5 ms·

You don't have to pay the high fixed cost of hiring someone fulltime or even part time. Anyone can pay for single use assistant service. Making that work thoug

You don't have to pay the high fixed cost of hiring someone fulltime or even part time. Anyone can pay for single use assistant service. Making that work though is hard.

vonklaus 11y ago
Sure, I think magic is pretty cool. It is just a rather obvious startup idea and exists in various forms already. I don't think it can work for a few reasons: 1. There are already great sites like amazon, instacart, uber, lyft, eat24, doordash etc. They all have specialties and there is very little friction to use them, therefore there is very little value-add for most mundane things. 2. > It's completely free to chat with Magic. When you order something, we'll let you know the total price so you can confirm it before you are billed. There are no hidden fees, and tip is included. There could be a large amount of inquiries that do not result in purchase, however a real person will be looped in. Initially people will troll them or experiment and this will cost money for the company even when no purchase is made. 3. Doordash, Uber etc have the infrastructure to do this idea, do it better and achieve synergy. There are virtually no barriers to enter this space 4. Like many things in the sharing/on-demand economy margins are thin. 5. Naming your company Magic was stupid. Besides Magic the gathering, this word is way to generic. They are not at the top on SEO and I am sure there are many apps with variations of Magic in the app store. 6. Appeal. They need a lot of customers using the app a lot. I think many people in SV and NYC who are upper-middle - upperclass may use this app, but as I said before they will compete indirectly with many substitute products. Things competing with Magic 1. Saving money calling a service directly. 2. Other concierges a person has for free such as with major credit cards, hotels, or through their professional affiliations. Many premium CC come with these. 3. Anyone who already has an assistant or employee that works for them directly. 4. Other companies invading the space (mentioned above)
- alaskamiller 11y ago
  Your whole thing is equivalent of someone walking into a museum, looking at something, then saying out loud to no one in particular... why is this here?
  - vonklaus 11y ago
    I am afraid I don't really understand what you mean. This is a start-up-centric community, discussing a companies viability and challenges seems reasonable. Admittedly my comment wasn't well researched or extremely cohesive, but I think I was able to get across some of the obvious problems the company will face. In my opinion those problems are likely insurmountable long term for magic. edit: A museum often archives or displays a certain curiosity simply for the sake of preservation, and for its own sake. The market does not keep companies around with the same compunction.
- manigandham 11y ago
  They do need some better SEO or at least a better worded page title and description, but they are consistently in the top 4 results for "magic" on Google no matter what device/browser/profile I use.

You don't have to pay the high fixed cost of hiring someone fulltime or even part time. Anyone can pay for single use assistant service. Making that work though is hard.

vonklaus 11y ago

Sure, I think magic is pretty cool. It is just a rather obvious startup idea and exists in various forms already. I don't think it can work for a few reasons: 1. There are already great sites like amazon, instacart, uber, lyft, eat24, doordash etc. They all have specialties and there is very little friction to use them, therefore there is very little value-add for most mundane things. 2. > It's completely free to chat with Magic. When you order something, we'll let you know the total price so you can confirm it before you are billed. There are no hidden fees, and tip is included. There could be a large amount of inquiries that do not result in purchase, however a real person will be looped in. Initially people will troll them or experiment and this will cost money for the company even when no purchase is made. 3. Doordash, Uber etc have the infrastructure to do this idea, do it better and achieve synergy. There are virtually no barriers to enter this space 4. Like many things in the sharing/on-demand economy margins are thin. 5. Naming your company Magic was stupid. Besides Magic the gathering, this word is way to generic. They are not at the top on SEO and I am sure there are many apps with variations of Magic in the app store. 6. Appeal. They need a lot of customers using the app a lot. I think many people in SV and NYC who are upper-middle - upperclass may use this app, but as I said before they will compete indirectly with many substitute products. Things competing with Magic 1. Saving money calling a service directly. 2. Other concierges a person has for free such as with major credit cards, hotels, or through their professional affiliations. Many premium CC come with these. 3. Anyone who already has an assistant or employee that works for them directly. 4. Other companies invading the space (mentioned above)

alaskamiller 11y ago
Your whole thing is equivalent of someone walking into a museum, looking at something, then saying out loud to no one in particular... why is this here?
- vonklaus 11y ago
  I am afraid I don't really understand what you mean. This is a start-up-centric community, discussing a companies viability and challenges seems reasonable. Admittedly my comment wasn't well researched or extremely cohesive, but I think I was able to get across some of the obvious problems the company will face. In my opinion those problems are likely insurmountable long term for magic. edit: A museum often archives or displays a certain curiosity simply for the sake of preservation, and for its own sake. The market does not keep companies around with the same compunction.
manigandham 11y ago
They do need some better SEO or at least a better worded page title and description, but they are consistently in the top 4 results for "magic" on Google no matter what device/browser/profile I use.