KoltrixShared inbox for a two-person startup: the minimum setup
The smallest shared inbox setup that works for two founders: one domain, a few addresses, a handful of labels, one reply rule and a weekly 15-minute review.
On this page(11 sections)
- What you're aiming for
- Step 1: Use your own domain
- Step 2: Create two personal addresses
- Step 3: Create two shared addresses
- Step 4: Add a handful of labels
- Step 5: Write one rule for who replies
- Step 6: Set up the weekly review
- What not to set up yet
- Signs you've outgrown the minimum
- A note on tools
- Bottom line
Two founders don't need a support operation. They need to stop asking each other "did you reply to that?" This runbook is the smallest email setup that solves that problem, and a list of the things you can safely skip until later.
Expect to spend an afternoon on it. Most of the work is deciding things, not configuring them.
What you're aiming for
By the end, you'll have:
- Your own domain for email
- One personal address each
- Two shared addresses: hello@ and support@
- Five or six labels
- One written rule for who replies to what
- A 15-minute weekly review on the calendar
That's it. Everything else waits until it hurts.
Step 1: Use your own domain
If you're still on personal webmail addresses for company email, fix that first. A custom domain makes you look like a company, keeps email with the business if a founder leaves, and lets you add shared addresses later without changing what customers have saved.
Whatever provider you choose, you'll verify that you own the domain and add DNS records so your mail is authenticated (SPF, DKIM and DMARC). Your provider's setup guide will walk you through the records; it's usually a short task even if DNS is new to you.
Step 2: Create two personal addresses
One per founder, using a consistent pattern:
[email protected]
[email protected]
First names are friendly and easy to remember at this size. Use these for conversations that are genuinely personal to one of you: investors who know you, a hire you're recruiting, a partner relationship you own.
Step 3: Create two shared addresses
You need fewer role addresses than you think:
| Address | Use | Published where |
|---|---|---|
| hello@ | General inquiries, partnerships, press, anything not support | Website footer, social profiles |
| support@ | Product questions, bugs, billing questions from customers | In-app help link, docs, receipts |
Both founders get access to both. Separating them from day one pays off later: when you hire your first support person, you give them support@ and your general inbox stays yours.
Skip sales@, billing@, press@, jobs@ and the rest for now. Every extra address is one more place to check. If you want them reserved, set them up as aliases that deliver into hello@.
Step 4: Add a handful of labels
Labels let you see state at a glance. Start with a small set:
waiting-on-customer— you replied and need something backbug— a customer reported something brokenfeature-request— a customer asked for something you don't havebilling— anything money-relatedinvestor— updates and conversations with investors or advisors
Resist the urge to build a full taxonomy. You can add labels when you find yourself wishing one existed. The bug and feature-request labels earn their keep the first time you want to email everyone who asked for something you just shipped.
Step 5: Write one rule for who replies
This is the most important step and the one founders skip. Without a rule, both of you will either reply to the same email or assume the other did.
Pick one of these patterns and write it down:
By address:
Maya owns support@. Dev owns hello@. If you're covering for the other, say so in your reply.
By day:
Maya handles both inboxes Mon/Wed/Fri. Dev handles Tue/Thu. Weekends: whoever is around, but check urgent bugs only.
By topic:
Dev answers anything technical (bugs, API, integrations). Maya answers everything else.
Add two small agreements to whichever rule you choose:
- If you open it and won't reply within a few hours, leave it unread or label it so the other person knows it's still open.
- If a thread is yours, reply from the shared address, so the history stays where you both can see it.
Step 6: Set up the weekly review
Once a week, spend 15 minutes together on the inbox:
- Scan
waiting-on-customer: anything stale enough to nudge or close? - Scan
bug: anything fixed that a customer should hear about? - Look at the last week's support@ for repeat questions. Any of them a docs fix?
- Check that nothing important is sitting unanswered in either shared address.
Put it on the calendar right after an existing meeting so it actually happens.
What not to set up yet
It's tempting to adopt the tooling of a fifty-person support team. You don't need it yet:
- SLA targets and dashboards. Your target is "reply today". You'll know if you miss it.
- Complex auto-rules. One or two rules for obvious noise (receipts, notifications) are fine. Twenty rules for two people are maintenance you don't need.
- Separate help desk software. A shared inbox handles support fine until volume or team size makes it hard.
- Elaborate snippet libraries. Write a snippet the third time you type the same answer, not before.
- Rotations and on-call. The reply rule above is your rotation.
Signs you've outgrown the minimum
Revisit the setup when:
- You hire someone whose main job is talking to customers.
- One shared address regularly has threads nobody answered for days.
- You're spending more time sorting mail than replying to it.
- You need different people to see different mailboxes.
At that point, look at per-mailbox permissions, AI sorting, and a proper triage routine.
A note on tools
Most email providers can handle this setup. Koltrix covers it with custom domains and shared mailboxes, and adds AI sorting and drafting for when volume picks up. There's a 7-day trial with no card required at https://app.koltrix.com/sign-up if you want to try the setup there.
Bottom line
- Use your own domain, one personal address each, and just two shared addresses.
- Give both founders access to both shared addresses, and reply from them.
- Start with five or six labels, not a taxonomy.
- Write down one rule for who replies, plus a convention for leaving things unread.
- Review the inbox together for 15 minutes a week, and add tooling only when something actually hurts.
Start with Koltrix
Your domain, one inbox, and an API that sends.
A team inbox where AI sorts and drafts (nothing is sent without your click), plus the transactional API and SMTP relay your product sends with. 7 days free, no card.
