We’ve been mentioned in a post on ONLamp about email deliverability for social network start-ups. This topic came up in a discussion I was having with Andy Oram and he was fascinated by all of it — I realize more and more that while deliverability is core to the success of social applications, a lot of people haven’t given it much consideration. When we work with start-ups on their mail tier, frequently its because we’re working with them on something else and discover that their deliverability is spotty, they aren’t keeping any relevant data about it, have little insight into it and their overall strategy ignores it altogether. What should especially make investors and start-up management pay attention are the regulations around sending commercial e-mail — if your internet company relies on sending invitations to users’ friends and you’ve never held a meeting about CAN-SPAM compliance, you’re generating an unacceptable amount of risk for your organization. Unfortunately, I have seen this type of situation before. On the other hand, there are a lot of people keenly aware of email deliverability challenges and all the very complex issues surrounding it. A niche industry has developed to fill the void and there is hope for everyone in that given an investment of time and effort, any company can manage all of this and control their own mail destiny.