Postal Letter

How would you go about starting a Hotmail, Yahoo! type business? That is, creating a free email system?

I'm looking at creating a very specific web-based email home for about 100,000 people, but I'm wondering what steps I'm unaware of. For example, should I approach ISPs in advance about the volume?

Public Comments

1. First, make a lot of money. You'll need it to purchase the computer hardware, the software professionals, the networking infrastructure and bandwidth necessary to build a free email system. Even if you just wanted to put together such a system for you and your friends, you would still need the computer, the network bandwidth, the domain, and the programming needed to build a rudimentary system. Then you have to build filters to block spam, viruses, illegal activities and make provisions to back up all traffic for regulatory compliance. You're also going to need the funds to pay for the electricity, cooling, network capacity, storage, backup and security. What are you waiting for? Time's a-wasting! You better get started on making that money now...