Why founders use Auteur
A magazine, a field guide, and now a mailbox. They come from one team, and that is not an accident.
We publish what we build
Auteur started as a publication for founders entering the US market. We write The Auteur Brief, where we analyze the tax, banking, and trade changes that actually hit small businesses, and The Field Guide, a 90-term reference that explains US paperwork for both residents and non-residents.
Every guide entry is written against primary sources, names those sources, and carries a verification date. We hold our mailbox to the same standard: the pricing page shows the whole fee schedule, and the fair use policy is published before launch, so you can read exactly what you would be buying.
We have handled other people's mail before
Our team has run cross-border mail operations in Asia for years. Receiving, sorting, scanning, and forwarding someone else's mail is a discipline. Letters get lost when the process is sloppy, and a lost letter can mean a missed tax deadline. We learned that the careful way, over a long time, before we ever offered a US address.
We are also non-resident founders ourselves. We enter the US market the same way you do, with the same forms and the same questions. That is the perspective the whole product is built from.
Henry reads your mail in your language
US mail is written for people who grew up with it. An IRS notice is frightening until someone tells you it is not a fine, just a question with a deadline. Henry, the AI assistant inside Auteur, does exactly that for every letter you open: what it says, what it means, and what to do next, in English, Korean, or Spanish.
We build the mailbox software ourselves, so Henry is not a bolted-on feature. The whole inbox is designed around the idea that your mail should explain itself.
Priced against the services you already know
US mailbox pricing comes in two shapes. Plans like iPostal1 charge for the mail you receive and bill each open-and-scan on top. Flat plans like Stable include the scans and charge a higher base price. If you open a handful of letters a month rather than all of them, the first shape costs less, so we chose it and kept every fee on one page.
Virtual Mailing Address is $9.99 a month for personal mail, and Virtual Business Address is $14.99 with a business or trade name and up to 6 recipient names. Every plan includes an envelope photo of everything, junk filtered free, and shredding. Opening and scanning is a flat $1.99 per piece with no page fee, and Henry explains what we open in English, Korean, or Spanish. Forwarding is actual postage with no handling fee. Check deposits are a flat $2. Extra mail is $1.50 a piece, and the 60 version of either product doubles the mail for $5 more.
If you read most of what you receive, a flat plan can come out cheaper, and we say so on our comparison pages. And when you need more than a mailbox, an office-grade presence or scanning included at volume, our partner save office runs US virtual offices.
Everything it does, side by side
The same capability list, next to the two services founders usually shortlist. We kept the policies deliberately close, so the differences that remain are the real ones.
| Capability | Auteur | Stable | iPostal1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Available today | Pre-launch. Ordering is free, nothing is charged until launch, and it locks the founding price | Yes | Yes |
| Receive mail and packages | Included. Packages up to 25 lb and 2 ft per side | Included, with the same package limits | Included, larger packages accepted too |
| Envelope photo on arrival | Included | Included | Included |
| Open and scan | $1.99 per piece when you ask, no page fee | Included within the plan allowance | Paid per request, with a page cap per order |
| Summary and translation | Henry explains every letter you open in English, Korean, or Spanish | AI summaries in English | Not offered. You read the PDFs |
| Forwarding, US and international | Actual postage, no handling fee | Postage plus a transaction fee, amount not published | Rates shown at checkout, set by each location |
| Combine items into one shipment | One shipment, one postage | Offered | Letters free to combine, per-item fee for packages |
| Check deposits | $2 per check, flat, postage included | Add-on, priced per check on volume plans | Mail-in to your bank, priced per batch plus scans and tracked shipping |
| Shredding and discarding | Free, with an email first | Included as a plan action | Discarding included, shredding is a paid order |
| Physical storage | 30 days, letters and packages alike | 30 days, all mail | 30 days for letters, shorter for larger packages, then paid storage |
| Recipient names | Virtual Mailing Address: up to 2 individuals. Virtual Business Address: 1 business or trade name plus up to 6 individuals | Unlimited | Up to 6, company name on business plans |
| Users | One account login, no per-seat charge | 1 included, paid seats, capped at 3 | No per-seat model published |
| Registered agent | Offered, all 50 states at launch, in the same inbox | Offered as an add-on | Offered as an add-on |
| Phone and fax | Not offered. Mail only | Not offered | Offered on their virtual office line |
Verified against Stable's and iPostal1's public pricing and service pages on August 19, 2026. Their terms can change, so check their sites for current details. For the full head-to-heads, read Auteur vs Stable and Auteur vs iPostal1. Registered agent details are on the registered agent page.
Where we are today
Auteur is in pre-launch. We are opening city by city in nine US cities, from Silicon Valley to New York and Austin. Ordering is free, takes about a minute, and locks the founding price, with nothing charged until launch. We would rather earn trust by publishing our prices and policies early than by promising dates we cannot keep.
See what the mailbox includes
Four plans, one page of fees, and nothing billed that is not on it.