Bouncr Wants To Be Bit.ly for E-mail [INVITES]

Remember the StartupBus project that launched 38 startups on the way to SXSW? Barely birthed startup Bouncr hatched in less than 48 hours on the San Francisco bus to help shorten and anonymize e-mail addresses, much like bit.ly but for e-mail.

Bouncr’s simple idea for protecting e-mail addresses is really quite genius. Users need only enter an e-mail address to receive a shortened e-mail alias that they can then share out to social networks or with contacts. Users can also customize the assigned e-mail address to their liking.

Co-founder Max Mullen believes Bouncr addresses a real pain point as e-mail addresses are often abused by marketers, spammers and strangers. Bouncr provides e-mail with solicitation controls, so the minute a Bouncr e-mail address is being abused, the user can pull the plug on the alias.

Right now, Bouncr users are super limited in how they can use the product — a side effect of its infancy. Soon, users will be able to manage a bounce list and track responses. The next immediate feature release is boun.cr e-mail addresses (in lieu of bouncr.com e-mail addresses). Five hundred Mashable readers can get priority access to that feature here.

Bouncr’s eventual plan is to release a pro version that will be a white-label e-mail shortening platform for brands. The system will support campaigns and much more sophisticated management tools.

First things first, though, Bouncr will compete Monday against six startups in the StartupBus finale event. Regardless of the outcome, Mullen says he believes the seven-person team has built something with staying power.