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I think the HN crowd underestimates how valuable target users consider their time. I probably average 2 trips to the gas station a month and I have a below ave

by aresant 10y ago

I think the HN crowd underestimates how valuable target users consider their time. I probably average 2 trips to the gas station a month and I have a below average commute. Each trip takes me 10 mins out of my way + 10 mins of fueling depending on if there's a line or not. And it's always before work (I'm in a rush) or after work (want to get home to family). Paying a startup $15/mo to reclaim even 40 mins a month of my personal time is a no brainer.

jdUltim 10y ago
"simple services like filling up the air in a car’s tires, replacing windshield wiper blades and washing cars, as well." Yes, please!
kamaal 10y ago
>>Paying a startup $15/mo to reclaim even 40 mins a month of my personal time is a no brainer. Just asking, how do you wish to spend those 40 mins you are likely to save per month? Which you will likely get in installments of 20 minutes per 15 days(avg 1 minute/day).
- jgalt212 10y ago
  If you're rushing to get home before your young children go to bed, you simply cannot put a price on those extra 40 minutes.
  - maxerickson 10y ago
    If you are rushing to get home before your young children go to bed, haven't you likely already put a price on those minutes?
    - jgalt212 10y ago
      > cannot put a price is French for the demand is inelastic
  - kamaal 10y ago
    Firstly that is more like 20 minutes. Secondly, I don't know of any one with a schedule so packed that they can't spare 20 minutes once two weeks. The only two situations I can imagine is if you are poor and work more than one job and have to often rush. Which in case it doesn't make sense to pay more for something like this. Or if your time is worth in thousands of dollars an hour/minutes. Which in case you anyway have drivers and servants to do that for you. Or may be if you are meeting your kids once in a few days/weeks and you just can't wait anymore to meet them not even a few minutes.
    - xrd 10y ago
      I'm assuming you don't have kids. Kids slurp up every extra moment. And you as a parent are fine with that. Except in the morning when you need to get to work and don't have gas in your car. Then, I'd wager this service is worth even more than $15. In fact, I think these guys should send their email marketing out at 9:45 when harried parents have arrived at work and are still painfully replaying their mornings, trying to come up with a solution to skipping the refueling line.
      - kamaal 10y ago
        I'd imagine this would work if this is a daily scene. You wake up every single day and learn you are out of gas. I don't think it happens to anybody everyday. Either way the service requires you let them know a few days in advance and keep your vehicle unused for a good few hours. If you need to plan out things like filling gas a few days in advance, I'm very sure you wouldn't end up surprised not having gas in the car in the first place.
- bdamm 10y ago
  For me it would be not needing to experience the little bit of stress I see when the fuel indicator is edging down to 1/4 tank and wondering when I'm going to squeeze in a trip to the gas station when I'd really rather be somewhere else.
  - chatmasta 10y ago
    Isn't it just as much of annoyance to coordinate two handoffs of your car keys?
    - nick007 10y ago
      No need for key handoffs https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12073211 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12073211
  - fryguy 10y ago
    Just buy a Tesla and charge it every night :)
    - vkou 10y ago
      Instead of having fuel anxiety every two weeks, you'll have it every time your car spends the night outside of your garage.
      - Reason077 10y ago
        If you only need to refuel your gas car every 2 weeks, then you certainly won't need to recharge your Tesla every night.
  - kamaal 10y ago
    Well in that case make sure you have your car parked exactly where they want it parked to be refilled. Else you have to now experience additional stress of getting the car to that place and that falling levels of fuel in your tank at the same time. Its not like they track your car through GPS and show up at the exact place where you are empty.
- seanp2k2 10y ago
  I'd spend them doing anything aside from random boring necessary chores. If I could pay someone to actually handle all the boring mundane stuff for me just so I could have an extra hour a day to play video games, I'd do it. I have more money than time right now and you can't buy time ever, especially not while you're younger. I don't want to wait until retirement to have time to do whatever I want all the time. There is no promise of tomorrow. I'm not sure that I'll be alive in a week, much less in 40 years. I'm not willing to spend more time than I need to planning for tomorrow when I can enjoy my life now, and maximizing that is worth what is a relatively small sum for me right now to not have to think about small chores from which I derive no pleasure.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - kamaal 10y ago
