Spike is my new favorite tool. I upgraded to the annual plan last week and it's made sorting and managing emails easy breezy. I love that I can pin emails (I missed this when Gmail Inbox went away) and the UI makes it easy to sort, reply, etc. It's simple and comprehensive at the same time. Wasn't sure I would like the chat-style interface but I really do!
Automatically sending emails to my contacts without even asking is a dick move. Now everybody is irritated with me and I'm irritated with your product. Ignore your "growth hacker" and exercise some restraint. If the product is good it will grow organically.