# Lumail

Aiolum story: https://aiolum.com/story/lumail/ · added 2026-11-12 · updated 2026-11-12

**In short.** Lumail (Email marketing platform with AI agent control, United States): US$560 monthly recurring revenue, October 2026. Evidence grade A: disclosed by a company or a filing, or verified by a payment processor. Team: 1 founder, per the founder-written TrustMRR profile of October 2026; the about page lists four more first names with roles. Launched September 2025; still running, revenue growing.

Email marketing platform with AI agent control · United States · AI-native · solo founder · still running, revenue growing · group: Marketing and social content

- Outcome: US$560 monthly recurring revenue, October 2026 (evidence grade of the headline number: A; headline in US dollars: 6720)
- Launch: September 2025; months from launch to the outcome: 13
- Team: 1 founder, per the founder-written TrustMRR profile of October 2026; the about page lists four more first names with roles
- Outside funding: None (bootstrapped, per the founder's TrustMRR profile)
- Main factor: Own problem
- Meters, 1 to 4: evidence strength 3, copyable pattern 2, capital needed 1
- Tags: AI-native, Solo founder, Bootstrapped, Running, B2B, Email marketing

Links:

- Visit lumail.io: https://lumail.io/
- Verified revenue on TrustMRR: https://trustmrr.com/startup/lumail

**The product.** Lumail sends newsletters, automated email sequences and transactional email (login codes, receipts) from one domain. A person writes in an editor or asks an AI agent to draft, segment and send. The bill depends on the emails sent, not on the number of subscribers.

**Why it worked.** A founder who had sold courses since 2022 built the email tool that he wanted for himself, and priced it by emails sent. His own newsletter was the first test of it, and the product now lets AI agents run an account.

Evidence grades: A = disclosed by a public company, a filing or a payment processor, or verified by one; B = two or more independent reports agree, or a journalist confirmed it; C = a founder claim that no one else verified; D = reported, not verified: one founder claim or a third-party estimate with no second source; E = no revenue figure found, so the headline is a non-money fact and the other facts carry their own grades; calc = computed on this page from graded facts.

## Summary

Lumail is an email marketing platform: software that stores a list of subscribers, sends them campaigns and automatic sequences, and counts opens and clicks. It also sends transactional email, which is a message that one user action triggers, such as a login code. The company says that an AI agent can import contacts, draft campaigns and read analytics through 142 tools. The agent calls them through MCP, the Model Context Protocol, a standard way for an AI program to call the tools of another service.

Melvyn Malherbe is named as the founder on the company's about page. The page says that he has sold courses on coding and building SaaS apps since 2022. It also says that he has sent more than 3 million emails to his own audience. The operator is Codelynx, LLC, a company registered in Delaware. A copy of the home page from 8 September 2025 already shows Lumail as an email product. The first public changelog entry is dated 26 December 2025.

The headline figure is US$560 of monthly recurring revenue with 24 active subscriptions, read from Stripe by TrustMRR on 12 October 2026. All-time verified revenue was US$1,303, so this is a small business. The team size and the start date come from founder-written text. The live TrustMRR page returned an error on 12 November 2026, so this story cites the cached copy of October 2026.

## Why did Lumail work?

### The founder built it for his own newsletter

The company's about page says that every email platform he tried was too complex or too limiting. It says that he wanted to run his newsletter from the terminal. A copy of the home page from November 2025 calls Lumail "the email marketing tool I always wanted for myself". The product started as a tool for a user that the founder knew well.

### It charges for emails sent, not for subscribers stored

Every plan has unlimited subscribers, and the bill moves only when emails leave. The company's about page says that Mailchimp prices paid plans by contact tier. Lumail checked those competitor prices on 17 August 2026 and links its sources, which this story did not open. The copy of September 2025 still listed a subscriber limit on each plan. The copy of November 2025 shows unlimited subscribers.

### It lets an AI agent run the account

The company says that Claude Code, Codex, ChatGPT or its command line can import contacts, draft campaigns and read analytics through 142 tools. The pricing page says that this is optional and that the dashboard does the same job.

## How it was built

These details come from the company's privacy policy and terms (grade C) and from the founder-written TrustMRR profile (grade C).

