
Hustle, a text-distribution tool, raises $3M - tbrock
https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/15/blood-sweat-and-text/
======
gthtjtkt
The best way to end up on my Giant List of Most-Hated Entities is to send me a
text message. Texts are for friends and family only. I'll tolerate the
occasional appointment confirmation text, but other than that, my text inbox
is the last place that has yet to be invaded by spammers.

And don't play dumb, randomly texting someone "Go Vote!" is absolutely spam.
Texting someone because some sign-up form had automatic opt-in is equally
spammy.

~~~
saurik
Everyone has different boundaries. For me: phone calls are for friends and
family and texts messages are public; when I hand people my business cards I
tell them "SMS only". I also despise email, but really don't mind receiving
tons of text messages every day. Since no one is the same, it just isn't fair
to be as annoyed as you are, especially when it sounds like your problem is so
completely trivially solved that you have no one to blame but yourself: turn
off notifications for text messages from people who are not in your address
book.

Ok, and now someone has downvoted me within seconds of me posting that
paragraph; the "I hate people contacting me" crowd is so amazingly vicious :/.
Let's look at this from another perspective: I work with a group called
Student Activist Network. The entire point of this group is you give them your
phone number and they text you when actions come up related to your interests.
Much like how anti-email spam people never are willing to believe that some
people sign up for mailing lists on purpose, I bet they are also going to
refuse to believe that hundreds of activists and protesters specifically want
this kind of functionality, and right now the distribution is done manually by
people copy/pasting.

~~~
garysieling
They're complaining about being "randomly" texted without signing up for
something.

~~~
saurik
Which is not a legitimate thing--and I will argue is actually an incredibly
harmful thing--to have bubbled to the top of a thread about a tool like
Hustle: I bet it is an extremely minority use for someone to try to use a tool
like this to just randomly send messages to ranges of phone numbers.

~~~
garysieling
I don't think that's what people are suggesting is happening.

A couple people who have my contact information from playing local sports have
added me to email lists for causes they care about, which is incredibly
irritating. I could see this happening with a texting tool.

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xapata
Another case of taking advantage of a low-noise medium. If it works, others
will follow and we'll need to get spam filters for SMS.

~~~
skyvolt
We are not a spam sms tool. We work best with organizations that have existing
relationships or want to create long lasting relationships.

~~~
stonogo
This is what all spam-distribution platforms say. Nobody ever says "we spam
people."

~~~
skyvolt
A spam distribution platform is not a defensible business. In a year someone
will come along that does it better and cheaper. There is just no long term
value.

~~~
mcbits
If the recipient explicitly asks you (or your partners) to text them this and
that, and you text them this and that, you're not a spammer. Anything more and
you've become a spammer. Seriously. Not cool. Receiving a spam text costs me a
postage stamp each time. Buy your own postage stamps.

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huac
I got texts from 'For Our Future' before the Nov 8th general election, that
appear to have been sent from this service, or similar. The first was signed
by 'Carlos' and the second was signed by 'Matt' \- for the talk of
personalization and how effective that is for text, the discontinuity was
jarring. (They came from the same number).

My other caveat with the piece: "The Hillary campaign ended up building their
own clone of Hustle called “Megaphone,” though clearly that didn’t quite
work."

The success of a SMS engagement app is measured in getting people to go to the
polls and vote, not winning the election. As I've written about previously
here, getting voters to believe in your cause is a different matter.

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downandout
Spam issues aside, I am curious why they are using Twilio, which is a
(relatively) expensive proposition. Rather, I'd have the app send the messages
directly from the user's number. The app could then upload all sent/received
messages to the sever and have all of the same benefits. None of this would be
a problem on Android. On iOS it's a little more tricky since SMS access is
locked down, but incoming iOS SMS can be read indirectly by reading device
notifications. So it could be done.

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chrisdevereux
In what sense is Hustle 'grassroots'?

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pj_mukh
YC alum Vote.org used this tool too [1]. This is pretty sweet! Wonder if
they'd use twilio on the backend?

[1] [https://backchannel.com/the-simple-secret-weapon-that-
could-...](https://backchannel.com/the-simple-secret-weapon-that-could-change-
elections-9e51f95038df#.rrg5gw6cq)

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skyvolt
Happy to answer any questions people have about Hustle. And of course we are
hiring! [http://hustle.life/jobs](http://hustle.life/jobs)

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harrisreynolds
Reminds me of Optimizely that was born out of Obama's campaign. Nice work!

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alistproducer2
I'd never heard of this, but it seems like a pretty innovative solution. It's
refreshing to see money go to apps/ideas that actually add something new to
social media.

~~~
bobzimuta
The last thing I want is a Mailchimp for SMS. Hardly innovative.

~~~
pdq
It's Mailchimp for SMS, without opt-in. The latter is the fatal problem.

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tbrock
Hey everyone, I work at Hustle and I could not be more proud of our team and
the work we have done so far.

If anyone has any questions about the technical aspects of how we did it, our
stack, whatever, I'd be happy to answer as a long time lurker.

~~~
bobzimuta
Where's your opt-out form?

~~~
tbrock
Good question. Hustle tries its best to only work with organizations that are
reaching out to people who actually want to hear from them.

If you receive a message you don't want you can ask to be removed. You'll
instantly be opted out of receiving messages from that organization in the
future. Also, like all SMS based tools, if you reply with the word "STOP"
you'll never hear from them again.

~~~
bobzimuta
> Hustle tries its best to only work with organizations that are reaching out
> to people who actually want to hear from them

But I can still receive unsolicited texts, correct? If organization X
discovers my phone number, they can add it to their distribution list without
my consent?

~~~
tbrock
We texted a large portion of the United States so I apologize if you happened
to get caught in the crossfire. Better than someone knocking on your door or
calling during supper though right?

~~~
bobzimuta
Here's the rub. I'm from a generation that treats SMS as a more personal
medium; it's exclusive to my friends and family.

The last thing I want is random spam from _any_ organization, regardless if
you think they are trustworthy. If it's unsolicited, it's spam.

Feature request: add a platform level opt-out.

~~~
kovacs
Ahh but what if it's unsolicited but sent on behalf of friends and family in
the form of anonymous birthday SMS messages?

e.g. [http://birthdaymob.com](http://birthdaymob.com)

You don't really want to opt out of birthday spam do you? :-P

