How UK Oleh Elie Steinbock built Inbox Zero

From London to Tel Aviv: Building an AI email assistant that helps professionals achieve inbox zero

Who are you and what business did you start?

I’m Elie Steinbock, an Oleh from London living in Tel Aviv.

I started my business because I was spending way too much time on email. I wanted a personal assistant to manage it for me. That would've been really cool, but I didn't have the budget to spend a few thousand dollars a month on email. So I decided to build Inbox Zero. Almost everyone I speak to hates email, so Inbox Zero is trying to make people's lives a bit better. Especially with all the AI revolutions, I thought it should be fairly feasible today. So I decided to build it.

How is your business doing today? Would you be open to sharing any numbers (revenue, customers, or growth milestones) to give us a sense of its success?

The product has evolved a lot. I started working on it around a year and a half ago. I launched on Product Hunt around a year ago, which was a big milestone because it helped me go from 3 paying customers and 170 total signups to thousands of signups and around a hundred customers.

Recently, I celebrated the 1-year anniversary of Inbox Zero's launch and hit 10,000 total sign-ups, which was really cool. We've had some amazing customers use the app as well. Some of the biggest YouTubers in the world are using it too, which is nice.

Did you face any challenges related to being an Oleh entrepreneur? How did you adapt?

Related to being an oleh, not really. Since it's a SaaS product, I didn't really have any Israel-related challenges. I don't really interact with the Israeli market for it, so it doesn't really impact me other than the company being based in Israel. I've had a few companies here, so bureaucracy hasn't been a problem for me.

What resources or support systems were most helpful to you as an Oleh entrepreneur?

In terms of organizations that have helped me, nothing specific comes to mind in Israel. However, I've been working at Ben Lang's Collective, which has been nice. I talk to other entrepreneurs in that program, so it's a good environment to be in with other founders. There are lots of immigrant or Oleh founders there, and I'm also part of online communities abroad. For example, as part of Trends.vc, I listen in on a weekly mastermind about trends in tech. Those have been helpful for feedback and growth.

What advice would you give to other Olim who are considering starting a business in Israel?

I don't have any specific advice, but improving your Hebrew is always good. Building a network is always helpful too. Specifically for me, the main challenges of building my business are related to the product and the marketing, not the country I'm based in.

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