- The privacy policy lists the hosting providers. Netcup hosts the application and Redis in Nuremberg, and Neon runs the PostgreSQL database in Frankfurt.
- The company names Amazon SES for email delivery, Cloudflare for DNS and archives, Hatchet for background jobs, Upstash QStash for queues and PostHog for analytics.
- The company names Google for managed AI features, and OpenAI only as an optional connection of the customer's own account. The TrustMRR profile lists React and Tailwind CSS for the front end.
- Paid plans are billed through Stripe. TrustMRR reads the revenue from the Stripe account through an API key.
- The terms say that Lumail is an early-stage platform whose features and limits may change.

Sources: [6, 5, 1, 4]

## Who tried this before Lumail, and why did they fail?

Three companies in our database of failed startups sold tools for messaging or for reaching customers and failed. The values below are from that database and are not independently verified. None of them was an email platform.

The failed startups come from our database of dead startups, retold here in our own words; Its entries are AI-assisted summaries of public sources, so they carry no evidence grade.

### Reach.ly (2010 to 2012; funding US$250K; cause: Lost focus)

- Promise: Analytics for online shops that let them send real-time messages based on customer behavior.
- Why it died: The record says that it turned to unrelated work, such as Twitter mining for the hotel industry. That diluted its focus on shop analytics.
- Record: 

### Admazely (2012 to 2014; funding US$2.3M; cause: Strategy and market)

- Promise: Retargeting ads that small web shops could run without technical skills.
- Why it died: The record names strategic missteps and market dynamics. It also says that big technology companies dominated advertising.
- Record: 

### Creator Growth Lab (2018 to 2022; funding US$2.5M; cause: Platform dependence)

- Promise: Analytics and engagement advice that let Instagram creators grow without an agency.
- Why it died: The record says that it relied on Instagram, which changed its API and engagement rules often.
- Record: 

## What changed

Reach.ly and Admazely sold marketing tools to small online shops, in 2010 to 2014, with dashboards that people had to operate by hand. The records name other causes of failure, such as lost focus, so this story does not claim that the dashboard was the cause.

Lumail adds a second way in. The company says that an AI agent can run the account through 142 tools, and that the dashboard still does the same job. The change is in how a person gives the instruction, not in what email does. Email does not depend on one social network, as Creator Growth Lab depended on Instagram.

## Can one person copy Lumail now?

**Verdict: The pricing idea, yes. The audience, probably not.**

The pricing by emails sent and the agent access are easy to copy, and the company shows its own prices openly. The founder already had an audience: TrustMRR lists 21,957 X followers, and the about page says that he sold courses since 2022. A new founder without that audience would need another way to reach customers, and no source says how Lumail's customers arrived.

1. Build a tool for a task that you do every week, and use it for your own work first.
2. Charge for a unit that the customer can control, such as emails sent, and say it on the first screen.
3. Offer a way to run the product from an AI agent, and keep the normal dashboard.
4. Write rules against abuse before you send for others. Lumail's terms ban cold outreach and bought lists, and suspend accounts that break the rules.

**What is still open.** A version for one kind of sender is open: for example one profession, one shop platform or one language. Lumail serves creators and software founders in general.

## How much revenue does Lumail make? The numbers, graded

US$560 of monthly recurring revenue and US$1,303 of all-time revenue, both read from Stripe by TrustMRR, 13 months after the email product appeared

| Fact | Value | Grade | Note | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly recurring revenue, 12 October 2026 | US$560 | A | TrustMRR lists it under metrics that it calculates from Stripe payment records through an API key. Revenue was last synced on 12 October 2026. | [1] |
| Active subscriptions, 12 October 2026 | 24 | A | From the same Stripe connection. | [1] |
| All-time verified revenue, 12 October 2026 | US$1,303 | A | The same figure is shown for the last 12 months, so all payments fall inside one year. | [1] |
| Verified revenue in the last 30 days | US$625 | A | TrustMRR shows growth of 59.3% against the 30 days before. | [1] |
| Verified revenue in September 2026 | US$616 | A | August 2026 was US$200 and July 2026 was US$60. October 2026 showed US$242 on the day of the last sync, so it is not a full month. | [1] |
| Annual run rate of the headline | US$6,720 | calc | Calculated: 560 multiplied by 12 equals 6,720. | [1] |
| Average monthly revenue per active subscription | about US$23 | calc | Calculated: 560 divided by 24 equals 23.33. Paid plans cost US$20, US$60 or US$200 a month, so most subscriptions are probably on the US$20 plan. No source gives the split. | [1, 3] |
| First month with verified revenue | December 2025, US$7.38 | A | The monthly table of the TrustMRR profile starts in December 2025. | [1] |
| Start of the email product | September 2025 at the latest | C | An Internet Archive copy of lumail.io from 8 September 2025 sells email marketing. The founder-written TrustMRR profile gives 18 October 2025 as the founded date, which is later. | [8, 1] |
| Company that operates Lumail | Codelynx, LLC, registered in Delaware | C | Stated in the terms of service and in the footer of the 2025 copies of the site. No source gives the date of incorporation. | [5, 8, 10] |
| Earlier product on the same domain | Threader, a Threads post scheduler, in February 2025 | C | An Internet Archive copy of 22 February 2025 shows Threader with a Free plan and a Pro plan at US$49 a month. The footer names the same Codelynx, LLC. | [10] |
| Team size | 1 person | C | Written in the TrustMRR profile by the founder. The about page lists four more first names with roles but no surnames. | [1, 4] |
| Outside funding | none | C | The TrustMRR profile says bootstrapped. No other source mentions funding. | [1] |
| Tools for AI agents | 142 | C | The company's own count on its home, pricing and about pages. | [2, 3, 4] |

How to read this table: a grade A value comes from a payment-processor connection that TrustMRR describes. A grade C value is stated by the founder or the company. A "calc" or X value was computed on this page.

## Pricing

Lumail plans on 12 November 2026, from the company's pricing page (grade C)

| Plan | Per month, billed yearly (US$) | Per month, billed monthly (US$) | Limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | 0 | 0 | 3,000 emails a month, 2 team members, 10 AI credits |
| Creator | 20 | 20 | 40,000 emails a month, 10 team members, 100 AI conversations |
| Pro | 60 | 60 | 100,000 emails a month, 25 team members, 300 AI conversations |
| Business | 200 | 200 | 400,000 emails a month, 100 team members, 1,000 AI conversations |

Only monthly billing is shown, so both price columns hold the same amount. The Free plan stops sending at 3,000 emails and has no overage charge. The paid plans charge US$7, US$5 or US$4 for each extra 10,000 emails. Every plan has unlimited subscribers and unlimited workflows.

## When did Lumail launch, and how did it grow? Timeline

From a Threads scheduler on the same domain in February 2025 to US$560 of monthly recurring revenue in October 2026. Each entry carries its grade.

- **February 2025** (grade C [10]): The domain lumail.io shows Threader, a scheduler for Threads posts, with a Pro plan at US$49 a month. The operator in the footer is Codelynx, LLC.
- **8 September 2025** (grade C [8]): The home page now offers email marketing for creators with a 14-day free trial.
- **18 October 2025** (grade C [1]): The date that the founder entered on TrustMRR as the founded date.
- **12 November 2025** (grade C [9]): The pricing section lists a Free plan with 1,000 emails, a Premium plan at US$20 and a plan at US$200, all billed monthly.
- **December 2025** (grade A [7, 1]): The first changelog entry, version 1.0.0, is dated 26 December. Stripe shows US$7.38 of revenue for the month.
- **25 July 2026** (grade C [7]): Version 1.5.0 adds a workflow engine and an assistant in the dashboard. The company calls it the largest product update so far.
- **17 August 2026** (grade C [7]): Public pricing changes to Free, Creator, Pro and Business, still charged by emails sent.
- **September 2026** (grade A [1]): Verified revenue is US$616, about three times August.
- **12 October 2026** (grade A [1]): TrustMRR shows US$560 of monthly recurring revenue, 24 active subscriptions and US$1,303 of all-time revenue.

