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Launch HN: Sidekick (YC S20) – A hardware device to connect remote teams

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171–180 of 234 posts

Re: Launch HN: Sidekick (YC S20) – A hardware device to connect remote teams

#171
post #3

> Sidekick is a new hardware device […] So your "new hardware device" is a Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 (2019) with a stand, isn't it? What's your motivation to offer hardware instead of selling the Android app separately as well, so customers could use it without the hassle of getting hardware shipped?

Crazy how bad at math you’d have to be to think this was a deal.

Re: Launch HN: Sidekick (YC S20) – A hardware device to connect remote teams

#173
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can dream up all of these scenarios. But if you have a healthy business then a small number of people scamming you for Galaxy Tab's doesn't kill it.

Well, of course, that's the case for big corpo; but being a small startup with _limited_ budget, I think the bill can scale up pretty quickly. Hopefully not, though, I truly like the product.

The margins are pretty fat ($25/mo for hardware that costs $200) and unless they have a particular knack for finding petty thieves I expect that they will lose fewer than 1% of their tablets to fraud.

Re: Launch HN: Sidekick (YC S20) – A hardware device to connect remote teams

#174

The only question I have is how well it scales. The writeup above keeps talking about a “room” but the website features only person-to-person with the exception of the illustration of muting which shows the guitarist and hand-clapper as two ‘windows’. So two people cuts the 1080p (pretty low res) screen in half. What about 10 people, or 25? The answer is not in your FAQ: Q. How many Sidekicks can be connected on a te…

That's great feedback. Honestly, we haven't set up a team larger than 5 at this point. However, I also believe that 3-5 is roughly the amount of people who you actually work really closely with. These units are probably the right grouping for who is in one room. There is no actual max number, but I do think the design and the use case would fall apart right now. But there's some things we're thinking about like separ…

Stress test it!

Re: Launch HN: Sidekick (YC S20) – A hardware device to connect remote teams

#176
"always on" qualms aside, I think such a tool is a valuable utility to give to users, especially the features described on the website.

However, I'm would not pay an extra $25/month (or worse, $50) on top of my Zoom and Slack (or Teams) subscriptions because of a short coming of the number of screens one has or how Zoom works by default for the "always on" use case. Based on other comments, it seems like others take issue with the cost and sell that's happening here.

Re: Launch HN: Sidekick (YC S20) – A hardware device to connect remote teams

#177

A company owned always on video and listening device in my home? How about not.

We totally agree that this would be terrible - any company listening to their employees goes against the mission of the company. We built Sidekick for the subset of teams that actually want to feel like they're in the same room. They actually want to be on camera so they can turn to their teammates and talk.

Is the data end to end encrypted and do you have any management capabilities on the device?

Re: Launch HN: Sidekick (YC S20) – A hardware device to connect remote teams

#178

I sincerely wish you luck on this. I suspect I won't be using this, but that's more of an issue of workflow, as opposed to a judgement of the device. I don't like being interrupted while I work. I don't run Slack continuously, like many do. Also I'm a hired gun. I don't have a constant gig, and 90% of my work is alone. I think a device approach is reasonable. People like a device. They tend to not like a bunch of dev…

>People like a device. They tend to not like a bunch of devices, which is why smartphones became so popular. But since this is something that would basically be a desk accessory, it might work.

I feel differently - I feel like this wouldn't work for some that I know, not because they aren't fans of the always-on Zoom meeting, but because they don't have space on their desk for another accessory.

Re: Launch HN: Sidekick (YC S20) – A hardware device to connect remote teams

#179

You are so preoccupied with whether or not you could [found a unicorn off the back of Covid], you didn't stop to think if you should. To further elaborate: What is one of the only benefits to the pandemic? Remote work. Who wants to come in and ruin it? Sidekick. Thanks, I hate it. I truly do. I only have to imagine the god awful dashboard you'll inevitably offer (product managers gonna productize) and the dystopian K…

Agree wholeheartedly with this. They are acting like it's all just total freedom - you can use it only if it's useful to you. Willfully ignoring how often companies enforce technology on employees. i.e. Away forcing employees to chat on Slack and then watching over them.

Re: Launch HN: Sidekick (YC S20) – A hardware device to connect remote teams

#180

There was just a criticism of YC earlier this week about YC spinning out SaaS products for startup founders, and then this comes along right on cue. This reads like a solution looking for a problem. I have a screen. I have a camera. In fact I have two screens, three cameras, and four microphones on my desk right now. The hardware isn't an issue. But what really struck about this announcement was this passage: > We ta…

This is a tool for nagging that offers nothing over what we all already have. Every criticism is met with the same copied and pasted answer. We've all experienced it - you go and ask your cohort mates and friends and family 'is this a good idea' they all say 'yes, it's amazing'. You produce a chart saying 95% of people love our idea. You go to the actual market and 95% of people hate your idea.
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