Gmail sorts by time.
The "Primary" tab is a lottery. An email from a board member or a big customer sits under a calendar invite and four newsletters. You miss the one that matters.
An essay in four parts, on email.
Email
for executives
and VCs.
Twang reads every thread and writes drafts in your voice. You wake up to five emails that need you, not eighty. Every reply is yours to send.
Private alpha · macOS 13+ · Free during alpha
Inbox · 14
Jenna Liu
Term sheet v3 — redline
Paul (Portfolio)
Updated cap table
Sarah Chen
Intro — Rivera (YC W26)
Founder digest
Weekly roundup
Used by partners at venture firms and executives at operating companies. Names on request.
I.
The problem
You answer 200 emails a day. Most of them don't need you.
Every email app asks you to move faster. Gmail sorts by time. Keyboard apps speed up your reading. None of them know which three threads you can't miss today.
Keyboard apps speed you up.
You read faster, but you still do the triage. Every morning: eighty threads, five that need you.
AI autopilots go too far.
They reply on your behalf and send follow-ups in your voice. You lose the relationship before you know it's gone.
Twang is a fourth option.
II.
The mechanism
A Chief of Staff in your inbox.
Twang reads every email when it arrives and groups what matters into four lanes. You see what to do, not what to read.
i.
Focus
The two to five threads that actually need your attention before noon.
ii.
Draft
Replies written in your voice. Ready to review, edit, and send.
iii.
Act
Tasks extracted from threads, with the original quote attached.
iv.
Handled
Auto-triaged emails you can audit at any time. One-keystroke undo.
Twang never sends on your behalf. You press ↵ on every reply.
III.
Feature 01 · Speed
Every action is one keystroke away.
Twang's keyboard model matches what your hands already know. JK to move, E to archive, R to reply, ⌘K for anything else.
Navigate
JKG IG SEsc
Compose
CR⌘↵⇧⌘↵
Triage
E#HM
Search & jump
⌘K/@G FG D
Every shortcut you already know works here. Twang adds lane jumps and search operators on top.
IV.
Feature 02 · Context
Every email knows who sent it.
Twang pulls context from your CRM, past threads, and calendar. Open an email and Twang already knows who the sender is and what you last talked about.
JL
Jenna Liu
General Partner · Index Ventures
87Relationship
3This week
4dSince reply
Term sheet v3 — redline9:42 AM
Re: Rivera intro thanksApr 17
Partners meeting notesApr 14
Zero-click enrichment.
Context loads in under 100ms as you select a thread. No sidebar to slide in. No card to hunt for.
Works with what you use.
Gmail, HubSpot, and your calendar. Twang reads the sources you already use. No double-entry. No import step.
Built for senior work.
Twang knows whether a thread is a customer escalation or a board ask before you open it. No plugin, no CRM tab.
V.
Feature 03 · Drafts
We draft. You decide.
Twang writes a reply in your voice for every thread it thinks you'll answer today. Open the draft. Edit if needed. Press send.
Draft · for Jenna Liu 2:04 PM
Jenna —
12x works if we can hold 1x non-participating. Free 3–4pm tomorrow for a jump, or I can send the redline back tonight if that's faster.
Navot
Why this draft? Jenna mentioned 10x last thread, and your last reply on term sheets held the line on non-participating prefs.
- Written in your voice. Trained on the last 2,000 emails you sent.
- Transparent. "Why this draft?" on every output.
- Never sent without you. Messenger, not author.
"I trust Twang to draft. I don't trust any tool to send. Twang is the first one that respects that line."
— alpha partner, Tier-1 seed fund (placeholder)
VI.
Feature 04 · Privacy
Your inbox doesn't have to leave your Mac.
Most users run Twang in cloud mode with hosted models. If you need stricter privacy, Privacy mode keeps all inference on your Mac. The cloud never sees your email.
Cloud mode · default
Your Mac → OpenRouter → Your Mac
Mistral Small 3.1 for classification, Llama 3.3 70B for drafting. About $1.50/user/month of inference cost. Fastest and highest quality.
Privacy mode · opt-in
Your Mac → Your Mac
Gemma 4B on your Apple Silicon GPU. All inference on-device. Lower throughput. Email never leaves your machine.
- Encrypted local database (SQLCipher).
- OAuth tokens in macOS Keychain.
- Zero telemetry. You opt in to every feature flag.
- Switch modes per session.
VII.
What they say
Trusted by people who live in their inbox.
"I stopped triaging. I just open Twang and it tells me which three threads can't wait."
Sarah Chen
General Partner · Placeholder Ventures
"The drafts are close enough that I edit, not rewrite. I'm getting an hour of my day back."
Marcus Liu
COO · Placeholder Industries
"It's the first AI email tool I'd put on a board member's screen without hesitating."
Elena Ortiz
Chief of Staff · Placeholder Group
Placeholder quotes. We'll swap in real named testimonials before public launch.
4.2h
saved per user per week
71%
drafts shipped without rewrites
1.9k
emails triaged every day
Placeholder metrics. Live numbers before public launch.
VIII.
Security
Built for a bar higher than email.
Local database.
Your emails, contacts, and drafts sit on your Mac in an encrypted SQLCipher database. Twang syncs them from Gmail. It doesn't mirror them to our cloud.
macOS Keychain.
OAuth tokens and API keys live in the Keychain. We don't see them. You can revoke Twang in Google's security panel at any time.
You pick the boundary.
Cloud mode sends thread content to OpenRouter for drafting and triage. Privacy mode keeps inference local. You pick.
IX.
FAQ
Questions people actually ask.
Does Twang work with Gmail?
Yes. Twang is a Gmail client first. It reads and writes through Gmail's API. Google Workspace accounts are fully supported. Outlook is on the roadmap for 2026.
Does Twang send email on my behalf?
No. Twang drafts every reply, but you press send. We don't believe AI should speak in your voice without your review.
Where does my email live?
In an encrypted SQLCipher database on your Mac. We don't mirror your inbox to our servers. See security for the full data map.
What does AI mode mean?
By default, Twang sends thread content to hosted LLMs (Mistral Small 3.1 for triage, Llama 3.3 70B for drafting, both on OpenRouter). Switch to Privacy mode to route all inference to a local model on your Apple Silicon GPU.
How much will Twang cost?
Free during alpha. When we open public access, expect a per-seat model priced like premium email clients. We'll announce pricing at least 30 days before we start charging alpha users.
What's the current status?
Private alpha, invite-only. Used daily by partners at venture firms and executives at operating companies. macOS 13+ on Apple Silicon or Intel. Windows and mobile are not currently on the roadmap.
How is Twang different from other AI email tools?
Most AI email tools try to be autonomous. They reply on your behalf. Twang doesn't. You press send on every reply.
Who's behind Twang?
Twang is built by Navot Volk (Partner at GroundUp Ventures) and a small team. We built the inbox we needed for our own work.
X.
Ready?
Ready for your inbox to do the work?
Request alpha access. We review every request personally. If it's a fit, we'll send an invite and book a 20-minute setup call.
Request Alpha AccessFree during alpha · macOS 13+ · Or write to [email protected]