## What could go wrong for Lumail?

- **A small figure that is new.** The headline is US$560 of monthly recurring revenue, and all-time revenue is US$1,303. The first revenue month in the data is December 2025. October 2026 was not a full month on the day of the last sync, so the trend from US$616 in September cannot be judged.
- **Earlier product on the same domain.** In February 2025 lumail.io showed Threader, a Threads scheduler, under the same operator. That copy has placeholder text in places and counters that read "0 K". Its testimonials carry first names only, and one text appears under two names. Nothing in the copy shows that Threader had customers. No source says why the business moved to email. The founded date of 18 October 2025 on TrustMRR is later than the 8 September 2025 copy of the email site.
- **Home page testimonials and counters.** The home page shows three quotations: a founder of Linkhub, a person called Nicolas with the label "Indie founder" and no surname, and the founder himself. The third says "I've sent over 3 million emails with Lumail". The about page ties that number to the founder's own audience since 2022, and revenue data starts in December 2025. The search service was down, so no quotation was searched for elsewhere. The list of platforms to migrate from names competitors, not customers.
- **Team and company claims.** The about page lists four first names with the roles Developer, Customer support, Design and Marketing and content. The picture files carry the role names. The one picture that was opened is a drawing, not a photograph. There are no surnames or links. TrustMRR says 1 person, written by the founder. No source says whether those four are employees, contractors or other helpers. Codelynx, LLC is the operator named in the terms. No source gives its date of incorporation.
- **AI is one way to use the product.** The company says that agent control is optional and that the dashboard does the same work. AI was in the product from its first dated copy. The home page of 8 September 2025 says "AI-powered email marketing" and lists "Built-in AI for writing, editing, and improving". No source dates the start of agent access. The product would still exist as an email platform without AI. The founder-written TrustMRR profile says that customers pay by subscriber count. The pricing page says that they pay by emails sent.
- **Email abuse and the free tools.** The terms ban cold outreach, purchased or rented lists and scraped addresses, and say that violations lead to immediate suspension. The site also has a free email extractor that runs in the browser. It finds addresses in text, HTML or files that the user pastes, and it does not visit websites. It also decodes addresses written as "name [at] domain [dot] com". The company says that nothing is uploaded. The tool is free, and Lumail sells no contact data.

## Sources

1. TrustMRR profile of Lumail, markdown copy cached in October 2026 (revenue last synced 12 October 2026) — https://trustmrr.com/startup/lumail.md (grade A). Read the cached markdown profile. The live page returned an HTTP 500 error on 12 November 2026. Revenue, MRR and subscriptions are calculated from Stripe by TrustMRR (grade A). The description, team size, funding and founded date are founder-written (grade C).
2. Lumail home page, read 12 November 2026 — https://lumail.io/ (grade C). Read in full. Source for the product, the 142 tools, the testimonials and the migration list.
3. Lumail pricing page, read 12 November 2026 — https://lumail.io/pricing (grade C). Read in full. Source for the four plans and their limits. Only monthly prices are shown.
4. About Lumail, read 12 November 2026 — https://lumail.io/about (grade C). Read in full. Source for the founder, his earlier courses, the operator and the four listed first names.
5. Lumail terms of service, read 12 November 2026 — https://lumail.io/legal/terms (grade C). Read in full. Source for the operator, the anti-spam policy and the billing through Stripe.
6. Lumail privacy policy, read 12 November 2026 — https://lumail.io/legal/privacy (grade C). Read in full. Source for the list of providers that the company names.
7. Lumail changelog, read 12 November 2026 — https://lumail.io/changelog (grade C). Read in full. Source for the release dates and the pricing change.
8. Internet Archive copy of lumail.io, 8 September 2025 — http://web.archive.org/web/20250908130023/https://lumail.io/ (grade C). Read the top of the page. Shows email marketing with a 14-day free trial.
9. Internet Archive copy of lumail.io, 12 November 2025 — http://web.archive.org/web/20251112145836/https://lumail.io/ (grade C). Read in full. Source for the 2025 plans, the founder's message and the Codelynx, LLC footer.
10. Internet Archive copy of lumail.io, 22 February 2025 — http://web.archive.org/web/20250222224950/https://lumail.io/ (grade C). Read in full. Shows the Threader product and its Pro plan at US$49 a month.
11. Lumail customer story, read 12 November 2026 — https://lumail.io/customers/yannis-haismann-linkhub-linkpost (grade C). Read in full. A story that the company wrote about a customer. It says that the customer has used Lumail since early 2026. It does not say what the customer pays.
12. Database of failed startups, local export — /method/#dead (grade C). The sitemap and three record pages were read on 12 November 2026. AI-assisted summaries, not independently verified. Source for the failed predecessors.

Contact: aiolum@livyden.com. Run Lumail? Send corrections or a verified figure to aiolum@livyden.com (subject: Correction: Lumail).