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Show HN: I built a thing

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Re: Show HN: I built a thing

#71

Post by anigbrowl »

bstar77 wrote: post #25

I love the fact that you solved a specific pain point and can potentially help others, but I'm not sure this is something that would be worth $10/month for most people. This is also a pretty trivial app to build with the twilio/tropo APIs, so it's not an earth shattering product. Can you set it up to use the same number, but validate accounts with access numbers? That way you only pay for 1 number and could possibly…

It's not the fact that it's trivial that makes it not worth $10/month, it's that it's not that much better than having to tromp downstairs to let someone in. I wouldn't pay $120/year for that, I'd make the landlord provide something that worked (if I lived high off the ground) or just walk downstairs (if I was just on the 2nd floor or so).

Re: Show HN: I built a thing

#72

Post by nilbus »

ams6110 wrote: post #67

Cool idea, but you can get a local phone number from Magic Jack or its ilk for $10/year, I have a hard time seeing how you charge much more than that.

Yeah, I could never justify a service like this for $100/yr. It's cool, but it's also free to get a local google voice number that forwards to the cell and just press 9.

Re: Show HN: I built a thing

#73

Post by mcpherrinm »

anigbrowl wrote: post #69
mmetzger wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Guessing they want a local number because the apartment complex doesn't want to pay for long distance calling.

I haven't paid for long distance calling since the 1990s. I think it's just people being lazy and choosing poor defaults.

How many of these buzzers have remained unchanged since the 1990s?

Also, long distance appears to be at least $20/month extra on a standard small business landline here (Bell Canada). That's not much, but I can see it happening for something the landlord would think of as a non-feature: Because why wouldn't you have a phone number in the area you live?

Re: Show HN: I built a thing

#74

Post by javert »

Lots of people are saying that your pricing is too high, but I presume that people who live in apartments with fancy gates for protection can probably stand to throw away $100/year without even thinking.

Re: Show HN: I built a thing

#75

Post by natep »

nilbus wrote: post #72
ams6110 wrote: post #67

Cool idea, but you can get a local phone number from Magic Jack or its ilk for $10/year, I have a hard time seeing how you charge much more than that.

Yeah, I could never justify a service like this for $100/yr. It's cool, but it's also free to get a local google voice number that forwards to the cell and just press 9.

"Local" google voice numbers aren't local enough for these systems. At least not for my last apartment's.

Re: Show HN: I built a thing

#76

Post by randallsquared »

weaksauce wrote: post #61
pud wrote: post #56

Tell landlords they can offer the service to tenants for $10/mo. Split proceeds 50/50. Call every landlord in town. Landlords love upselling tenants (parking spaces, storage space, etc.)

This is great advice but it also brings up a point; why do these systems require a local number in order to operate? It seems that a firmware upgrade could possibly decimate the op's business. Edit: I want to point out that I am in no way, shape, or form saying that the op could not make a decent amount of money on this(though, 10/month is a touch steep for someone living in an apartment) but I was just curious why t…

Some of them don't. I currently have an out of state number and the door entry system has no problem dialing it.

Re: Show HN: I built a thing

#77

Post by sopooneo »

mmetzger wrote: post #65
weaksauce wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is great advice but it also brings up a point; why do these systems require a local number in order to operate? It seems that a firmware upgrade could possibly decimate the op's business. Edit: I want to point out that I am in no way, shape, or form saying that the op could not make a decent amount of money on this(though, 10/month is a touch steep for someone living in an apartment) but I was just curious why t…

Guessing they want a local number because the apartment complex doesn't want to pay for long distance calling.

For us it was specifically because they didn't want people opening the door remotely. They wanted you to be local.

Re: Show HN: I built a thing

#78

Post by civilian »

trb wrote: post #66

Is there anything that prevents this from being a phone app and sell it in one of the app stores? You could abstract away all the web and phone (press '9') stuff and just have a button "Open the door? Yes/No" if someone activates the buzzer. Maybe add some easy management for pins that: - always open (roommates/family/friends) - open only one time (deliveries, not-so-close-friends) - open only under certain condition…

+1 for Airbnb! The great thing about a pin is that the owner can change it whenever they want, so they can change it for each airbnb customer.

Re: Show HN: I built a thing

#79

Post by amccloud »

I also build something similar when I was living in an apartment.

I've open sourced the it here: https://github.com/amccloud/django-tropo-webapi/

and the bulk of it https://github.com/amccloud/django-tropo-webapi/blob/master/...

It was great because it allowed my roommate and I to buzz people in from our own cell phones. It also allowed me to set an entry code to give out to friends and for deliveries. It would sms me and my roommate when someone came through the gate. To further extend on that idea you could create specific codes for specific people that only work at specific times.

Re: Show HN: I built a thing

#80

Post by nilved »

> I’ve built a thing.

> And unfortunately, I haven’t found a succinct way to market it or even just describe it.

My first tip is to stop using such vague and obnoxious phrasing.

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