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Launch HN: Trustle (YC W20) – On-demand child development experts for parents

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31–40 of 145 posts

Re: Launch HN: Trustle (YC W20) – On-demand child development experts for parents

#31
I feel like this is a solution for something that a very specific demographic would actually use. How many parents are involved enough to download an app/pay to solve problems with their kids? Is the advise that much better than what can be found on google?

I believe this limits your use case and the products viability.

- Also, this product would only be needed/used for a specific amount of time in a kids life ( think a 1 year term limit for actually getting paid from your customer during the terrible 2's)

Re: Launch HN: Trustle (YC W20) – On-demand child development experts for parents

#32
post #9
post #5

I like this idea as it seems a quicker way to get help. I live in Canada so I have access to good quality care. My wife and I are currently dealing with a 5 year old that has regressed in her potty training for some reason (and it's causing a lot of stress in our household). When I think about getting help, I suspect we will have to make an appointment with our family physician, who will then refer us to a child psyc…

One of the reasons I started Trustle was because I had a TON of parents seeking out my support for everyday parenting challenge that would not normally want to make an appointment. In some cases potty training regressions are a great fit for therapy, but in other cases, therapy seems too intense. And, you are right, there is often a LONG wait for care (and in the US, it is quite expensive). The convenience of being a…

clicked on the link you posted and Chrome gave me a warning. NET::ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID

Re: Launch HN: Trustle (YC W20) – On-demand child development experts for parents

#33
post #8

Parent of 3 under 5 here. My personal view – This would only add more pressure to children and parents. Whatever happened to trusting your own instincts? Perhaps as children all grow and develop in such different ways and rates in the early years the best solution is not to try and 'fix' children via experts. Many parents might be crying out for this kind of service, but I certainly would not be one of them. Hope tha…

> Whatever happened to trusting your own instincts?

n.b., these instincts are absent in humans in general. what you refer to as instincts are what you were inculcated with through your prior life. Not everything you were inculcated with is de facto healthy. Case in point: one elderly gentleman I spoke with said that his instinct for proper child training is to take a stick and hit a child when they disobey, until the child obeys. He regrets the current society disallowing it.

Re: Launch HN: Trustle (YC W20) – On-demand child development experts for parents

#34
post #29
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes - the contradicting advice is very real and overwhelming for parents. It is myth that there is "one way" to tackle most parenting things - there are too many factors at play (child temperament, parenting values, etc). Combining evidence-based advised with individualized support can actually help - but a blog/passive content can't do that. Thanks for checking us out! Would love to hear what you think!

There's evidence based works out there, but it's crazy hard to find them. Too much bloviation. As a resource bundle for members, you could offer book packages of known good texts. Possibly also a blacklist of "ideas/works demonstrated to generally be harmful". I dig the elephant motif, I just like elephants, and it's cute. Let's see. Working through signup flow. Picking the Coach - I don't know these people. I'd sugg…

This is great feedback - thank you. We've tried giving parents the choice, and us doing the matching (if you want us to match just text 1650 398 4285 and we'll get you set up!) IF we stick with parents' picking, I think finding a way to help the decision making process is really important and we can definitely do a better job of that. Thanks so much for nudging us on this.

On the evaluation - we offer a 30-day no questions asked money-back guarantee. Do you think a 'free intro call' or similar would feel better?

Re: Launch HN: Trustle (YC W20) – On-demand child development experts for parents

#35

I feel like this is a solution for something that a very specific demographic would actually use. How many parents are involved enough to download an app/pay to solve problems with their kids? Is the advise that much better than what can be found on google? I believe this limits your use case and the products viability. - Also, this product would only be needed/used for a specific amount of time in a kids life ( thin…

This is kind of a baffling response to me... how many parents are involved enough to download an app or pay for problems with their kids? Really? People download apps for everything, but you think they'd be too lazy to do it for their children? And spending money - you think parents wouldn't pay to help their kids behave better or to solve problems? They already do this - they pay for all kinds of toys/books/devices to keep their kids occupied and out of trouble, they pay for pediatrician visits, they pay for babysitting, and the list goes on.

As for how much better the advice is than what's on Google... getting specific advice on your specific child from someone who is professionally trained and with whom your have a relationship is obviously going to be infinitely better with Google. I can't even understand why that question would be asked.

Love the idea, and I think it's really valuable.