    >>If I could pay someone to actually handle all the boring mundane stuff for me just so I could have an extra hour a day to play video games, I'd do it. Sure, makes perfect sense for anything that goes beyond >1hr a day. But lets do the math here. Lets say some one charge $15-$20 per hour do your chores(Going by the minimum+ wage). For two hours you are now looking at $450-$600/month expenses for that. If you can afford that and are willing to spend that kind of money, then it makes perfect sense.
    - thedufer 10y ago
      > $450-$600/month expenses To be fair, this is probably a trade-off people in SF are already making. I know I am in NYC - if I was willing to spend an extra hour/day commuting (and that's only weekday, of course), I could easily save $500/month or more on rent.
      - kamaal 10y ago
        Lets do some more math. Lets fix that figure to something like $600/month. That is $7200/year. Over a decade that is $72,000. Say if you started when you were 21. By the time you are 46- just the savings would be $180,000. Progressively invest that in a good fund. That could mean a home right there or a 401k equivalent, Just on your travel expenses. To me, that's a decent nest egg. I don't believe the parent poster was serious when he said he'd like to spend it all because he refused to believe he would be alive in a few decades. In most cases the person would generally be alive, live long, and be poor in old age. What follows next is blaming government, youngsters, immigrants, bankers and what not for your predicament while very clearly it was your choices at work all the time. Now don't tell me spending extra time on commute is hard. Obviously it is, you don't get to an extra 401k by 46 by walking in the park.
untilHellbanned 10y ago
I think you underestimate how valuable the vast majority of the world considers their money. All this use of "My". Sorry to be blunt but you are irrelevant. Spend some time outside of the bubble, St. Louis for example. People here ain't gonna pay $15 to reclaim 40 minutes a month. This strikes me like the gig economy spend a $1 to get $0.90 strategy. There are huge costs for physical presence businesses that can only solved by charging a premium...or spending VC money. So you are fated to be a lifestyle brand or brace for the pump and dump.
- beachstartup 10y ago
  > People here ain't gonna pay $15 to reclaim 40 minutes a month are there no hand car washes in st. louis? a full service carwash saves about 40 minutes of labor that you can use to catch up on work or other activities, and costs about 15 bucks. and how about a cheap lunch at the diner for 1 or 2? wouldn't that be about $15? and saves you about 40 minutes of prep, cook, and clean? $15 in a taxi cab or uber would save you about 40 minutes of walking.
  - untilHellbanned 10y ago
    You're missing the point. Most people don't think through this. They stop at "That costs me $15. Not gonna do it."
    - beachstartup 10y ago
      i think you're missing the point, people spend $15 all the time without thinking about it... hence my examples.
      - untilHellbanned 10y ago
        No. My point is people value their money over their time despite their time being more valuable than the money they save. Remember people drive 10 minutes out of the way to save $0.05/gallon on gas. People waste time and money to save money! My mom does this. There is no amount of analysis that will make her stop. People just don't think. And yeah people do part with $15 on known entities in brainless ways. This is a new behavior though. This gas refueling scheme ain't gonna make sense to the vast majority of people, hence once again cue the Dana Carvey George Bush skit...."Not gonna do it."
unclebucknasty 10y ago
>the HN crowd underestimates how valuable target users consider their time. I don't, which is why I'm launching a butt-scratching on-demand service. You'll never have to stop what you're doing to scratch your butt again. In seriousness, time is the most precious resource we have. Still, I wonder if it's possible to overestimate its value.
- jbigelow76 10y ago
  >In seriousness, time is the most precious resource we have. Still, I wonder if it's possible to overestimate its value. My own 2 cents on this is not that the value of the time becomes over estimated but that people fail to extract the value of the time they "saved" by paying to have a service provided. I pay somebody to mow my lawn every week, if I spend that time hacking on a side project or being with my family then I can honestly say my time is indeed valuable and was well spent; but if I spend that time just screwing around on HN or Reddit, then I would say I wasn't honest about the value of my time and accept the fact that I paid for a service just because I'm lazy.
- walrus01 10y ago
  Can we promote it with the Cloud to Butt extension? Seems like a logical marketing strategy.
pbreit 10y ago
For 99.9% of people, the value of 40 minutes a month is $0.

