Magic • Hacker News Board

Re: Magic

#141

Post by vishaldpatel » Sun, Feb 22, 2015, 4:28 AM UTC

cmikec wrote: post #2

Hey everyone - this is insane. My friends and I created Magic a few days ago as a side project and it's completely blown up by accident since then. We're getting stormed with messages and orders. We thought we'd launch it ourselves later if it did well, and other people have been posting it on Product Hunt, Reddit, HN themselves... I'm here to answer any questions, although we've hardly slept!

What are you guys using to manage in-bound text messages? Something like sendsonar.com or something home-grown?

Re: Magic

#142

Post by eunger9 » Sun, Feb 22, 2015, 4:29 AM UTC

Just to sign up (before I asked for anything), the credit card form is for a $20 initial payment... with no explanation if this goes towards your first purchase, or not? http://i.imgur.com/J5TKJO5.png

Also, they're using a Stripe account managed by this company: https://bettir.com

Re: Magic

#143

Post by lawnchair_larry » Sun, Feb 22, 2015, 4:33 AM UTC

This is an example of a completely useless title.

Re: Magic

#144

Post by christianmann » Sun, Feb 22, 2015, 4:34 AM UTC

exogen wrote: post #137

I just decided to try this out in Seattle. Here's how it went! http://brianbeck.com/images/magic.png (the minimum was from the sushi place, not Magic)

What were the extra pieces?

Re: Magic

#145

Post by pbreit » Sun, Feb 22, 2015, 4:35 AM UTC

alansammarone wrote: post #79

I love the absurdly simple way this works. That said, maybe there should be some form of (appropriately simple) authentication on each request, because what if my phone gets stolen/lost?

Degrade the service for everyone to possibly defend against a theoretical problem?

Re: Magic

#146

Post by cwyers » Sun, Feb 22, 2015, 4:36 AM UTC

maxbrown wrote: post #131

cmikec wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a great question. We are still trying to figure this out right now. Our vision is to be a service that handles everything - and that means everything from ordering food, to ordering clothes, to booking a one week's vacation in St. Thomas. The fees obvioulsy vary. Any ideas you have about doing this in a more straightforward way would be welcome. For now what we are doing is thinking about what would be reason…

Why do the fees vary? Why couldn't you have flat min fee + % of total cost? Am I missing something? I feel like pricing transparency is key to scaling quickly here.

Presumably what their fee covers is their work arranging it. I don't think it makes a whole lot of sense to charge much more for ordering a plane ticket than a pizza; it's not so much more effort that a percentage makes much sense. On the other hand, "get me a Philly cheesesteak delivered" (which someone mentioned) may entail both "find me a cheesesteak" and "find me a courier" - so you charge more because it's more effort.

Re: Magic

#147

Post by cwyers » Sun, Feb 22, 2015, 4:38 AM UTC

lbr wrote: post #95

This looks identical to Jarvis: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8094351

Jarvis charges a large upfront fee. This charges per use.

Re: Magic

#148

Post by jsmeaton » Sun, Feb 22, 2015, 4:41 AM UTC

aaronem wrote: post #102

cmikec wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love this quote. Thanks for reminding me of it! :) For me, the "magic" refers to the magic moment that I experienced when we prototyped this internally. Despite the power of today's on-demand services, I've always felt them to still be rather frustrating. Sometimes the drivers cancel, they get lost, you still have to manage them. We tested this by delivering the product to each other internally, handling all the an…

This is what used to be called "concierge service". You can still get it with, for example, high-end American Express cards, or from firms which specialize in providing it. Judging by the examples on your site, you've succeeded in bringing concierge service to (sorry) the masses, by pricing it much lower than competing offerings. Congratulations! You have a highly viable MVP. Good luck scaling it out!

My Credit/Debit card offers concierge service but I've never used it. I'd have to find the number (or put it in my phone..), then speak to an operator, and then trust that they could deliver on what I expect.

This service is based on SMS though, and I'd presume they hold all the pertinent info (address, credit card etc) so that I wouldn't have to keep repeating it. I'd still have to trust that I get what I want, but the crucial speaking to an operator component is reduced to a fire and forget SMS. I'd use this if I was in the States.

Re: Magic

#149

Post by preetnation » Sun, Feb 22, 2015, 4:41 AM UTC

cmikec wrote: post #30

leemac wrote: post #16

I've seen something similar before, very cool idea! My question is from an operational standpoint, who are the "operators"? Given the side-project nature of the site, are you up all night answering/ordering these things?

It's safe to say that this is no longer a side project.

=)congrats. care to share what volume looks like?

Re: Magic

#150

Post by bgodlove88 » Sun, Feb 22, 2015, 4:42 AM UTC

eunger9 wrote: post #139

Is there someone available 24/7 to reply?

We are always available, though we might be a bit slower during the wee hours.