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Launch HN: Boostly (YC S22) – SMS marketing for restaurants

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Re: Launch HN: Boostly (YC S22) – SMS marketing for restaurants

#41

Post by mikeylikey »

tmpz22 wrote: post #40

> we can ask them “Do you want to join our text club and receive offers from us” at the time that they order food So let me understand this. * I order food through a self-serve PoS or website, or cashier/waiter, whatever * Presumably the interface collects my phone number - potentially a checkout process which previously did NOT collect my phone number * Immediately after I receive a text from you, a third party that…

Well-structured line of questions. Thanks!

Clarification question for you to help me answer:

Why are you asserting we aren't "attached to" or "affiliated" with the restaurant?

Maybe there is a misunderstanding of the relationship here.

Re: Launch HN: Boostly (YC S22) – SMS marketing for restaurants

#42

Post by tmpz22 »

mikeylikey wrote: post #41
tmpz22 wrote: post #40

> we can ask them “Do you want to join our text club and receive offers from us” at the time that they order food So let me understand this. * I order food through a self-serve PoS or website, or cashier/waiter, whatever * Presumably the interface collects my phone number - potentially a checkout process which previously did NOT collect my phone number * Immediately after I receive a text from you, a third party that…

Well-structured line of questions. Thanks! Clarification question for you to help me answer: Why are you asserting we aren't "attached to" or "affiliated" with the restaurant? Maybe there is a misunderstanding of the relationship here.

Communication is influenced by the relationship between the communicating parties. In marketing a lot of effort is spent to establish familiar and trusting relationships as a sustainable brand because that leads to higher conversion rates.

As a customer I do not equate the Boostly brand/notifications to the restaurant I plan to visit. Even if they sign a contract giving you the right to use their name and branding, I don't want a friendly text saying "Hi its Milagros bar and grill, would you be interested in receiving updates on our latest dishes?".

In short, I will not attribute good will owed as a patron to the restaurant to the marketing service making my phone buzz. It will be an adversarial relationship from the beginning that unfortunately would effect my opinion of the underlying restaurant. The rest of my questions are built around understanding the rest of the experience, once we get over that uncomfortable hurdle.

Re: Launch HN: Boostly (YC S22) – SMS marketing for restaurants

#43

Post by I_dev_outdoors »

tmpz22 wrote: post #40

> we can ask them “Do you want to join our text club and receive offers from us” at the time that they order food So let me understand this. * I order food through a self-serve PoS or website, or cashier/waiter, whatever * Presumably the interface collects my phone number - potentially a checkout process which previously did NOT collect my phone number * Immediately after I receive a text from you, a third party that…

What about a flow that works like, "Please enter your phone number to leave feedback about your service today and we'll send you a free gift for your next visit."

Re: Launch HN: Boostly (YC S22) – SMS marketing for restaurants

#44

Post by criddell »

mikeylikey wrote: post #18
cjbconnor wrote: post #3

Unfortunately, this sort of thing is a big turn-off for me. The thing that keeps me coming back to a restaurant is the quality of the food, not their marketing. What I've experienced is that as the quality of the food goes down, the number of marketing notifications goes up. I've gotten an email from chipotle every 2-3 days for the last month, but the last time I went there the food was terrible. Also, your privacy p…

A hacker after my own heart (Mikey here, Technical founder ). Thanks for you diplomatic critiques. This was/is the sentiment of myself and a majority of our developers from a consumer standpoint. It's a curious experience being your product's chief skeptic. It's also been interesting to observe the number of consumers eager to participate, along with the degree to which it works on behalf of our restaurant customers.…

It sounds very strange to start a company to do something you don't initially believe in (although it sounds like you are a believer now). If it wasn't about creating something you wanted to exist, what was it that drove you to create Boostly?

My guess: some combination of believing it could be a good business while helping restaurants.

Now that you know it works, do you plan on expanding beyond restaurants? Wouldn't you like to send text messages from car dealers, record stores, dry cleaners, grocery stores, clothing stores, taxi and ride share companies, landscapers, HVAC service companies, dog walkers, barbers, book stores, home improvement stores, electronics retailers, and so on? You could have phones buzzing with commercial messages a dozen times a day!

Re: Launch HN: Boostly (YC S22) – SMS marketing for restaurants

#46

Post by codegeek »

shaneliammurphy wrote: post #19
codegeek wrote: post #14

You are getting hammered by the HN crowd here but there is merit to stuff like this. I will tell you what I do want as a customer: - Ask me to opt-in but only the 3rd or more time I am ordering from the same restaurant. Asking me to opt-in right away will seem more spammy. If I am coming to a restaurant for the 3rd time, I probably like the food and will be open to receiving some marketing stuff if it helps me as wel…

These are great suggestions! I especially love the thought of going the extra mile to make it relevant to you as an individual. I like the idea of eventually allowing the individual consumer to set the limits on what they receive, such as frequency, type of content, etc. (For example, I only want to receive messages about events happening at this restaurant and no more than 2x per month.)

Np. Even though I have never worked or owned a restaurant myself, I did have a stint as a Cafeteria worker in college and since then, my respect for food industry and workers in general has gone up by a lot. Anything to help them make more money, I am up for it.

