
Profig (YC S12) Launches An Affordable, Feature-Rich Instant Phone System - yabbadabbadoo
http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/20/yc-profig-instant-virtual-phone-system/
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alttab
This is a YC company that finally really excites me.

The best technology removes problems from the equation all together. Profig
(which is kind of a silly name despite its amazing core service) provides a
virtual phone system that can be developed like web infrastructure.

Once their account creation is automated (which it sounds like that's their
main to-do based on yabbadabbadoo's responses and product description), build-
up and tear-down of virtual communication infastructure would be like going to
pick up pens and pencils for your business (a trip that might take 20
minutes).

The faster and cheaper critical business infrastructure (e-mail,
"productivity", research, communication) can be integrated into an
organization the more market opportunities exist for smaller players, as new
or temporary opportunities could be capitalized on with much less foresight or
risk.

YC companies like this that use other YC companies as initial users sounds
like something Xhibit would do, but what PG is essentially doing is actively
researching into building virtual companies at increasingly marginal rates,
directly on the market itself with real companies.

I will be watching this one more closely for sure!

~~~
yabbadabbadoo
Yes, our name doesn't fully match our product :) That's because it's from our
original idea. When we pivoted, we considered getting a new name, but pg's
advice was - "If it's short and can be easily spelled, you're good. Move on."
- so we stuck with it.

As for the product, you hit the nail on the head. Our goal is to disrupt the
process of setting up communication infrastructure. We want our users to be
able to spin up/down solutions on demand.

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davidw
At $30 a month, it offers less in terms of low priced options to get started
compared with, say, these guys:

<https://secure.grasshopper.com/>

I have no idea about anything else though - I ended up not using Grasshopper
because they rejected my credit card for whatever odd reason.

 _Edit_ \- changed the wording to make it clearer what I mean about pricing
tiers.

~~~
yabbadabbadoo
Actually, we offer way more. You can compare what we offer -
<http://profig.com/virtual-phone-system> \- with what grasshopper offers.

Plus, we'll be launching our mobile apps soon, which are SIP clients, and
that'll cut down the bill even further, up to half.

~~~
samstave
I called your main number and hit 2 for sales and it rang and rang and no
answer.

I am interested in your solution for a large client who is moving offices
(they are a very successful YC alumn)

Can you contact me?

~~~
yabbadabbadoo
Sorry about that. We're flooded with user sign ups. I just emailed you.

~~~
samstave
I've sent you several emails now with meeting invites to talk and have
received no response.

:(

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cs702
yabbadabbadoo: Profig looks interesting, but I can't discern why or whether
it's better than using existing cheap SIP providers like OnSIP, which allow
startups, small business, and even medium-sized corporations to use Android,
iOS, Windows, OS X, and Linux softphone SIP clients as well as brandname SIP
phones from Polycom, Cisco, etc.

Please help me understand, how exactly is Profig better?

~~~
yabbadabbadoo
First, onsip requires SIP handsets. With our virtual system
(<http://profig.com/virtual-phone-system>), you don't need anything other than
your current phones, even cell phones. You can be up and running in minutes.

Second, if you do need SIP handsets, we have those as well (currently in
beta). So we match OnSIP in every regard there.

But where take the lead is our add-ons. On top of the regular phone system, we
offer a whole lot more:

\- Call Tracking

\- Voice Broadcasting

\- Sales Call Center - dials over 1000 numbers/min, skips dead #s, leaves pre-
recorded msgs on answering machines, only connects live pickups

\- Support Call Center - integrates with our CRM to show relevant info about
your customers as soon as the phone rings

\- Click-2-Call - put a button on your site and allow your visitors to talk to
you directly

\- Surveys

and more in the pipeline...

All these features come in a single dashboard - a business can use 1 or as
many features as they want, on demand.

Please see our site for details.

~~~
nanijoe
So, if I bought your service for my company, would it be running across my
data network?What would happen to my "phone system" if my connection to the
internet were to go down?

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philfreo
There really should be screenshots of the app, especially since there's no
free trial.

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plinkplonk
Is this anything like what Plivo (another YC company) is doing? What are the
differences, if any? Sorry if these are stupid questions, I know next to
nothing about telephony or the market opportunities therof.

