It isn’t often that startup rivals battle in plain view of others, but such is the case with the mobile messaging services provider Postscript, which took to the Twitterverse earlier this month after receiving a cease-and-desist letter from competitor Attentive.Attentive’s letter was in response to a client case study that Postscript had authored and posted on its website about nutrition company BUBS Natural, which said BUBS Natural left Attentive for Postscript after finding its list actually shrinking instead of growing, then battling with the company to move its list off its platform.Calling out Postscript for “false, misleading and deceptive claims” being made about it in those published materials, Attentive in its letter demanded that Postscript cease posting them.Asked afterward what’s going on between the two outfits, Attentive, through a spokesperson, responded via email that “Unfortunately, Postscript has a history of false claims and deceitful conduct. We’ve sent multiple cease and desist letters over the years as they’ve made inaccurate claims about Attentive, which they’ve acknowledged and corrected. We’ve also brought a federal lawsuit in January of 2023 against Postscript for ongoing and willful infringement of our multiple patents for our two-tap mobile technology, which revolutionized brands’ ability to add customers to their SMS lists in a compliant way.” (Attentive shared a copy of the complaint with TechCrunch.)Some of the “beef” between the two may seem ticky-tacky to outsiders. For example, Attentive’s cease-and-desist letter complained about the timeline in Postscript’s marketing, which says that former customer BUBS Natural was a customer of Attentive for three years when Attentive says BUBs was a customer for roughly half as long.In response to Attentive’s letter, Postscript’s co-founder Alex Beller published an exasperated-sounding tweet, saying Postscript has heard before from Attentive and calling the company a “bully.” He also published a “response in full” that attempted to strike a more measured tone.Reads the response: “Postscript takes your accusations seriously and provides its substantive response below. But it is important also to note the broader context in which Attentive is casting those accusations. Postscript is making gains in the market

Postscript has created a platform that takes SMS Marketing to the next level.

SMS-marketing company Postscript laid off 43 employees.