Google locked me out of my own workspace. So I built a replacement. Here's what I learned.

A few months ago, Google cancelled my Google Workspace subscription and suspended my account. No warning. Early termination on our grace period. No meaningful support. I lost access to my email, my documents, my contacts everything. The worst part? I was on the original team that helped bring Google Workspace to market. I'd spent years telling businesses to trust this product...

That day I decided: never again. So I built Hansel.

What Hansel is :A sovereign communication platform, email, encrypted messaging, calendar, and notes where you own the infrastructure. Your email runs on your server. Your messages are encrypted on your device before they leave. No platform can lock you out, read your data, or flip a switch on your digital workspace. It's a gmail, outlook replacement for people and businesses who believe that ownership matters.

What We've built so far:

• A proprietary cryptographic protocol called Wicked Crumbs — rotating encrypted identifiers that make it mathematically impossible for the platform to read your messages

• A self-hosted mail server, no AWS SES, no SendGrid, no third-party relay. Your email leaves from infrastructure you control

• Full email system with threading, attachments, signatures, drafts, and multi-domain support

• End-to-end encrypted team messaging

• Enterprise admin dashboard with seat management, compliance tools, DLP, and audit logging

• Billing with five subscription tiers from free to Business Professional

Real users on various real machines have been messaging each other with full E2E encryption since day one of testing..

What I'm curious about:

1. Have you ever been locked out of a platform you depended on? How did it affect your business?

2. What would it take for you to move away from Google Workspace or Microsoft 365?

3. What's the one feature that would make a sovereign communication platform actually worth switching to?

I'm launching Hansel on Product Hunt very soon and I'd love to hear from people who feel this pain. Your feedback will directly shape what gets built next.

If you've ever thought "I wish I actually owned my own email" this is for you.

— Kemone Founder, Hansel / SeedlingIO Former Google Workspace GTM team