by aresant 10y ago

jdUltim 10y ago

"simple services like filling up the air in a car’s tires, replacing windshield wiper blades and washing cars, as well." Yes, please!

kamaal 10y ago

>>Paying a startup $15/mo to reclaim even 40 mins a month of my personal time is a no brainer. Just asking, how do you wish to spend those 40 mins you are likely to save per month? Which you will likely get in installments of 20 minutes per 15 days(avg 1 minute/day).

jgalt212 10y ago
If you're rushing to get home before your young children go to bed, you simply cannot put a price on those extra 40 minutes.
- maxerickson 10y ago
  If you are rushing to get home before your young children go to bed, haven't you likely already put a price on those minutes?
  - jgalt212 10y ago
    > cannot put a price is French for the demand is inelastic
- kamaal 10y ago
  Firstly that is more like 20 minutes. Secondly, I don't know of any one with a schedule so packed that they can't spare 20 minutes once two weeks. The only two situations I can imagine is if you are poor and work more than one job and have to often rush. Which in case it doesn't make sense to pay more for something like this. Or if your time is worth in thousands of dollars an hour/minutes. Which in case you anyway have drivers and servants to do that for you. Or may be if you are meeting your kids once in a few days/weeks and you just can't wait anymore to meet them not even a few minutes.
  - xrd 10y ago
    I'm assuming you don't have kids. Kids slurp up every extra moment. And you as a parent are fine with that. Except in the morning when you need to get to work and don't have gas in your car. Then, I'd wager this service is worth even more than $15. In fact, I think these guys should send their email marketing out at 9:45 when harried parents have arrived at work and are still painfully replaying their mornings, trying to come up with a solution to skipping the refueling line.
    - kamaal 10y ago
      I'd imagine this would work if this is a daily scene. You wake up every single day and learn you are out of gas. I don't think it happens to anybody everyday. Either way the service requires you let them know a few days in advance and keep your vehicle unused for a good few hours. If you need to plan out things like filling gas a few days in advance, I'm very sure you wouldn't end up surprised not having gas in the car in the first place.
bdamm 10y ago
For me it would be not needing to experience the little bit of stress I see when the fuel indicator is edging down to 1/4 tank and wondering when I'm going to squeeze in a trip to the gas station when I'd really rather be somewhere else.
- chatmasta 10y ago
  Isn't it just as much of annoyance to coordinate two handoffs of your car keys?
  - nick007 10y ago
    No need for key handoffs https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12073211 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12073211
- fryguy 10y ago
  Just buy a Tesla and charge it every night :)
  - vkou 10y ago
    Instead of having fuel anxiety every two weeks, you'll have it every time your car spends the night outside of your garage.
    - Reason077 10y ago
      If you only need to refuel your gas car every 2 weeks, then you certainly won't need to recharge your Tesla every night.
- kamaal 10y ago
  Well in that case make sure you have your car parked exactly where they want it parked to be refilled. Else you have to now experience additional stress of getting the car to that place and that falling levels of fuel in your tank at the same time. Its not like they track your car through GPS and show up at the exact place where you are empty.
seanp2k2 10y ago
I'd spend them doing anything aside from random boring necessary chores. If I could pay someone to actually handle all the boring mundane stuff for me just so I could have an extra hour a day to play video games, I'd do it. I have more money than time right now and you can't buy time ever, especially not while you're younger. I don't want to wait until retirement to have time to do whatever I want all the time. There is no promise of tomorrow. I'm not sure that I'll be alive in a week, much less in 40 years. I'm not willing to spend more time than I need to planning for tomorrow when I can enjoy my life now, and maximizing that is worth what is a relatively small sum for me right now to not have to think about small chores from which I derive no pleasure.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- kamaal 10y ago
  >>If I could pay someone to actually handle all the boring mundane stuff for me just so I could have an extra hour a day to play video games, I'd do it. Sure, makes perfect sense for anything that goes beyond >1hr a day. But lets do the math here. Lets say some one charge $15-$20 per hour do your chores(Going by the minimum+ wage). For two hours you are now looking at $450-$600/month expenses for that. If you can afford that and are willing to spend that kind of money, then it makes perfect sense.
  - thedufer 10y ago
    > $450-$600/month expenses To be fair, this is probably a trade-off people in SF are already making. I know I am in NYC - if I was willing to spend an extra hour/day commuting (and that's only weekday, of course), I could easily save $500/month or more on rent.
    - kamaal 10y ago
      Lets do some more math. Lets fix that figure to something like $600/month. That is $7200/year. Over a decade that is $72,000. Say if you started when you were 21. By the time you are 46- just the savings would be $180,000. Progressively invest that in a good fund. That could mean a home right there or a 401k equivalent, Just on your travel expenses. To me, that's a decent nest egg. I don't believe the parent poster was serious when he said he'd like to spend it all because he refused to believe he would be alive in a few decades. In most cases the person would generally be alive, live long, and be poor in old age. What follows next is blaming government, youngsters, immigrants, bankers and what not for your predicament while very clearly it was your choices at work all the time. Now don't tell me spending extra time on commute is hard. Obviously it is, you don't get to an extra 401k by 46 by walking in the park.

