, and I wanted to introduce myself and let you know what that means for you as a customer.

First – don’t worry! The email service you’ve come to rely on isn’t going anywhere. I’ve always admired how Scott built and ran this business – offering straightforward, affordable email hosting without any gimmicks or hidden fees, and always being honest with customers. I intend to earn the trust that Scott has built with you.

I started using the service a few years ago and was amazed that Scott was able to offer so much for so little. Most email service providers today seem to either be free (in which case you are the product) or cost too much (which made me feel like I was paying for bloat). Scott offered something special, so I knew I wanted to try it when I heard about it. And I’m glad I did. I’ve had nothing but great experiences with the service and I always felt like I got exactly what I was promised. There haven’t been any surprises, which is (sadly) kind of rare today. When I learned I could purchase Scott’s business, I knew this was something I needed to do.

What’s staying the same

As I mentioned above, I want Purelymail to continue to be something special. So here is what’s staying the same:

Your email service will continue without interruption
The pricing will remain affordable (I know how important this is to many of you)
Your privacy and data security remain top priorities
The personal touch and responsive support you’re used to
There will be no gimmicks - honesty is a core value

What will change

We are now officially out of beta status!

What might change

I might make some small improvements behind the scenes as I get more familiar with everything. But any changes will be thoughtful and focused on making your experience better, not worse. I’m a firm believer in “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.” I’m in learning mode right now and still running everything by Scott to make sure I won’t do anything dumb.

There may be some things that get “cleaned up.” For example, if you are on the wrong pricing plan, you may be asked to move to the right pricing plan. But these types of changes will be surgical and not something taken lightly.

Lastly, while I have no immediate plans to change pricing, I may change prices in the future. Even if prices do change, though, they will continue to be affordable. And if I decide to make any changes, I will provide advance notice and current customers will receive preferential treatment [^1]. I believe in rewarding the people who have helped build this business, and I have no intention of making you feel mistreated!

The transition

Scott has been incredibly helpful while I was evaluating the business purchase and has continued to be incredibly helpul as we’ve started to transition his ownership. His honesty and integrity are second to none and I am incredibly grateful that I get to work with him. I’m committed to maintaining those same principles of honesty, fairness, and putting customers first. You’ll start to see that as we start to work together in the near future. But in reality, my hope is that you don’t notice anything different anytime soon (or if you do, you like the change).

A bit about me

As for me, I’m a lifelong learner. I studied math and business in college and have spent most of my career working for someone else. I tried a few times to start my own business, but nothing ever got off the ground. I think I’m much better at iterating and improving on things that are working then starting things from scratch. As you can imagine, I’m also fairly technical. While I didn’t study programming in school, I started learning VBA in the late 90s during an internship. I moved on to a “real” language (Python) around 2003/2004 at which point my programming education started to accelerate. I started using Linux and learning how the command line worked, and eventually learned to program in C, Lua, Lisp, JavaScript, and quite a few more. I’m not proficient in nearly as many as I’ve tried, but I think the exposure to a lot of languages has helped me build a strong mental model for how things work.

I’m looking forward to getting to know the Purelymail community better. If you have questions or just want to say hello, please don’t hesitate to say hi on the discord server; I’m @ktr00.

Thank you for your continued support of Purelymail. I’m honored to be taking the reins of such a great business, and I’m committed to ensuring it continues to serve you well for years to come.

Best regards,

Kevin Ryan