3 ms·

I designed a technical solution to this last year and ran it as a business called CallStop for a while, see: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22211791 https

I designed a technical solution to this last year and ran it as a business called CallStop for a while, see: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22211791 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22211791 Here's the problem with the business side: If you want to code in extra rules around PINs, requests, whitelisting, you need to route the carrier traffic through a service like Twilio, which is really expensive and cuts down on the margins of the business hard. When you combine that with Apple's margin and taxes, it's a really tight margin I found (even at 6.99$/month). If rerouted traffic could be much, much cheaper there could be a business there -- but there's always a threat Apple will just copy those features. I did get some paying customers though who really liked it. There's also whitelisting on iOS, might that be enough for your use case? Otherwise there are plenty of blacklist/blocking services.

madamelic 6y ago
Yeah, I agree on the margin point. I started my service on Twilio with the idea that the apps didn't go far enough and were too inflexible. My plans were $9 and $29 but even then, my margins were 10 - 20% which is just absurd for a pretty high-touch + risky product. Near the end, I was wanting to pivot from utility to 'replace your current phone service' and providing data makes it incredibly expensive when compared to other providers due to not having the volume to get reduced pricing. If I had to do it right, I would get VC and become an MVNO and position it as a 21st-century phone company ("Why can't I text on my computer?", "why can't I have multiple numbers", etc).
- davidajackson 6y ago
  I still have a large amount of node server code that is a permission system for phone numbers. If you ever get serious about the idea and want to reach me, email is in profile.
Razengan 6y ago
> When you combine that with Apple's margin and taxes, it's a really tight margin How’s the margin on Android?
- davidajackson 6y ago
  I never launched it on Android, just iOS. At the time Apple had the 30% for first year -- I think they just lowered it to 15% but would have to check that
  - Razengan 6y ago
    You have to apply for that and you should! https://developer.apple.com/app-store/small-business-program/ https://developer.apple.com/app-store/small-business-program...

madamelic 6y ago

Yeah, I agree on the margin point. I started my service on Twilio with the idea that the apps didn't go far enough and were too inflexible. My plans were $9 and $29 but even then, my margins were 10 - 20% which is just absurd for a pretty high-touch + risky product. Near the end, I was wanting to pivot from utility to 'replace your current phone service' and providing data makes it incredibly expensive when compared to other providers due to not having the volume to get reduced pricing. If I had to do it right, I would get VC and become an MVNO and position it as a 21st-century phone company ("Why can't I text on my computer?", "why can't I have multiple numbers", etc).

davidajackson 6y ago
I still have a large amount of node server code that is a permission system for phone numbers. If you ever get serious about the idea and want to reach me, email is in profile.

Razengan 6y ago

> When you combine that with Apple's margin and taxes, it's a really tight margin How’s the margin on Android?

davidajackson 6y ago
I never launched it on Android, just iOS. At the time Apple had the 30% for first year -- I think they just lowered it to 15% but would have to check that
- Razengan 6y ago
  You have to apply for that and you should! https://developer.apple.com/app-store/small-business-program/ https://developer.apple.com/app-store/small-business-program...