Re: Launch HN: Boostly (YC S22) – SMS marketing for restaurants

#47

Post by smt88 »

mikeylikey wrote: post #35
smt88 wrote: post #28

Consider this: No consumer wants these messages. I understand why restaurants need them and why they are profitable, but actually recipients will be irritated (even though they "opted in"). My concern is that these will turn SMS, one of the last (mostly) clean communication channels, into another cesspit like email and the web have become. I'm not asking what you're doing to prevent that because you can't build this…

I appreciate the way you framed this. > No consumer wants these messages. While I personally resonate with this sentiment, it's not accurate in my (very skeptical) experience. "many" consumers? "most" consumers? maybe. but I'd be slow to underestimate the size of the market here. > My concern is that these will turn SMS, one of the last (mostly) clean communication channels, into another cesspit like email and the we…

> While I personally resonate with this sentiment, it's not accurate in my (very skeptical) experience.

So you want these messages? You're happy to see them?

Even if there are a few people who want these messages, I'm going to wager that you'll only be profitable if you're messaging a lot of people who don't (and accidentally agreed to get them).

> "many" consumers? "most" consumers? maybe. but I'd be slow to underestimate the size of the market here.

Your market is restaurants, and the market is certainly huge.

> As for boostly, I think it will only shoot ourselves in the foot to overstep (or even get close to) these important boundaries.

Depending on how much VC money you've taken or will take in the future, you won't have this choice. Your investors will demand growth, and the only way to get it will be to creep further and further out of your comfort zone. Marketing automation is full of dark patterns. The only company I know of that never really implemented them was MailChimp, and MailChimp also uniquely never raised capital.

Re: Launch HN: Boostly (YC S22) – SMS marketing for restaurants

#48

Post by mikeylikey »

criddell wrote: post #44
mikeylikey wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A hacker after my own heart (Mikey here, Technical founder ). Thanks for you diplomatic critiques. This was/is the sentiment of myself and a majority of our developers from a consumer standpoint. It's a curious experience being your product's chief skeptic. It's also been interesting to observe the number of consumers eager to participate, along with the degree to which it works on behalf of our restaurant customers.…

It sounds very strange to start a company to do something you don't initially believe in (although it sounds like you are a believer now). If it wasn't about creating something you wanted to exist, what was it that drove you to create Boostly? My guess: some combination of believing it could be a good business while helping restaurants. Now that you know it works, do you plan on expanding beyond restaurants? Wouldn't…

Aye. Yeah I was not "scratching my own itch" as we say. Shane has a background in restaurant sales and we started in the industry with an assumption that SMB restaurants were underutilizing their customer data. Your guess is accurate. The game as YC likes to say is "building stuff people want" and that's we attempted and eventually meandered into.

Brick and Mortar retail is a big market with similar dynamics to restaurants. We do have non-restaurant customers already but believe there are advantages to carving out this niche. Some of the best customers who like us best are those that were texting with more generic companies prior.

Re: Launch HN: Boostly (YC S22) – SMS marketing for restaurants

#49

Post by mikeylikey »

smt88 wrote: post #47
mikeylikey wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I appreciate the way you framed this. > No consumer wants these messages. While I personally resonate with this sentiment, it's not accurate in my (very skeptical) experience. "many" consumers? "most" consumers? maybe. but I'd be slow to underestimate the size of the market here. > My concern is that these will turn SMS, one of the last (mostly) clean communication channels, into another cesspit like email and the we…

> While I personally resonate with this sentiment, it's not accurate in my (very skeptical) experience. So you want these messages? You're happy to see them? Even if there are a few people who want these messages, I'm going to wager that you'll only be profitable if you're messaging a lot of people who don't (and accidentally agreed to get them). > "many" consumers? "most" consumers? maybe. but I'd be slow to underes…

I think there may be a false premise here. You seem to be framing this as medium objection: That "no consumer" wants text messages. Texting is really just an implementation detail here. Many people _want_ to save money and receive special deals for their favorite eating establishment. Many would prefer receiving these offers in the form of an ephemeral text message vs. downloading another app, for example.

In this context: yeah, I want these messages and am even sometimes happy to see them.

Ultimately (and this was my paradigm shift), it appears markets are far more diverse than I gave credit to and my personal preferences can't be applied as generally as I previously assumed.

> Your market is restaurants, and the market is certainly huge.

The market I was referring to, in this context, was people who would happily receive texts from restaurants if it meant they saved money.

> Depending on how much VC money you've taken or will take in the future, you won't have this choice. Your investors will demand growth

Valid point and concern(s). Can never really underestimate the power of these incentive dynamics and would be foolish to suggest we might be immune to them. FWIW we are bootstrapped outside YC participation to this point. Appreciate your reference to MailChimp. I'll look to take note on some of their practices.

Re: Launch HN: Boostly (YC S22) – SMS marketing for restaurants

#50

Post by aml183 »

mikeylikey wrote: post #18
cjbconnor wrote: post #3

Unfortunately, this sort of thing is a big turn-off for me. The thing that keeps me coming back to a restaurant is the quality of the food, not their marketing. What I've experienced is that as the quality of the food goes down, the number of marketing notifications goes up. I've gotten an email from chipotle every 2-3 days for the last month, but the last time I went there the food was terrible. Also, your privacy p…

A hacker after my own heart (Mikey here, Technical founder ). Thanks for you diplomatic critiques. This was/is the sentiment of myself and a majority of our developers from a consumer standpoint. It's a curious experience being your product's chief skeptic. It's also been interesting to observe the number of consumers eager to participate, along with the degree to which it works on behalf of our restaurant customers.…

Marketing works plain and simple. The people who think they aren't affected by marketing are the very people it works on. Nobody wants to admit that marketing affects them which makes product development so difficult.
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