untilHellbanned 10y ago

I think you underestimate how valuable the vast majority of the world considers their money. All this use of "My". Sorry to be blunt but you are irrelevant. Spend some time outside of the bubble, St. Louis for example. People here ain't gonna pay $15 to reclaim 40 minutes a month. This strikes me like the gig economy spend a $1 to get $0.90 strategy. There are huge costs for physical presence businesses that can only solved by charging a premium...or spending VC money. So you are fated to be a lifestyle brand or brace for the pump and dump.

beachstartup 10y ago
> People here ain't gonna pay $15 to reclaim 40 minutes a month are there no hand car washes in st. louis? a full service carwash saves about 40 minutes of labor that you can use to catch up on work or other activities, and costs about 15 bucks. and how about a cheap lunch at the diner for 1 or 2? wouldn't that be about $15? and saves you about 40 minutes of prep, cook, and clean? $15 in a taxi cab or uber would save you about 40 minutes of walking.
- untilHellbanned 10y ago
  You're missing the point. Most people don't think through this. They stop at "That costs me $15. Not gonna do it."
  - beachstartup 10y ago
    i think you're missing the point, people spend $15 all the time without thinking about it... hence my examples.
    - untilHellbanned 10y ago
      No. My point is people value their money over their time despite their time being more valuable than the money they save. Remember people drive 10 minutes out of the way to save $0.05/gallon on gas. People waste time and money to save money! My mom does this. There is no amount of analysis that will make her stop. People just don't think. And yeah people do part with $15 on known entities in brainless ways. This is a new behavior though. This gas refueling scheme ain't gonna make sense to the vast majority of people, hence once again cue the Dana Carvey George Bush skit...."Not gonna do it."

unclebucknasty 10y ago

>the HN crowd underestimates how valuable target users consider their time. I don't, which is why I'm launching a butt-scratching on-demand service. You'll never have to stop what you're doing to scratch your butt again. In seriousness, time is the most precious resource we have. Still, I wonder if it's possible to overestimate its value.

jbigelow76 10y ago
>In seriousness, time is the most precious resource we have. Still, I wonder if it's possible to overestimate its value. My own 2 cents on this is not that the value of the time becomes over estimated but that people fail to extract the value of the time they "saved" by paying to have a service provided. I pay somebody to mow my lawn every week, if I spend that time hacking on a side project or being with my family then I can honestly say my time is indeed valuable and was well spent; but if I spend that time just screwing around on HN or Reddit, then I would say I wasn't honest about the value of my time and accept the fact that I paid for a service just because I'm lazy.
walrus01 10y ago
Can we promote it with the Cloud to Butt extension? Seems like a logical marketing strategy.

pbreit 10y ago

For 99.9% of people, the value of 40 minutes a month is $0.