Launch YC S21: Meet the Batch, Thread #7 • Hacker News Board

Re: Launch YC S21: Meet the Batch, Thread #7

#141

Post by Gortal278 » Thu, Aug 19, 2021, 5:58 PM UTC

kriro wrote: post #99

anadalakra wrote: post #3

We’re Anada and Ilya, the co-founders of BoldVoice ( https://www.boldvoice.com/ ). BoldVoice is an accent coaching app that helps non-native speakers learn and practice the standard American accent. As immigrants to the US, we’ve personally experienced that having a foreign accent can affect your confidence and job opportunities (by as much as 20%, according to studies). So we built this app to help non-native Englis…

I have very mixed feelings on this. First of all, it feels like a patch for latent discrimination. I'd rather strive towards a world where accents matter less than fixing accents. Sure very thick accents can hinder communication but I feel like improving that a bit is enough. There's no need to perfectly emulate the native accent (and let's not forget about the differences between say Jersey, Oklahoma, Boston and L.A…

I wouldn't really call it discrimination if the dude on the phone has a hard time deciphering what type of sandwich you are trying to order, or talking to a stranger in a loud bar who needs you to keep repeating yourself.

I think the need for this stems from a desire to be understood. Though I understand why the OP would list discrimination in their sales pitch.

Re: Launch YC S21: Meet the Batch, Thread #7

#142

Post by taurath » Fri, Aug 20, 2021, 1:12 AM UTC

alexvilhena wrote: post #137

taurath wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely a market need for this, having built one of those layers myself. Are you planning to support saved payment methods across multiple providers? Thats always seemed like the touchiest area for me, especially since it would seemingly invalidate a lot of the fraud protection that payment providers use to keep lock-in.

That's awesome that you built that layer yourself. If you're up for it, would love to connect and hear why you did so. We're PCI compliant so can use saved payment methods across multiple providers, however in our case it does not invalidate the built-in fraud protection that providers use. Additionally, you could also use third party fraud providers at any point within your processing flow.

It was for a big subscription service and we needed to enable a lot of promotional capabilities and also keep payment provider costs low + be able to operationally switch over in high traffic times.

> however in our case it does not invalidate the built-in fraud protection that providers use

Thats pretty neat! Even Stripe Radar? My understanding was that used their client side fingerprinting when the card is inputted, but its been a little bit.

Re: Launch YC S21: Meet the Batch, Thread #7

#143

Post by zestyping » Wed, Aug 25, 2021, 8:35 PM UTC

anadalakra wrote: post #3

We’re Anada and Ilya, the co-founders of BoldVoice ( https://www.boldvoice.com/ ). BoldVoice is an accent coaching app that helps non-native speakers learn and practice the standard American accent. As immigrants to the US, we’ve personally experienced that having a foreign accent can affect your confidence and job opportunities (by as much as 20%, according to studies). So we built this app to help non-native Englis…

I _really_ wish this existed for other languages and other English accents. I'd love to use it for that!

Re: Launch YC S21: Meet the Batch, Thread #7

#144

Post by zestyping » Wed, Aug 25, 2021, 8:36 PM UTC

ceilingcorner wrote: post #65

eldaisfish wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you have no evidence of your claim. >, I’m not confusing prevalence with clarity ...but you do that right here: >American media (movies, news, etc.) is universal. People all around the world watch American shows and movies and are accustomed to the accent. So it is prevalence and not clarity.

No, it is both, as I just said. It is widespread common knowledge that the American accent is the easiest to understand. If you don’t agree with this, I’m sorry but you are not speaking from experience.

> It is widespread common knowledge that the American accent is the easiest to understand.

I didn't know that this was established. I'd be curious to see a source for this — has it been studied?