Re: Launch HN: Trustle (YC W20) – On-demand child development experts for parents

#36
post #25

As a privacy-conscious parent with five children, all of whom are gifted in numerous ways, we do often speak with a psychologist about how to keep them challenged, how to steer negative behavior into good behavior, etc. I couldn’t imagine not having such a guide at our side in addition to all the books and content we consume as inspiration in our quest to nurture our family. However, I would also caution you - and pa…

> in addition to all the books and content we consume as inspiration in our quest to nurture our family

A bit off-topic, but would love pointers to your top books / content on how to keep them challenged, how to steer negative behavior into something more positive, etc.

Re: Launch HN: Trustle (YC W20) – On-demand child development experts for parents

#37
post #24

I've worked in healthcare in the past (Drug Discovery) and have two parents in healthcare (Autism Clinical Psychologist and a Non-trauma ER Doctor). This is really interesting and honestly, rings a bit true to me given what I've observed from their interactions. Here are some anecdotes I've observed from parenting information asymmetry: 1. A lot of young parents (think: less than 20 years old) show up at the ER with…

Thanks for sharing with your mom :)

Both your mom and dad come at this in different ways but point to what we're trying to do. Kids get a pediatrician to help with their child's health, but then not much for everything else and so they rely on the health system when it's not needed.

Of course we have to be very careful not to go the other way - we can't have a single parent use us when they should be going to the health system. We make sure all our experts are on top of that - in fact, we hope that having close contact with a child development professional will help early diagnosis.

Re: Launch HN: Trustle (YC W20) – On-demand child development experts for parents

#38
Obligatory surveillance capitalism subthread incoming.

1) uBlock Origin blocked 30 things within a minute of loading your main page. I understand you're a startup and want to measure things, but given the extremely sensitive nature of your subject domain, this is not a reassuring welcome.

2) Privacy Policy - it looks like you've made some headway towards being compliant with EU regulations, but stopped halfway short. That's understandable (you want to focus on a smaller market first). However, there are some mentions about passing data to marketing[0], like:

"We may share the information we collect about you (...) With vendors, consultants, marketing partners, and other service providers who need access to such information to carry out work on our behalf;", or:

"To our third-party vendors and service providers so that they may provide support for our internal and business operations, including for the processing of payments, handling of data processing, data verification, data storage, surveys, research, internal marketing, delivery of promotional, marketing and transaction materials, and our Services maintenance and security. These companies are authorized to use Your Information only as necessary to provide these services to us and are contractually obligated to keep Your Information confidential;"

I hope that in the future you'll go into details about with whom exactly you share what information, and what for (as will be required if you'll ever want to do business with EU customers), and also on how exactly you anonymize and de-identify data. Again, you're dealing with pretty sensitive information here; as a parent, I need to feel confident that I won't be feeding my kid to the advertising machine.

On a positive note, I do like the idea of your service, and would happily use something like this, as long as I can feel safe about the information I disclose.

--

[0] - Despite the summary saying, "We would only ever share it with a third part if it was clear that this was a part of the service you were signing up for." (also, there's a typo there).

Re: Launch HN: Trustle (YC W20) – On-demand child development experts for parents

#39
post #25

As a privacy-conscious parent with five children, all of whom are gifted in numerous ways, we do often speak with a psychologist about how to keep them challenged, how to steer negative behavior into good behavior, etc. I couldn’t imagine not having such a guide at our side in addition to all the books and content we consume as inspiration in our quest to nurture our family. However, I would also caution you - and pa…

What books would you recommend? Parent to 3 young kids and haven’t read any books on parenting or raising kids yet. As much worries about making a bad choice as well as a good one (in book choice that is!) that would lead to teaching the wrong stuff and habits

Re: Launch HN: Trustle (YC W20) – On-demand child development experts for parents

#40
post #35

I feel like this is a solution for something that a very specific demographic would actually use. How many parents are involved enough to download an app/pay to solve problems with their kids? Is the advise that much better than what can be found on google? I believe this limits your use case and the products viability. - Also, this product would only be needed/used for a specific amount of time in a kids life ( thin…

This is kind of a baffling response to me... how many parents are involved enough to download an app or pay for problems with their kids? Really? People download apps for everything, but you think they'd be too lazy to do it for their children? And spending money - you think parents wouldn't pay to help their kids behave better or to solve problems? They already do this - they pay for all kinds of toys/books/devices…

Most parents downloading an app to help solve an issue with their children are parents from a specific demographic, educated, with gainful employment - this limits the demographic that will use this product.
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