You've Got Mail — Wherever You Are

Are you sick and tired of all that mail piled up on the kitchen table? Most of it's junk, stuff you don't even open. The rest gets a cursory glance and is tossed. One company, Earth Class Mail, has had enough of the mess and is on a cleanup mission.

Ron Wiener, Founder, Director & CEO of Earth Class Mail explains.

What is Earth Class Mail?
Before cellphones, you had to stay at your office and wait for a call. We've done for mail what cellphones did for phones. We've made something analog into something digital. Now you can access your mail from the internet 24/7 from anywhere in the world.

How does it work?
You hand out our address to whomever you would normally get mail from — catalog companies, business contacts, whatever. Then we scan it online. You can just look at the envelope. Or you can open it. Two-thirds of the mail we get is shredded without being opened. We want to reduce costs, increase effiiciency, and make it possible to work from anywhere in the world. You can plug in your laptop at a hotel and get all your mail, not just your email.

Can you have all your mail sent there, by changing your address at the post office?
You can, but most people don't do that because they still want to get their NetFlix, or their birthday cards, or whatever. Our biggest customers are large organizations — companies and government agencies.

This is also for Bob and Mary driving their RV around for a year. It's for expatriates. But we also have a Fortune 50 company. And government agencies.

Are you only in the U.S.?
We're in negotiations with 18 countries to deploy this system through the post offices of those countries.

What about security? Who are the people looking at my mail?
This is where we really shine. Most of our employees are veterans who have DOD clearance. They wear pocketless uniforms. There are no personal items in the room. There are no distractions, and there's nowhere to hide anything. They take 2.8 seconds per page to scan mail. Soon you'll be able to see video of the operator scanning their mail.

What's ahead?
We want to get it at the beginning of the stream instead of at the end. If we can get your mail onto the Web without it ever entering the system, the ecological impact will be enormous.

How's business?
We've doubled employees in the last 3 months. And we're expanding, with processing centers in 18 more cities. Plus we just raised $15 million in venture capital.

And, this is the last piece of analog communications going digital. And it's just the beginning.

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