~~~
yabbadabbadoo
Plivo is an API. We're a GUI. We're Plivo's target customer (in fact, we're
built on top of plivo). Our target customers are businesses who want a
powerful, affordable business phone system but don't want to spend time
worrying about setup. Our focus is on customer service - we handle all new
customer setups personally, and any follow on issues after that.

~~~
marquis
Do you support automated extensions? For example, if we wanted to offer pro
support to users and give them a unique PIN code to reach us faster. Also, you
mention SIP handsets, so I assume this would work for SIP desktop apps?

~~~
josh2600
I don't think Plivo (the underlying core of Profig) is supporting handset
registration yet (but it is native to FreeSWITCH, so it should be relatively
straightforward).

You're looking for REGEX in callflows (only certain users with codes can get
through) and this is totally doable in FreeSWITCH, but, again, I don't know if
this functionality is exposed within Plivo (although it's feasible for the
underlying core, the APIs may not be done yet).

SIP Desktop apps are WAAAAY easier to work with than Handsets, so if they
support any kind of registrations, I would imagine desk apps would be
supported.

~~~
bevenky
Just to state on the record, We do support SIP registration and we dont use
FreeSWITCH for that. You can manage all of this via both APIs and UI.

Profig does provide this to businesses in a seamless fashion and eliminates
the use of regex etc. They have the capability to support both Desktop and
mobile SIP Clients.

------
dr_
1) How is this any different than uReach, which is what we currently use? It
starts at 24.99 a month. 2) The logo looks too much like Simple's (simple.com)

~~~
yabbadabbadoo
Pls see our features here - <http://profig.com/virtual-phone-system> \- and
compare.

Plus we offer much more than a regular phone system:

\- Call Tracking

\- Voice Broadcasting

\- Sales Call Center - dials over 1000 numbers/min, skips dead #s, leaves pre-
recorded msgs on answering machines, only connects live pickups

\- Support Call Center - integrates with our CRM to show relevant info about
your customers as soon as the phone rings

\- Click-2-Call - put a button on your site and allow your visitors to talk to
you directly

\- Surveys

and more in the pipeline...

All these features come in a single dashboard - a business can use 1 or as
many features as they want, on demand.

Please see our site for details.

~~~
josh2600
I get frustrated when people just paste generic answers so I'll help out by
answering in more detail.

Basically, when you buy from UReach, the underlying technology is very
different. I don't know what UReach runs for sure, but they're what we call
BlackBox infrastructures. You have no idea what keeps this company up and
running, and given that UReach's CTO is a former Director for the Members of
Technical Staff at AT&T, and since UReach has been around forever, it's
probably safe to say that they're not running FreeSWITCH as their core (More
likely big iron hardware; which is antithetical to a SaaS service like this).

Profig will have a faster feature iteration time period because they're a
smaller company, whereas it's much harder for UReach to dev new features. Also
Profig has the added advantage of having a small core market: hosted PBX. They
aren't (at least at this time) targeting providers; something UReach is doing
actively.

TL;DR: Profig runs on a great core, and they don't have 10+ years of embedded
stuff to work through so their pace of feature iteration will be higher.

Does that help answer the Question?

~~~
yabbadabbadoo
We're dealing with a flood of TC and HN visitors and sign-ups, hence my
response above. I was going to come back and expound a bit more, but thanks
for the elaboration.

~~~
josh2600
No problems buddy :).

It's a pain in the ass to dig up BlackBox infrastructures and see what's
inside. It basically boils down to: is it Open-Source, or is it Big Iron. If
they don't talk about it, and the folks have tons of legacy Experience, it
tends to be Big Iron (like AudioCodes Blades/Gateways or other such stuff).

Keep kicking butt guys!

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mattwdelong
Do you support Canadian numbers? I can't find the answer in the FAQ's or else
where on the site.

~~~
yabbadabbadoo
Hi Matt. We'll update our FAQ. Currently, we're US only, but we're in beta for
Europe, Asia and Latin America. We also have a beta for Canada. Hit ua up at
contact@profig.com and we can let you into our beta.

