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Launch HN: Solve (YC S17) – We Save International Travelers Hours of Time

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Re: Launch HN: Solve (YC S17) – We Save International Travelers Hours of Time

#31

Post by deepGem »

JimDabell wrote: post #7

One of the first things I do when I arrive in a new country is pick up a local SIM card so I can use my phone without roaming charges. Sometimes this is nice and simple where you just walk to a booth in the airport and pick one up, other times it's a real hassle, having to hunt around for a local shop and fill in personal information on sign-up. Have you considered providing local SIM cards as part of your service?

This is a huge pain in many of the airports that I have travelled. In fact, you'll even get ripped off at some. For example Rome. We paid 50 euros for a supposedly Schengen wide 1GB plan but as soon as we left Italy that SIM was useless. So yeah, I'd definitely pay someone if they can just hand me a SIM at a nominal price as soon as I walk out of immigration/baggage claim

Singapore has done this in a great way. As soon as you take your bags and go out there are display boards for SIM purchases - quite quick as well. Super friendly staff.

EDIT: changed Europe to Schengen.

Re: Launch HN: Solve (YC S17) – We Save International Travelers Hours of Time

#33

Post by blainevess »

FLUX-YOU wrote: post #18

What are you using to coordinate with your staff that actually meet customers? Do you have a mobile app or an internal website they use for this? Same questions for customers: Agents could acknowledge that they are there and waiting (with the customer's desired name/special request). It could also function as a customer support interface as well as providing the support phone number. This seems like it would be very…

Communication with everyone involved has been a pain point for us, even as we've thrown technology at the problem. Right now, we're of course communicating with our agents via email, phone, and text to make sure everything goes smoothly.

Plus, our clients have the agent's information and the agents have our client's information, so they can communicate directly if necessary. In the near future, the client and the agent will have a Lyft-like experience on arrival or departure, where our agent sees the customer information on their agent app, and the customer sees the agent information on their customer app. This will be a massive improvement to the industry.

Thanks for your feedback/questions!

Re: Launch HN: Solve (YC S17) – We Save International Travelers Hours of Time

#34

Post by JimDabell »

throwaway123945 wrote: post #30
JimDabell wrote: post #7

One of the first things I do when I arrive in a new country is pick up a local SIM card so I can use my phone without roaming charges. Sometimes this is nice and simple where you just walk to a booth in the airport and pick one up, other times it's a real hassle, having to hunt around for a local shop and fill in personal information on sign-up. Have you considered providing local SIM cards as part of your service?

What about instead of a local SIM card, you're able to get a smartphone from the hotel you're checking in to and you can use it to hotspot your phone?

I don't want to carry around or keep charging an extra device.

Re: Launch HN: Solve (YC S17) – We Save International Travelers Hours of Time

#35

Post by acirinelli »

nathan_f77 wrote: post #23
venning wrote: post #22

Off-topic, but how expensive are five-letter, English word .com domains right now? I don't see new companies with domains that are small-ish words very often.

Wow, yeah that domain must have cost a ton of money. Wouldn't that be worth at least 5 figures, maybe even 6? Is that something that YC would encourage them to do, and maybe help fund the domain purchase?

Definitely something YC encourages (.com domains), but definitely NOT something they would encourage you spend YC money on. They would tell you to pick another domain, like getsolve.com or something.

Re: Launch HN: Solve (YC S17) – We Save International Travelers Hours of Time

#36

Post by throwaway123945 »

a13n wrote: post #11

Hey Blaine! Congrats on your launch. My co-founder Sarah and I just moved from SF to travel the world while we bootstrap our startup, Canny. I'm also a huge fan of products like Shyp, Instacart, Prime Now, and Gobble that let you trade money for time. I think I could be your target customer. However, $210 sounds pretty darn expensive for HK. I just went there last Nov. It didn't take much research at all to figure ou…

Since you're an international traveler, I'd like your thoughts on our idea.

Would you think it's a life saver if the hotel you checked into at your destination gave you a smartphone that gives you access to the Internet, Google Maps, and other travel-related apps while you can also use it to Wifi hotspot your own personal phone?

Re: Launch HN: Solve (YC S17) – We Save International Travelers Hours of Time

#37

Post by throwaway123945 »

JimDabell wrote: post #34
throwaway123945 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about instead of a local SIM card, you're able to get a smartphone from the hotel you're checking in to and you can use it to hotspot your phone?

I don't want to carry around or keep charging an extra device.

What if it was free?

Re: Launch HN: Solve (YC S17) – We Save International Travelers Hours of Time

#38

Post by deepGem »

Guys - this is way better than the crappy concierge service that many credit card companies offer. I got a bad experience with DBS Treasures. I'm wondering how you guys will compete or complement TSA pre-check or other comparable services, for example the premium immigration service at LGW that can be purchased for 10 GBP.

Re: Launch HN: Solve (YC S17) – We Save International Travelers Hours of Time

#39

Post by fudged71 »

anaskar wrote: post #8

This is great! This is sort of like how Clear brokers deals with airports to expedite security, except for more interesting and complicated airport processes. Could have used this coming back from Rome to the United States via Spain. Ended up going through customs 4 times just to make a transfer. Curious how difficult it was to do this for 500+ airports so quickly, especially since you're a private company and operat…

What is your opinion of Clear? I just saw it on a recent trip and it seemed like a violation of privacy

Re: Launch HN: Solve (YC S17) – We Save International Travelers Hours of Time

#40

Post by neerkumar »

blainevess wrote: post #29
neerkumar wrote: post #21

I think this can make sense. I recently traveled with a toddler for the first time. I was amazed by how in certain airports (the Asian ones), when they saw I had a toddler, they managed to speed up the process by sending me to other lines. At the same time, in the US they didn't send me to any special line and was horrible. I would have easily paid 200$ to avoid staying in line with a toddler. The website though seem…

Thanks for your feedback. We are working on the language on the website. Believe it or not, our pricing / services page ( https://www.solve.com/pricing/ ) explains this service much better than what's been done in the past, but you're right that there's room for improvement. The next version of the site will be launching this month and is a bit clearer.

That's (a bit) clearer. I hadn't seen that.

I think the entire airport experience is a mess and one of the few things I can think of that's actually worse than 20 yrs ago. If you guys gain deep knowledge about their process and can then make it more efficient via technology, it would be huge.

Good luck.

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