DEV Community: Suprit Gandhi

The Quiet Gap in How We Message People Today

Suprit Gandhi — Sun, 22 Jun 2025 01:16:22 +0000

We’ve built tools for every kind of interaction.

Slack and Microsoft Teams for internal teams
WhatsApp and Telegram for friends

But what happens when you need to reach someone across those boundaries?

Like:

A freelance designer you're hiring
A podcast guest you just invited
A startup you're investing in
A new contact you met at a meetup

You probably default to email.

Not because it’s great - but because it’s the only shared tool left.

That fallback?

It’s slow, messy, and completely outside your control.

You get lost in threads, miss replies, and hand over your personal inbox every time.

The awkward middle of modern communication

Let’s be honest - this isn’t a minor issue. It’s the most common, least-discussed gap in how we communicate today.

You don’t want to add someone to your Slack.

You’re not ready to give out your phone number.

You want to keep context and boundaries.

So you’re left juggling inboxes, DMs, and scattered expectations and context.

There should be a better default.

A better way to manage cross-boundary conversations

That’s what I set out to build with RelayBeam - a Port-based messaging network built for conversations that cross boundaries: team members, clients, collaborators, and new contacts alike.

The key idea is something called a Port.

A Port is:

A unique, human-friendly address like alex@hiring or dana@press
Structured and built for thoughtful communication, and organized by purpose
Public but private - you control how people reach you

Example: What a Port Address Looks Like

Let’s say your username is alex.

You’re hiring a freelance developer, so you create a Port called hiring.

Your Port address becomes:

alex@hiring

You can share this with anyone - in a job post, a DM, or on your website.

When someone messages alex@hiring, it opens a structured, user-friendly thread under that Port.

No inbox clutter. No random pings. No personal exposure.

You can create custom Ports for different purposes - each with its own context and intent.

For example:

alex@clients
alex@feedback
alex@press
alex@support

All organized in one place - without context switching or fragmented tools.

Another example of ports:

Real-world use cases

Here’s where Ports start to feel like a superpower:

A founder onboarding a contractor
An investor reaching out to a startup
A podcast host coordinating with a guest
A job-seeker messaging hiring teams

In all these cases, a Port replaces the awkward fallback with something simple, focused, and structured - without asking either side to switch tools.

Built for boundaries, not bloat

RelayBeam is lightweight by design - especially if you’re:

A solo founder or indie creator
Someone who gets a lot of inbound messages
Tired of cluttered inboxes and dropped threads

It’s free to use.

And it only takes a minute to set up your first Port.

Curious?

Try creating your first Port and see how it fits into your workflow.

After testing with early users around the world, I’m now rolling out early access more broadly.

Start using RelayBeam: Get Early Access

Learn more about RelayBeam

📣 Let’s connect:

LinkedIn
Twitter/X

Thanks for reading!

Why do we still fall back to email for messages outside our usual tools?

Suprit Gandhi — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 01:31:17 +0000

In my intro post, I gave a quick overview of RelayBeam: a platform I built to handle both internal and external communication in one place.

In this post, I want to talk about why I’m building it. What gaps I saw in today’s tools, and what led me to believe something better was possible.

We have messaging tools for our friends.

We have tools for our teams.

But what happens when you need to reach someone outside those circles?

A vendor
A freelance collaborator
A potential client
Someone you just met at an event

Chances are, you default to email.

Not because it’s ideal - just because it’s the only option left.

That’s the communication gap I wanted to fix.

The tools we have… and the problems they don’t solve

WhatsApp and iMessage work well for personal relationships
Slack and Microsoft Teams work for internal communication

But the moment we try to cross organizational or personal boundaries, we hit friction.

Email becomes the default. It’s universal, but it’s not built for fast, focused, intentional messaging:

You need to share your address.
You create a thread that feels more like a document exchange than a real conversation.
There’s pressure to be formal - even when it’s a casual request or one-line question.

When the message matters - but doesn’t fit neatly into a chat thread or a formal inbox - none of the existing tools feel right.

What is RelayBeam?

RelayBeam is a platform designed for that exact moment - when you want to reach someone outside your usual circles, but want to do it in a clear, private, and purpose-driven way.

Instead of sharing your phone number or email, you share a port - a unique RelayBeam address for communication. No personal info exposed. No cluttered inboxes. No new account required for every conversation.

You get:

✅ A clean, focused space for messaging
✅ Real-time or asynchronous communication
✅ Privacy by default
✅ Flexibility to use it professionally or personally

RelayBeam organizes conversations by topic (like threads), but feels more like real-time chat - direct, human, and without email’s formality or baggage.

It’s built for communication across boundaries, without the overhead of email or the noise of typical chat apps.

(Curious how ports work? Learn more about it here)

Why I built it

As a founder, software engineer, and product builder, I’ve lived this pain repeatedly. Too often, I found myself using tools that weren’t designed for the kind of interactions I was having.

Messaging a potential partner? Use email.
Talking to a vendor? Email again.
Following up with someone from an event? Guess what - email.

But it felt clunky, slow, and impersonal.
That’s when I realized: we need a third space. A platform built for messages that fall in between.

It’s not about formality or threads. It’s about intention and connection - without friction.

Whether you’re sending a quick check-in or a meaningful message, RelayBeam gives you the right level of clarity, focus, and control.

🚀 Try RelayBeam

I’ve been testing RelayBeam with early beta users around the world - and the feedback so far has been incredible.

So now, I’m opening up early access more broadly.

👉 Start using RelayBeam - Get Early Access (it’s free!)

👉 Learn more about how RelayBeam works

📣 Let’s connect:

LinkedIn
Twitter/X

Thanks for reading - and for caring about better communication.

🚀 I'm Building RelayBeam - A New Way to Communicate Across Boundaries

Suprit Gandhi — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 11:39:06 +0000

Hi everyone! 👋

I'm Suprit, and this is my first post on DEV Community. I’m excited to be here and to start sharing what I’ve been working on!

Let me introduce RelayBeam - a platform I built for modern communication across boundaries.

🧩 The Problem

Slack is great for internal team chats.
WhatsApp keeps you in touch with friends.
But what if you need to message outside those circles - like a client, a vendor, a freelancer, or a potential collaborator?

Most people default to email - but not every message needs formalities, signatures, or clunky back-and-forth threads.

💡 The Solution: RelayBeam

I built RelayBeam to help you reach people beyond your organization, without friction.

It’s quick and clear - like chat.
It works across boundaries - without needing to give out your email or phone number.
It’s based on port-based communication: share your RelayBeam Port, not your personal contact info.

📖 Learn more about RelayBeam: https://relaybeam.com/about

I’ve been testing RelayBeam with early beta users around the world, and the feedback so far has been incredible. So now, I’m opening up early access more broadly.

👉 Get Early Access: https://relaybeam.com/waitlist

🔜 What’s Coming Next

In the upcoming posts, I’ll share more about:

Why I started RelayBeam
How port-based messaging works
How RelayBeam simplifies communication across boundaries

📣 Let’s connect:

LinkedIn

Twitter/X

Thanks for reading, and see you in the next post! 🚀