6 ms·

I seriously wonder why someone hasn't created an app/escrow service to mimic/enhance 900 numbers. Experts enter, hours available, and their price per unit (min

I seriously wonder why someone hasn't created an app/escrow service to mimic/enhance 900 numbers. Experts enter, hours available, and their price per unit (minutes, hours, whatever). Users would basically pay the experts premium to cut through any and all communication filters to get ahold of that person right then. If the expert doesn't answer his phone right then it would text them to respond with 3-4 digits for a set time (clients chooses time range) to reschedule (or deny). If you find yourself not taking calls the system will automatically increase your cost per hour until it is worth your time to just answer the damn phone (it will be eventually). Think of it as a simple handshake service for payed phone consultation. In the speaker/entertainment industry you quickly come to realize that pretty much everyone has a price to get their full immediate attention, it doesn't matter if it's Bono or Tim Cook. Not to be crass but everyone is pay-for-play at some dollar amount. Anyone from Ilya Grigorik, to Gary Vaynerchuk could probably set a price point that would make them very happy and generate calls.

dwynings 15y ago
Skype's had something similar for quite some time, only without the brand names: http://directory.skype.com/en/skypeprime http://directory.skype.com/en/skypeprime Also, Dan Martell's new startup, http://clarity.fm/ http://clarity.fm/, seems to be tackling this market as well.
jaredsohn 15y ago
Ingenio (http://www.ingenio.com/ http://www.ingenio.com/) which was acquired by AT&T does this too. Edit: Ether (mentioned in another post) at least used to be a division of Ingenio.
newman314 15y ago
This was started several years ago with Ether (www.ether.com). Then Skype came along with their Skype Prime. I have no insight as to how much traction either offering has. Just wanted to point out this is not new.
- fellowniusmonk 15y ago
  Well, yes it isn't new, there are also still 900 numbers. But just look at the offerings, Skype, AT&T(ether), the services are either a "value add" for the company or just look like crap. This space is begging for an implementation that doesn't suck.
jayro 15y ago
This is precisely what AnyFu is: http://www.anyfu.com http://www.anyfu.com. We haven't launched yet (just testing out the system), but we've processed five client/expert sessions in the past couple weeks and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.
- fellowniusmonk 15y ago
  Awesome, this whole issue has been a bugaboo for me a long time. Make sure you create a embeddable widget that people can plaster on blog posts, articles, "maker" sites, Knol(lol, but I think something like this would have given that service more legs and actual buzz), etc. For tech people especially, if your widget lists their high price point, a widget could actually add further legitimacy to their expertise as they write. Win win. One thing to keep in mind, some experts (depends entirely on their emotional relationship to money, brilliant people do this too) may tend to lower their level of engagement over time since there can be a reluctance to "increase price" when they start getting bored and feel your service is a burden at the income level provided, you should definitely have a mechanism to auto increment their list price as their involvement or acceptance rates decrease (or you can just add more experts, but ideally you do both, to organically implement tiered expertise). As an example, Sean Hannity is an extremely busy guy (you used to be able to get him for 35k) and really doesn't like doing live one off events, his daily radio show is an insane time obligation, and he would rather be book touring, but you can still get him on the east coast for 100K and a private jet :-)
- sargun 15y ago
  This is genius. How do you vet your experts? When is this going to release? Please take my money.

dwynings 15y ago

Skype's had something similar for quite some time, only without the brand names: http://directory.skype.com/en/skypeprime http://directory.skype.com/en/skypeprime Also, Dan Martell's new startup, http://clarity.fm/ http://clarity.fm/, seems to be tackling this market as well.

jaredsohn 15y ago

Ingenio (http://www.ingenio.com/ http://www.ingenio.com/) which was acquired by AT&T does this too. Edit: Ether (mentioned in another post) at least used to be a division of Ingenio.

newman314 15y ago

This was started several years ago with Ether (www.ether.com). Then Skype came along with their Skype Prime. I have no insight as to how much traction either offering has. Just wanted to point out this is not new.

fellowniusmonk 15y ago
Well, yes it isn't new, there are also still 900 numbers. But just look at the offerings, Skype, AT&T(ether), the services are either a "value add" for the company or just look like crap. This space is begging for an implementation that doesn't suck.

jayro 15y ago

This is precisely what AnyFu is: http://www.anyfu.com http://www.anyfu.com. We haven't launched yet (just testing out the system), but we've processed five client/expert sessions in the past couple weeks and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.

fellowniusmonk 15y ago
Awesome, this whole issue has been a bugaboo for me a long time. Make sure you create a embeddable widget that people can plaster on blog posts, articles, "maker" sites, Knol(lol, but I think something like this would have given that service more legs and actual buzz), etc. For tech people especially, if your widget lists their high price point, a widget could actually add further legitimacy to their expertise as they write. Win win. One thing to keep in mind, some experts (depends entirely on their emotional relationship to money, brilliant people do this too) may tend to lower their level of engagement over time since there can be a reluctance to "increase price" when they start getting bored and feel your service is a burden at the income level provided, you should definitely have a mechanism to auto increment their list price as their involvement or acceptance rates decrease (or you can just add more experts, but ideally you do both, to organically implement tiered expertise). As an example, Sean Hannity is an extremely busy guy (you used to be able to get him for 35k) and really doesn't like doing live one off events, his daily radio show is an insane time obligation, and he would rather be book touring, but you can still get him on the east coast for 100K and a private jet :-)
sargun 15y ago
This is genius. How do you vet your experts? When is this going to release? Please take my money.