I think the take-away lesson is that there's no such thing as a bad idea, only a bad implementation. The internet is such a ludicrously big place that it seems that if you do just about anything, you'll find a market for it as long as you can explain it concisely and do it well.
Seriously, who buys something like this? Even as a joke it's weak and drags on for at least a month. I can imagine it's not funny anymore after several days. Like canned laughter.
I tried it out for the amusement factor. As wasteful over-privileged american $10 for a random amusement is in my price range. I spend more than that on bad movies.
At first it was kind of amusing. Absolutely did not have any affect of making me feel positive or awesome. More of a 'ha ha check out this wacky service' conversation topic than anything.
After a week it started to get old very quickly. I started to avoid answering when that 'UNKNOWN' number called in, preferring to receive my false affirmations via voicemail. There is an interesting/creepy dynamic in that I am having the same people call every day and forming these unspoken "yes we know each other" type relationships.
The one thing that has helped me enjoy the service again in the last week is that they hired some female callers. I know that these calls are just a service, but there is some deeply hardwired circuits in my lizard brain that make a cute girly voice insincerely saying "You're awesome!" make me feel much better than a guy doing it. Not "Oh my day is great now!" better, but it at least makes me smile and feel good for a moment. Evolutionary heritage at work.
All in all it was fun, but I won't renew for another month. I do feel good about trying it out rather than just passing armchair judgement about whether or not it would actually be enjoyable.
I think I would want to purchase it right now actually. My girlfriend is somewhat a depressed personality and this would def be a good self improvement for only $15.00.
Shes the type that always thinks negative about themselves. I imagine everyone knows the types.
Yes I do. A simple gesture like that. She would like. Think of it like a $10.00 set of roses. I think she would very much appreciate the gesture. Most women like it when you show that your thinking about them.
On another note, I talk to her every night and say shes beautiful. So whats another gesture telling her shes awesome.
I think the answer to that is a 'yes' but it should come from her boyfriend, not from an anonymous stranger, but even so just the gesture of a thing like that might be a net positive.
Nothing beats the attention a real live human being can give you though.
We've all likely seen startups come into HN asking for a review of their app when we thought "Hey, that was MY idea!", but we never shipped it, and these guys are.
Well, I thought this was a terrible idea when I first heard about it, and even if it folds after a single month, it was well worth the investment to build it.
A monthly subscription costs $10/month (and the subscription can be terminated at the end of the month)
Some people may pay $15 to avoid the hassle of explicitly canceling the service after one month. Most will probably prefer the $10 option because it appears like a great deal (in comparison with the $15 option). Either way, the service gets more customers than they might with a more simple one-price monthly option
It's like Bruce's ant farm through the mail service... "Wait a minute! You mean I can fill out this post card and they'll actually mail a real, live ant farm to the address I write down! This is awesome."
Citation - I replied: "What's really interesting is that these people will send a tube of live ants to anyone you tell them to."
@AwesomeReminders: You might consider offering AwesomeTextMessageReminders at a reduced rate. Either custom text, given by your customers, or something like: "Hi John. Someone who knows you told me you were awesome. Have an awesome day."
If you buy the one month plan I can see the recipient getting depressed on the 1st day of the second month when they don't get their awesomeness call. I know these people.
Got to say I love this. I have a recording of think big quote personalized to me on my cell phone.
"Meet Chester Grant. He is number one. He is the best at getting better..." I use it as a laugh; it never fails to make me chuckle.
I think the take away lesson here is that you can't judge an idea until it is market tested.
On the surface, I would say this idea would fail - I don't like it since it seems trivial.
However, I'm not the target customer segment so my opinion doesn't matter. As Peter Drucker says: "you don't define what is value, your customers do". The only way to figure this out is by releasing and shipping products.
The true test will be the # of reoccurring purchases for the service.
Which would get him an hourly wage between $30 (about $6,200 per month) and $60 (about $11,300 per month), depending on the mix of plans people signed up for. Oh, you have to subtract the cost of the calls which are probably negligible – I guess something like $50 or so for a flat rate.
He could hire some poor student who makes some calls and pay minimum wage (about $1,600 per month for all the current calls, there are probably cheaper options, maybe he does that already), that would probably make scaling possible. I would now usually add that he won’t be a millionaire anytime soon but I also wouldn’t have predicted that 752 customers would sign up so I better be quiet.
What I want to know: How can he not sound grumpy or go completely crazy after short phone calls with hundreds of different people. Every. Fucking. Day. That seems like a riddle.
I sent the link to my girlfriend. She is super bubbly and a work-from-home job would be awesome for her college (nursing school) career. I think there are a lot of college kids who would do well at this.
While you'll certainly be able to outsource the calls, when customer service is the service, you need to make sure to get good callers. Hopefully this is doable for low enough wages to make a good profit.
I am probably in the majority here when I write I could never see myself paying for such a service. However, here is something I would like to see: the ability to call (and receive a call) from a random stranger and be able to talk about anything positive.
That last word is probably something that would make this service very challenging to implement.
And the main requirement for getting a job with them is an advanced capability to persuade yourself of anything (or lie convincingly?):
"Please be sure to spend some time practicing before you call - make sure the message is enthusiastic, /sincere/ and emotionally connected!" (my italics)
i think this is a great idea but one month is too long. why not have different options like 1-3 days, 1 week, once every month or special occasions (birthdays, anniversaries)?
