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Launch HN: InstaKin (YC S21) - Help immigrants to manage tasks in home countries

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Launch HN: InstaKin (YC S21) - Help immigrants to manage tasks in home countries

#51

Post by himlion »

vietnomnomnom wrote: post #38
alephnan wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> health insurance but arranging it from overseas is very difficult due to bureaucracy, literacy etc. I’ve actually never heard of anyone I know in Vietnam having health insurance. Kind of a weird idea to me. Why can't you just keep a doctor / clinic on retainer? I know that will sound like a crazy idea to Americans, but doctor visits aren't expensive in Asia.

I do not have a lot of clarity on the situation so I can't provide much of an answer unfortunately. They're in a rural part of the country, and spending thousands of dollars per year on healthcare. My research showed that private health insurance is very easy to access (at ~$100/year/person) which would be an order of magnitude cheaper than their current healthcare expenditure. There's a strong possibility that I am…

I have some experience in the region. A $100/year package will only cover very little but with high deductible and very low limits to any payout.

A "western" style comprehensive health insurance package will set you back much more, at least $150 per month I'd say. Also they will probably reject people who spend 1000s per year on healthcare currently.

Re: Launch HN: InstaKin (YC S21) - Help immigrants to manage tasks in home countries

#52

Post by exporectomy »

Fantastic. Not just 3rd world countries but even migrants from western countries need runners and trusted helpers to do simple in-person tasks. I know a migrant from America who had to fly back home simply to get a criminal record from the police station and take it to the embassy. I've personally asked family members to do this sort of thing but it's unreliable and bad for relationships.

Re: Launch HN: InstaKin (YC S21) - Help immigrants to manage tasks in home countries

#54

Post by rond2911 »

asah wrote: post #24

congrats - key insight. While this is clearly global, I strongly recommend resisting that temptation, and instead *hyper* focusing on one small region to service, and accepting requests from one country only (one set of laws, one currency, etc). From a requestor-marketing standpoint, you may also find big wins focusing on very narrow communities where you can market aggressively/deeply and build/defend your reputatio…

Couldn't agree more.

Re: Launch HN: InstaKin (YC S21) - Help immigrants to manage tasks in home countries

#55

Post by foolinaround »

khanzain wrote: post #48
foolinaround wrote: post #17

Congrats on the launch! Would be very useful! Some feedback: 1) While it is awesome that you will be doing all the communication with the contractors/vendors, it would give additional confidence to know who is actually doing the tasks 2) There should be community feedback on the vendor/task. Having it available in public would increase our confidence, for example, i might be willing to use your service for visa relat…

Great feedback. In our workflow, as soon as a task request is submitted via the app, the customer (immigrant) is matched with a vendor back home. The customer will know by name which vendor they are matched with and can even collaborate with the vendor through a messaging feature. If the customer wants more info they can view vendor details and bio within the app also. In your point #5, not sure exactly what you are…

in this case, i would have an US credit card, whereas Zomato requires an indian credit, along with an OTP pin sent to the phone number linked to the credit card.

Re: Launch HN: InstaKin (YC S21) - Help immigrants to manage tasks in home countries

#56

Post by covfefeblack »

1) I'm curious - since what you're primarily selling here is 'trust' and a great deal of trust at that (e.g. care of age-ing parents). How do you plan to create that? Especially for first time users? 2) It seems like a big part of your offering is the end-fulfiller-agent - i.e. the actual agent fulfilling the task. How do you plan to select/oversee agents? (Especially when operating in new locations like India). Can you inspire trust that an agent sent to help an aging parent will not later use information gathered to rob said parent? 3) Do you plan to target governmental/bureaucratic activities - like submitting a form to a bank or picking up and mailing some document. If so how can you inspire the same trust one would have with a family member?

Re: Launch HN: InstaKin (YC S21) - Help immigrants to manage tasks in home countries

#57

Post by mastazi »

I'm a migrant and in hindsight this is such an obvious problem! So many times I had to ask relatives in my home country if they could please get some paperwork done for me or some other task. I even thought "I wonder what would I do if I didn't have any relatives". This is a great idea, best of luck!

Re: Launch HN: InstaKin (YC S21) - Help immigrants to manage tasks in home countries

#59

Post by koopuluri »

Wow! This is an incredible problem to tackle. I’ve faced this problem in the past and I think there’s a larger scope of just being able to effectively perform tasks remotely - in a different country.

I live between India and the US, and just being able to help me easily pay bills, send goodies to my parents and friends in India, etc. would be super valuable. Right now, I’d have to be up at the right time, hope my India phone number will work fine (oftentimes I won’t receive SMSs on it when I’m in the US) to be able to do these things.

I have to rely on friends back home to do these chores and tasks and makes me feel like I’m burdening them.

Re: Launch HN: InstaKin (YC S21) - Help immigrants to manage tasks in home countries

#60

Post by neither_color »

Have you considered Latin-America too? My last living grandparent gets remittance pick ups, house chores, medication pick ups and all sorts of odd jobs like home renovations done in much the same way you describe, though it's through trusted word-of-mouth recommendations from other villagers.

"Miguel can do this for you, he's so and so's son we can trust him"

I think this is a brilliant idea and wish you well.

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