Email for startups: one platform from first user to first campaign

An early product needs five emails before anything else: verification, welcome, password reset, receipt, and one security notice. That is an afternoon of work.

A sensible first week

1. Verify a domain. Add the DKIM, SPF and DMARC records from the Deliverability Center. Do it first, because DNS changes take time to propagate.
2. Create one API key with only the transactional:send scope.
3. Wrap the call once. Use the client for your stack: Node.js, Python, PHP.
4. Ship the five emails. Start from the verification, password reset and welcome workflows.
5. Register a webhook for bounced and complained and mark those addresses.

Mistakes that cost you later

• Sending from a personal mailbox address that is not on the verified domain.
• Putting the API key in a front-end bundle.
• Retrying timeouts blindly and double-sending receipts.
• Mixing newsletters into the same stream as password resets.

When you start marketing

Newsletters, onboarding sequences, and segmentation live in the same workspace. You do not need a second tool, but keep the streams separate: product email through the API, marketing through campaigns and automation. The AI writing tools help draft both. See features.

What to know about limits

Single recipient per API call, no attachments, 120 requests per minute per key, and no SMTP. If your product depends on any of those, check them against your plan before committing.