I'm LMFAO. This is great, and now because people see this is getting usage, it will get more usage, more coverage, and then more usage lol. Nice job AR :)
It's the most literal interpretation of 'make something people want' that you could possibly do, make them feel loved.
To identify an human need like this and to have the guts to follow through on it is really something special, the funniest thing of all is that in the same thread where Zack launched this he was told off by people telling him to spend more time on his projects or nothing would ever take off :)
I agree with you that this could easily snowball, and for those that are not convinced of the use, (no, I'm not a user) there are plenty of people for who a daily sign of life from the rest of the world would make a huge difference.
Another thing that might happen is that the service will branch out in to other fields once a large enough customerbase has been created, the customers themselves will probably start supplying ideas.
It's a golden recipe, dial-out to people that are happy to take your call because they know you will try to make them feel good, instead of calling them to sell them something.
Having some stranger cold call me and read a script at me isn't going to make me feel loved. It's going to make me pissed off and hang up the phone. But OTOH I'm British - we don't go for the smarmy at all.
Sure, there's a market for this, just like there's a large market for horoscopes.
But at the end of the day, it, just like horoscopes, is preying on the stupid.
But at the end of the day, it, just like horoscopes, is preying on the stupid.
Okay, I take issue with that. It actually pisses me off. Unlike horoscopes you are not led to think you'll receive something which is not actually delivered. This is a legitimate product which delivers fully on what is sold. Enjoying a positive, potentially humorous daily event does not make people like "Holly" or "Logan" from the sample phone calls "stupid". In fact, I myself have considered signing up for it. I just haven't went through with it. Not many would think I'm stupid.
I actually had an idea somewhat similar to this. It was to send a randomly timed, positive email out to a list of participants. The email wasn't to say the participant was awesome; it was just to say something positive, as opposed to being work related email, or spam messages sitting in their inbox, just something to brighten their day. I never figured out what content to put in the email, but I now bequeath that idea to AwesomenessReminders to add to their service as they see fit, because their version and implementation of positive messages is really good (and obviously selling).
True entrepreneurs know the value of motivation and encouragement. Success usually doesn't come overnight, and because entrepreneurship is a road less traveled it can be an emotionally lonely one, even with loving friends and family, because they don't really appreciate, or understand what you're trying to do. This is why tricks like posting up motivational quotes, or pictures of nice things to buy often help entrepreneurs keep slugging away. It can be tough to manufacture the consistent optimism and positive energy needed to continue down a road of setbacks, disappointments, and obstacles which can drag on for months and years. Energy cannot be created or destroyed, but only converted or transferred. If you believe this fundamental law of science then you might possibly see the value of receiving a positive, energetic message, in a world where positivity in general is quite scarce (just turn on the news). There is nothing stupid about this; in fact, it makes perfect sense. Besides, it's lighthearted and fun.
[9/10/10 11:49:44 AM] Awesomeness Reminders: hola mi amigo
[9/10/10 11:50:24 AM] Awesomeness Reminders: customer 463...AHHHHmazing..what a story
[9/10/10 11:50:49 AM] Zachary Burt: oh yeah?
[9/10/10 11:51:30 AM] Awesomeness Reminders: when i called yesterday she was at the hospital visiting her neice who has leukemia. she promptly handed the phone over and i was able to tell this kid that she is amazing
[9/10/10 11:51:39 AM] Zachary Burt: oh my god
[9/10/10 11:51:42 AM] Awesomeness Reminders: and awesome
[9/10/10 11:51:47 AM] Awesomeness Reminders: and a fighter
[9/10/10 11:51:56 AM] Awesomeness Reminders: i cried all freakin' night....
It's not cold calling, that's something completely different.
Also I don't think you're the 'target audience', (and neither am I) but I think that for some people this might be better than nothing at all.
Btw, I think you're awesome, I've been reading your stuff here on HN and it strikes me as very insightful and your positive attitude is a shining example to the rest of us here.
I'm not quite cynical enough to believe every compliment offered has a financial motivation.
But if I started receiving calls from random strangers telling me I'm awesome I'd probably be inclined to doubt the callers were motivated by sincere belief in my awesomeness. Actually I'd probably be saddened to think the only compliments I was getting were from people paid to do it, or concerned that someone, somewhere, was probably secretly laughing at me.
Zack, if you fancy pivoting I'd be more likely to pay to listen to the funniest responses you get :-p
Almost - he is faking the love them part and people know it (even if they try not to think about it), which is why he makes $7500/month and not the trillion he would have made if he could actually make them loved.
Wow, 750 paying subscribers at a minimum of $10 = $7500/month for a total of 6.25 hours of work time (lets triple it to be conservative and take into account dialing/redialing/waiting).
Thats a working wage of about $416/hour. I assume he has zero advertising and negligible hosting costs. But something like this, I'm sure there must be advertising, can't ALL be viral...can it?
How'd you do your math? The sample calls they play are 30 seconds long. Assuming another 30 seconds for looking up the number and waiting for them to answer, that's 1 minute per call. 750 calls a day for 20 days (assuming they don't call on the weekend?) that's 250 hours of calls in a month... which is only $30/hour.
Pffft. I'd farm the work out to mechanical Turk. Then you don't even have to do the work yourself. :) Much more scalable and less annoying too. You could even have them call you occasionally for verification they're really putting their hearts into it.
Hey, there's actually another reason that's smart too. Apparently having positive emotions toward other people makes it more likely for you yourself to be happy. So maybe having these people call others to tell them how great they are would have even more of an effect than the initial service offered.
