1. Get the domain right first
Buy the domain you will use for years, at a registrar you can log in to without the person who set it up. Note who holds the login: a domain that belongs to a former contractor is a common and painful problem. Keep its DNS somewhere you can edit quickly; Cloudflare DNS is free and Nexmail can publish records there for you.
2. Decide which addresses you need
Start small. Most early teams need a personal address for each founder and employee, and two or three shared ones:
- hello@ or contact@ for the website and anything general.
- support@ once you have customers, so replies do not depend on one person’s inbox.
- billing@ or invoices@ for receipts, so finance does not hunt through personal mail.
- dmarc@ for DMARC reports, which Nexmail files away automatically under their own label.
Shared addresses should be shared mailboxes, not forwarding rules. Forwarding copies every message to several people, and nobody knows who replied.
3. Authenticate before you send anything
Mail from a new domain with no SPF, DKIM or DMARC records is far more likely to land in spam, and Gmail and Yahoo require authentication from bulk senders. Publish all three before your first outreach. Start DMARC at p=none, which only reports, and tighten it once the reports show your mail passing. SPF, DKIM and DMARC explained covers what each does.
Keep cold outreach and newsletters away from the addresses customers write to. Many teams send campaigns from a subdomain or a separate sending provider, so a bad campaign cannot hurt support mail. Nexmail lets you connect several providers and set daily limits per workspace, per provider and per sending domain.
4. Choose where mail is read
There are two broad options. A hosted mailbox provider (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Zoho Mail and others) gives each person a private mailbox that works in any mail app, priced per user. A shared inbox puts the team’s mail in one place with owners and notes. Many startups combine them later; early on, one tool the whole team actually checks matters more than features.
Nexmail is a shared inbox that also gives each person an address, free for up to 9 seats, with mail leaving through your own Resend, Brevo or other provider. It runs in the browser and does not provide IMAP, so it suits a team that is happy to work in a web app and, often, in Slack.
5. Know what it will cost as you grow
- The domain: a yearly fee at your registrar.
- Nexmail: free up to 9 seats; the Team plan for more seats, the meeting notetaker and the AI calendar reader.
- Sending: your provider’s own pricing. Resend and Brevo have free plans for low volumes; check their sites for current limits.
6. What to add later
Booking links so prospects can pick a time without back-and-forth, a calendar shared by the team, a pipeline of everyone you are talking to, and notes from customer calls. Nexmail has all of these alongside the inbox; see Booking links and calendar and the Sales pipeline doc.
How to set it up
- Create a workspace. Sign up and name your organization. The Free plan covers up to 9 seats and needs no card.
- Add your domain. Open Get started and add the domain you own. Nexmail lists the DNS records it needs, or publishes them for you on Cloudflare, Vercel or DigitalOcean. See Connect your domain.
- Connect a sending provider. Connect Resend in one click, or add Brevo, Amazon SES, SMTP2GO or any SMTP server under Settings → Providers. Add more than one and Nexmail fails over between them.
- Invite the team and add shared addresses. On Teammates, invite people by email and create general mailboxes such as support@, shared with everyone or only the people you pick.
- Send a test and route it. Send yourself a message, reply to it, and, if you use Slack, connect it under Settings → Slack and choose which channel hears about each address.
Questions
Should a startup use Google Workspace or a shared inbox?
It depends on how you work. If everyone needs a private mailbox in a desktop or phone mail app, a hosted provider like Google Workspace fits. If the team mostly answers shared addresses together, a shared inbox fits. Nexmail can also read a Google Workspace inbox, so you can use both.
How many addresses does an early startup need?
One per person, plus hello@ and, once you have customers, support@. Add more only when a stream of mail needs its own owner.
When should we tighten DMARC?
After a few weeks of reports at p=none show that all your legitimate mail passes SPF or DKIM in alignment. Then move to p=quarantine, and later p=reject.
Can we send cold outreach from Nexmail?
Campaigns are built in, with approval, pacing, follow-ups, opens, clicks and one-click unsubscribe. Addresses that opt out are blocked from future sends. Follow the law where your recipients are, and read the Terms on anti-spam rules.
Read next
- How to set up email on your own domain — Step by step: set up email on a domain you own. The MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC records, where to add them, and how to check that mail arrives and sends.
- SPF, DKIM and DMARC explained — What SPF, DKIM and DMARC do, how they work together, what a good record looks like, and the mistakes that send your mail to spam. In plain language.
- Free business email on your own domain — How to get free team email at your own domain: addresses for everyone, a shared inbox and Slack routing, sending through your own Resend or Brevo account.