PaperKarma is one of those ideas that make you realize that the future is nigh. The concept behind it? See a piece of junk mail that offends you in your mail box — anything from magazines, catalogs, coupon books, fliers, credit card offers, and the root of all evils, the Yellow Pages — take a picture of it and boom, the PaperKarma team will “take care” of it, mafia style.
“ I love Costco, I love Trader Joes, but I don’t want to constantly get their magazines and catalogues,” says PaperKarma CEO Sean Mortazavi on the motivation behind the project.
So what does it do? Well every time a user takes a photo and taps “Unsubscribe,” PaperKarma either uses its “massive” database or Mechanical Turk to figure out who sent the junk mail. Then it either submits an “Unsubscribe” form or sends an email application in order to eliminate the paper spam, gradually cutting down on pollution and annoyance.
Cool right? The company — which is in the same space as Catalogchoice and Unsubscribe – is bootstrapped and completely mobile. Sweet.
Its future plans according to Mortazavi? Growing into the largest “this thing” of its kind built.
You can download PaperKarma from the iOS store here.
PaperKarma is a product of Readabl, Inc. The company was started by two guys in Seattle who detest unsolicited paper mail. Their mission is to help you take control of your home or business mailbox and to receive what and only what you want. As it turns out, most businesses want this too. They don’t want to waste printing and delivery costs and have their material go directly into the trashcan. They work closely with the source companies to...
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