Physical address management service Updater will leave beta status at the end of this week and start full-scale operations, including a full marketing push, next Monday.
The service has been in beta since its launch in late July, and it is ready to make a serious push for users after working out its bugs with a smaller select user base.
Updater's service helps with two highly annoying tasks: changing your physical mailing address and keeping it from the marketers who send junk mail. The company's Address Privacy feature opts users out of major marketing lists and can let them input any companies that don't want to receive mail from. Updater charges $1.99 for an address change and $14.99 for three years of address privacy.
"We're basically a spam filter for your real life mail," Updater CEO David Greenberg told VentureBeat. "We've had a lot of positive feedback because this is an issue that a lot of people have."
While the junk mail filter aspect is more eye-catching, Updater also wants to help the nearly 40 million Americans that move each year. Users of the service can file a Change of Address Form with the post office and can update newspapers, magazines, businesses, schools and more with their new address.
Greenberg was inspired by real-life events to create the service. "I was moving in Manhattan and tried to find a site to help me with an address change," Greenberg said. "But I just couldn't find one. So I starting thinking about making a company based on that concept."
The New York-based startup currently has five employees but plans to start expanding its personnel in the near future.
Personally, I love the ideas behind Updater, especially the junk mail filter. I get two to three pieces of junk mail a day and know families who get even more than that. It's likely that many people would consider paying $5 a year to not have to deal with that hassle anymore.
What do you think of Updater's service? How much junk mail do you get each day?
Watch Updater's video promo below: