Etacts

Market position

Etacts operated in the emerging "social CRM" category of tools that enrich email with contact and relationship data. GigaOM named Rapportive and Gist as competitors, noting that Gist was in the process of being acquired by Research in Motion in the same period. Coverage also noted that many such companies drew on data from Rapleaf, which was under scrutiny for its data collection and sharing practices.

Rather than organizing around individual messages, Etacts aggregated communications around people to identify lapsed relationships, and combined ranked contact lists with configurable reconnect reminders and contextual reminders of prior exchanges. It emphasized a privacy stance of processing only email headers and never storing message bodies or attachments.

Technology

The service authenticated to Gmail using OAuth (and supported non-Gmail IMAP-style logins requiring incoming mail server, port and SSL settings plus selection of a sent-mail folder). It analyzed email headers rather than message bodies. The engineering stack was described as Python and Django, MySQL, Cassandra, and heavy client-side JavaScript (client-side MVC), with mobile applications and additional front-ends in development beyond the Gmail plugin.

Go-to-market

Self-serve sign-up via Google/Gmail login on the website, plus an optional plugin installed into Gmail or Google Apps. The company promoted itself through press coverage and user testimonials, and sought a community manager intern to build brand and community presence through social media.

Recruiters, consultants, PR firms and salespeople seeking to grow personal and business networks, per the company's own site; the site also references real estate agents among enthusiastic users.

Geography

Single office in San Francisco, California, at 185 Berry St, per the company's about page; the jobs page also refers to a San Francisco office near 15th/Valencia.

History

Etacts was incubated by Y Combinator and launched its service in February 2010, raising angel funding the same year. On December 21, 2010 it emailed users announcing that the service would cease operating on January 31, 2011 and that user data would be deleted, and stopped accepting new registrations. Salesforce.com confirmed that month that it had acquired the company; terms were undisclosed. Observers speculated Salesforce's interest was primarily in the technology and the two co-founders, possibly for its Jigsaw division. The acquisition was reported as Salesforce's sixth of 2010 and its second that month involving a Y Combinator-funded company, following Heroku.

Risks & controversies

Coverage of the sector noted privacy concerns around social CRM services, including scrutiny of Rapleaf's data collection and sharing practices as a data supplier to such companies; Etacts itself stated it never stored email bodies or attachments and never shared user data. GigaOM questioned whether there was much substance to acquire, suggesting Salesforce may have primarily hired the two co-founders. The current etacts.com site contains injected third-party gambling and crypto promotional links unrelated to the original product.