Netflix-style Start-up Scans, Digitizes, and, if Needed, Shreds Your Files | Hacker News Reader

Netflix-style Start-up Scans, Digitizes, and, if Needed, Shreds Your Files

boston.com

24 pointsbreck10 comments

Pixily has economized by building the entire website atop Amazon.com's Web services infrastructure...

Dateline on this article: This morning, just in time for Amazon S3's eight hours of downtime.

I wonder if a PR person is being talked off a ledge right about now.

http://www.earthclassmail.com/ does a similar thing, but a bit more hardcore (your mail goes to them first). They are featured in a TV show called Startup Junkies on MoJo HD. http://www.mojohd.com/mojoseries/startupjunkies/

I like this method though, at least as a choice, since I can keep my address. I wouldn't be interested in joining until I can just return back the documents I want (most likely very few). Perhaps eschewing returns could get me another envelope to send stuff in?

The first thought that goes through my mind is that the employees scanning the docs will be able to read the docs. So I am guessing, you will only mail documents which you don't consider private.

From their security page:

"All the mailed in documents are scanned in Pixily facilities located in USA. All the authorized personnel who scan your documents go through necessary background checks. Under normal load circumstances all the documents you mail are scanned and sent back to you the within 2 working days."

Doesn't seem any more risky than IronMountain, the local garbage/recycling company, or anyone else taking your documents.

And honestly, especially now that they're in startup mode, the staff is likely to have equity and be real believers in the business. They are much better off building the business and not snooping on some of the thousands of incoming sheets. I'm sure they drop a stack into a sheet feeder, and drop them into an out-going envelope when they're spit out.

Did anyone else slap their forehead and go why didn't I think of that? I've got an office full of paper...

I'm totally going to make use of this service. I have a file cabinet full of old documents I need to keep around. I meant to scan them all into PDF myself, but I have a slow flat-bed scanner which makes it too painful. This looks to be a life-saver.

Searchable PDFs + OS X Spotlight (or any comparable search) is a dream combo.

This awesome! I've been meaning to do this myself (not as a business, just for my own docs) for about . . . 10 years or so, but it sounded so boring. I'm pretty sure I'll send off some of those green envelopes!

http://www.43folders.com/2007/10/23/fujitsu-scansnap-workflo...

I guess it's a lot cheaper, faster and more secure in the long run.

A Scansnap is $400 or so, equivalent to about 2 years of Pixily. That doesn't count the labor cost of scanning and organizing the docs yourself - given that this is Pixily's core business, they probably have decent defaults for that.

Obviously, if you have five file drawers to plow through you might want a Scansnap, at least for a while. But the beauty of Pixily is that you can test drive the concept first by paying a la carte, then use Pixily for maintenance after finishing your initial scanning run and selling your Scansnap on eBay.

being able to easily share and search the documents are to very important aspects on using a web service instead of a scanner myself, I think..

also, don't understimate the power of 'I can do it later'. If you'll have to scan your stuff yourself, you'll fatally end up leaving it there forever... At least I do :-)

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