Friday

What do they actually do

Friday is a Chrome extension and web app that connects to your Gmail account and adds an AI assistant inside Gmail. It helps you summarize long threads, triage messages (reply, archive, mark as spam), and draft replies with selectable tone and length that you can edit before sending (site, Chrome Web Store).

A typical workflow is: install the Chrome extension or sign in at mail.friday.so, open a thread, then use Friday’s suggestions to summarize or draft a response directly in Gmail. Heavier edits remain with the user before sending. The company says it fetches emails in real time and does not store your emails, and notes it passed Google’s security checks for Chrome extensions (FAQ). Pricing is listed at $20/month for unlimited use, with a free trial positioned on the site (FAQ).

Today, Friday supports Gmail only. The team is rolling out an in‑Gmail “Chat Beta” (waitlist open) to make the assistant persistently available in the inbox. Longer‑term, they aim to predict and take routine actions on your behalf, but the current product is focused on drafting, summarizing, and suggested actions with user review (waitlist, YC profile).

Who are their target customer(s)

• Busy knowledge workers and managers using Gmail: They process many short threads daily and spend too much time reading and writing routine responses. They need faster summaries and quick, editable drafts to speed triage and replies (FAQ, Chrome Web Store).
• Founders and solo operators: They must clear the inbox quickly to focus on product and customers. They want help on routine messages while retaining control over important replies; Friday accelerates drafting/triage but isn’t a fully autonomous autopilot yet (waitlist, YC profile).
• Sales and customer‑success reps: They send many repetitive, templated emails and need consistent tone with quick personalization. They want one‑click suggestions that cut time per outbound or follow‑up message (FAQ, Chrome Web Store).
• Recruiters and hiring managers: They juggle many candidate threads and scheduling back‑and‑forth. They need fast thread summaries and ready‑to‑edit responses to move candidates forward without missing context.
• Freelancers and consultants on Gmail: They manage client emails across projects without support staff. They need faster composing and triage in Gmail; browser support limits usage to Gmail on supported browsers (site, FAQ).

How would they acquire their first 10, 50, and 100 customers

• First 10: Direct outreach to ~50 Gmail‑using contacts (founders, managers, recruiters) via personal and YC networks; offer free early access with a 30‑minute onboarding call to gather feedback and secure first paid users (site, YC profile).
• First 50: Targeted posts and offers in startup/professional communities (e.g., YC alumni Slack, Indie Hackers, LinkedIn groups) plus 5–10 short pilots with small sales/CS teams using free credits and setup sessions; leverage the Chrome Web Store listing and free trial to reduce install friction (Chrome Web Store, FAQ).
• First 100: Improve the Web Store listing and Gmail onboarding, publish role‑specific how‑to content, run a Product Hunt/newsletter push, and add simple “invite a teammate” flows to encourage referrals; use the Chat Beta waitlist to re‑engage trial users and convert to paid (waitlist, Chrome Web Store).

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

Gmail has over 1.8 billion monthly users, making it one of the largest email services globally (Exploding Topics). Across all providers, there were about 4.6–4.7 billion email users in 2024, underscoring the size of the email user base (EmailToolTester).

Bottom-up calculation:

Assuming 20% of Gmail’s 1.8B users are professional, email‑heavy users (≈360M), and 3% of them would pay for a Gmail‑native AI assistant at $20/month ($240/year), TAM ≈ 10.8M subscribers x $240 ≈ $2.6B/year.

Assumptions:

• Share of Gmail users who are professional/power users ≈ 20% (est.).
• Paid adoption among those users ≈ 3% (est., extension utility category).
• ARPU equals current list price of $20/user/month ($240/year).

Who are some of their notable competitors

• Gmail / Google Workspace (Gemini): Google’s native AI in Gmail can summarize threads and generate or polish drafts within the Gmail UI, competing on convenience and deep integration rather than as a separate extension (product, support).
• Compose AI: A general-purpose AI writing Chrome extension with autocomplete and one‑click reply generation across sites, overlapping with Friday’s in‑browser Gmail drafting but spanning multiple apps (site, Chrome Web Store).
• Flowrite / MailMaestro (Flowrite lineage): Tools that create full email drafts from short prompts and templates, optimized for outreach/repetitive workflows more than inbox triage or a persistent in‑Gmail assistant (overview, analysis).
• Grammarly (GrammarlyGO): A broad writing assistant (extension + web) focused on tone, clarity, and brand voice, now with generative drafting; overlaps on polished reply generation but is less focused on inbox triage/automation (GrammarlyGO, features).
• Superhuman: A full email client that replaces Gmail’s UI and bundles AI features for summarization, drafting, and deeper workflow automation; competes by offering an end‑to‑end client rather than a lightweight assistant extension.