Summary

Email is one of the oldest methods of communication that is still in use on the internet today. Despite many attempts at building a replacement and predictions of its demise we are sending more email now than ever. Recognizing that the venerable inbox is still an important repository of information, Christine Spang co-founded Nylas to integrate your mail with the rest of your tools, rather than just replacing it. In this episode Christine discusses how Nylas is built, how it is being used, and how she has helped to grow a successful business with a strong focus on diversity and inclusion.

Preface

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• Your host as usual is Tobias Macey and today I’m interviewing Christine Spang about Nylas and the modern era of email

Interview

• Introductions
• How did you get introduced to Python?
• Can you explain what Nylas is and some of its history?
• What do you think it is about email as a protocol and a means of communication that has made it so resilient in the face of technological evolution?
• What lessons did you learn from your initial offering of the N1 mail client and how has that informed your current focus?
• Nylas as a company appears to have a strong focus on diversity and inclusion. Can you speak to how you encourage that type of environment and how it manifests at work?
• What are some of the ways that Python is used at Nylas?
• Can you share some examples of services that you have written in other languages and why you felt that Python was not the right choice?
• What are some of the use cases that Nylas enables?
• What are some of the most interesting or innovative uses of the Nylas platform that you have seen?
• How do you manage privacy and security in your sync service given the sensitivity of the data that you are handling?
• What are some of the biggest challenges that you are currently facing at Nylas?
• What do you think will be the future of email?

Keep In Touch

• LinkedIn
• @spang on Twitter
• Website
• GitHub

Picks

• Tobias
• Trello
• Christine
• Founders For Change

Links

• Nylas
• MIT
• KSplice
• Debian
• Lisp
• REST
• Email
• N1 Mail Client
• Mailspring
• Nylas Employee Handbook
• Hackbright Academy
• Code2040
• TextIO
• Key Values
• IMAP
• OAuth
• MySQL
• Gevent
• React
• CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
• SendGrid
• MailGun
• MailChimp
• GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)
• SOC2
• OWASP Top 10
• Principle of Least Privilege

The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA