Email startup Superhuman has been lauded by plenty in the tech community as a simpler and faster way to navigate email, but at $30 per month, the service’s hefty subscription price has been out of reach for plenty of potential users.
Today, the startup is taking some aims to bring more users outside of the tech world into the fold of its “premium email” service, rolling out academic pricing for students and educators. The new, discounted $10/month plan is available for undergrad and graduate students and faculty members with a valid school-issued email address.
CEO Rahul Vohra says the effort is intended to bring their service to folks in the academic world who have seen their reliance on email grow even more amid the pandemic, he sees Superhuman as a natural fit for plenty of their needs.
“With academics, so much of their work runs on email collaborating on papers, collaborating with conference organizers, collaborating with journal and publications,” Vohra tells TechCrunch. “And with almost every single student attending their classes virtually … email is going to be critical for students, professionals and employers.”
The company still has a lengthy waitlist of potential users, some 350,000 people at this point, but many people are on the waitlist because Superhuman doesn’t work with the platforms they use yet. The six-year-old startup still does not have an Android mobile app and it only works for Gmail users. Vohra says that 61 of the top 100 universities are using G Suite. By the end of next year Vohra hopes to have rolled out both Office 365 support and the long-awaited Android app.
Students and faculty at colleges signing up with .edu addresses will notably be able to jump in front of the lengthy waitlist queue.
Superhuman’s features includes split algorithmic inboxes, a powerful set of keyboard shortcuts, reminders and, most recently, deep calendar integrations. The set of features has been enough to earn the service a $260 million valuation after raising a $33 million Series B led by Andreessen Horowitz last year.
The company has kept a singular focus on selling singular subscriptions. Asked whether this education pricing could one day become the service’s default pricing, Vohra insisted that $30/month was the right price point for their service today. “I would never say never, but I think Superhuman is priced correctly, especially for where we are today,” he said.
The Superhuman for Education pricing tier rolls out today.
