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Hey everyone - this is insane. My friends and I created Magic a few days ago as a side project and it's completely blown up by accident since then. We're gettin
by cmikec 12y ago
Hey everyone - this is insane. My friends and I created Magic a few days ago as a side project and it's completely blown up by accident since then. We're getting stormed with messages and orders.
We thought we'd launch it ourselves later if it did well, and other people have been posting it on Product Hunt, Reddit, HN themselves...
I'm here to answer any questions, although we've hardly slept!
- hackaflocka 12y agoHow are you scaling it up?
- emocakes 12y agohumans.
- cmikec 12y agoIn our previous businesses we have scaled large customer support teams efficiently, and we also have handled a lot of online chat-based systems. As long as we can charge appropriate fees, this should be solvable. So far, so good.
- w1ntermute 12y agohttp://paulgraham.com/ds.html http://paulgraham.com/ds.html
- cmikec 12y agoYeah, and that. :)
- Thiz 12y agoUber-ize it.
- ryanSrich 12y agoHow do you generate revenue?
- cmikec 12y agoBy charging a premium on all services and products. For people who just want things completely handled.
- sidcool 12y agoYou said you created it a few days ago. Do you happen to have many helping hands to handle the deluge of messages you will be getting? Coz first impression is going to be the last impression.
- sidcool 12y agoI am in India and I want to send a gift to my friend in the US. Possible?
- leereeves 12y agoBest of luck to you. I see a lot of hard work in your future. Here's hoping you can scale up fast enough to outpace demand and give everyone a good first impression.
- daxelrod 12y agoAre you OK with people using Magic for things that don't result in a purchase? Something like "Is the 4:30 train from Greenwich to NYC late?" or "What hours are my local DMV office open?" "Anything you want" makes it sound like people can use it like they'd use Siri.
- obituary_latte 12y agoSeems like maybe a get-together with Watson api docs is in order.
- rspeer 12y agoWith no pun intended, Watson isn't magic.
- bgvrofg 12y agoThat could be done by charging a standard fee for the operator's time spent searching.
- kanamekun 12y agoOr a Magic Gold premium membership, if people want to ask non commerce questions beyond the first three free ones.
- peteretep 12y agoThere was a UK service called AQA that would answer questions for £1 back in the mid 2000s. They started off super super useful, but quality degraded enough as they scaled that it was no longer worth it. Used to be able to say "which shops in a 20 mile radius have xus in stock", or "who should I complain to about the service in xyz bar" and get great answers, but as they automated it more and more you'd just get back vague info
- LeoPanthera 12y agoI was briefly an AQA employee. You were paid per question, so all you really cared about was how quickly you could send an answer and move onto the next question. The quality of the answer didn't matter, unless the customer complained and got a refund, which virtually never happened.
- MichaelGG 12y agoSo I used to use something like this with Amex's concierge service. Like getting a Wii on release day, or getting a gift somewhere. I stopped using them after this bad experience. I asked them to send about $100 of good chocolate as a gift, and they just sent a $10 bar, 10 times. Duh. Anyways, I felt a very good sensation looking over this. Probably because it's just such a PITA to do things like order pizza. Gotta talk to people, decline sales questions, etc. What a relief to not have to deal with that day-to-day stuff. Or just going out to the store or grabbing lunch before the place closes. A personal assistant I pay on demand for anything? Sweet.
- vacri 12y agoProbably because it's just such a PITA to do things like order pizza Is this sarcasm? I can't see how wrangling an order through an intermediary is easier than just ordering from the local pizzeria's website. Not to mention that it takes a non-trivial time to confirm - in exogen's example above, it was 69 minutes plus delivery time. Small questions about relatively trivial things really drag out that confirmation time.
- MichaelGG 12y agoWhat?? No, not sarcasm at all, I'm dead serious. Often I'm just on my phone at night, no tablet/laptop. So say I want to get some food. I've got to go find the damn website. Remember a login maybe. Or deal with some JS-laden thing that doesn't render smoothly on my 6" Android. Sort all that shit out. Wonder if I have cash for a tip, cause I feel obligated most times. Or calling. I gotta actually dial, talk to someone. Deal with all their questions if I want combos or the offer and I'll save $2 if I just say yeah, and what's my phone number and address again? I realise I should get over this. That I'd do better in life (especially if I'm gonna sell my own software) if I got more comfortable just calling people and telling them what to do. Meanwhile, I'm already imagining how awesome this is gonna be next time I'm in SF. I leave the office, start walking home. Text Magic and say "hey get me some X from Y". Get home and unpack my mind and someone comes and gives me food. If it's an hour confirmation time, that's not as magic, but it's not a show-stopper. With less coordination than making the order myself, I can just pipeline things to work out. Perhaps this reflects badly on me or is a commentary on society or laziness or I dunno. But I'm pretty fucking happy to imagine I can have someone else unlock the city for me if I'm not feeling up to it. Here's how sick I am: I would order lunch via this every day, versus trying to get myself to go at the right time. Not too early because of the lines, but not too late because then they run out of good stuff or close. But I should probably get out a bit more so I won't use it every day just because of that. Otherwise I totally would. Hell, if they are streamlined enough, I'd even do it to order a cup of frozen yogurt (I'd probably pay $15-20 twice a week for delivery alone). I do prefer to get out and walk and take breaks, but sometimes it just doesn't work out, or it's too far, or whatever lameass excuse.
- bsgreenb 12y agoHey, just here to recommend that you use or otherwise build a CRM interface around the SMS conversations. This will allow you to scale the number of messages without being overwhelmed by operator costs.
- vishaldpatel 12y agoWhat are you guys using to manage in-bound text messages? Something like sendsonar.com or something home-grown?
- zaroth 12y agoPlot twist: it's the founder's cell phone.
- johnny22 12y agogood luck folks!
- derekja 12y agoWay to go, Mike! Exciting that this is blowing up on you.
- q2 12y agoI have a concern: How do you plan to handle security related dangerous items? For example, an user may ask you to deliver a package taken from one place to another place and you may arrange that but that package may contain dangerous/destructive/harmful materials which may be against law of the land where you operate. You can ask user to confirm contents but he/she may lie and faithfully you may try to deliver and in between you may get struck in legal issues. If the origin is well known or reputed enough, then risk may be less but otherwise, there is an element of risk. Have you considered it? and how do you plan to handle it safely? Thanks.
- blurg 12y agoThat was an immediate concern I considered as well. Like, a drug front that sets up a little website that looks like a restaurant or something. Only customers would ever really know about it, but Magic service providers would find it when someone asks for it. Customers place "secret code" orders with Magic. Magic unwittingly delivers drugs (or whatever contraband) throughout the city. But...then I concluded that surely it's ultimately cheaper and safer to just hire your own drug couriers. Given the slightest risk of discovery, they're less likely to reveal anything about the sender or to know the identity the recipient, unlike Magic. So yeah, some people will always slip some shady stuff through every now and then. But I don't think Magic is the best solution to any of those illicit problems. No illegal arms dealer is sitting around thinking, "If only I had someone to deliver all these gun orders, I'd be rich!"
- jfoster 12y agoSame concern exists for all couriers, doesn't it?
- dikaiosune 12y agoFrom the landing page: "We'll order what you need from the appropriate service (e.g. DoorDash, Instacart, Postmates, etc.), and deal with them" All of these services handle the delivery when you order directly through them, so I don't think Magic is accepting a hand-off from them and then adding an extra leg to a trip. It sounds like Magic is just acting as a middle-man in these cases. I don't see anything on their site which suggests that they ever actually handle your stuff.
- voltagex_ 12y agoI'd love this in Australia - I'm in a wheelchair and it'd make shopping much much easier.