

Support for Startups? - Aloha

Support for Startups.<p>A friend and I were walking around the Stanford last Friday, and we were both doing some thinking about our lives, and where we want to go with them. After a while, the topic turned to maybe starting our own startup, the problem of course, is neither of us are software developers, nor are we particularly enamored with the idea of yet another photo sharing/social networking/whatever site we both feel all of those markets are very saturated.<p>We then looked at what both of us know well. Support. Both of us are top tier support folks - I have a background in field work, telecom support, and System Administration, with a large side of Customer/Technical Support as well as some Sales Engineer/Project Management stuff, he has a background in Technical/Customer Support, with a strong side of Technical Documentation as well as a side of Finance/Business Management.<p>So we got to thinking, what is missing in this market?<p>What about a company to provide Customer Support aimed at startups, empirically, there does seem to be a market - having your developers directly support customers is both inefficient and frustrating for everyone involved, beyond that, if your product is paid, you do really need real support, preferably being able to reach someone by phone. Even if your product has no direct customer payment, if your product is complex enough, or used by enough people, you at least <i>should</i> have an email que, staffed by real people to get answers to the questions that cannot be covered by your FAQ.<p>Both of us also have a large number of friends (read former co-workers) who could staff out such an enterprise, and I have enough telecom experience to get the basics of a contact center going. I've been looking at how to structure pricing, if for example you don’t want dedicated agents, we could just charge a per call amount to you, or for those who do want dedicated agents, a fixed monthly charge, plus a much smaller per call charge. Beyond this, I have some ideas to give companies the benefits of traditional internal contact center folks, while still being able to have it managed at arms length.<p>So I suppose the question for HN are there startups looking for this service?
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mchannon
Most startups that succeed end up making solutions that are good, and good
solutions require very little in terms of tech support.

An ideal support agent would not only address each concern, but eliminate it
from showing up again by fixing the solution (such as fixing the code or
improving the manual or web page to say "we're working on X, but this
functionality isn't supported yet"). That requires an intimate understanding
of the business model and code, and the ability to make those changes. Being a
consultant usually doesn't carry that kind of latitude.

A much bigger opportunity is supporting solutions that are marginal or
downright awful. Those come from big companies and governments. Unfortunately
that support space is crowded, and full of unhappy people on both sides of the
phone.

If you're really jazzed about being a get-the-bugs-out service provider, I'd
guess one way to bring maximum value would be in the form of an limited-term
quality assurance programmer, who is paid as an employee or contractor to take
calls and fix code and manuals. That's hard to scale, though.

In the end, it sounds like you're proposing a consulting business that's
labor-intensive, full of entrenched competitors, and can be outsourced to
places that pay very little (but won't be). Your distinguishing characteristic
is perhaps a higher quality and a focus on cash-starved companies.

The only way I see of making that work, and it's a longshot, is structuring a
way where you get paid with equity, such as warrants (1 per e-mail, 3 per
call). The trouble is that the most successful companies will probably be the
ones that use your services least.

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ArekDymalski
YC's "Ideas we would like to fund": 30\. Startups for startups. The increasing
number of startups is itself an opportunity for startups. We're one;
TechCrunch is another. What other new things can you do?
<http://ycombinator.com/ideas.html>

Just go for it!

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moocow01
I honestly wouldn't target startups as contract customers - many who have gone
down that route find out the hard way that startups are volatile - one day
they are on-board with you and the next day they are short on funding,
changing direction, etc. I'm sure there is opportunity but managing the
process and churn could be a really tough challenge. Just my 2 cents.

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Aloha
I agree, since I want to be able to offer plans without long contracts, to
deal with that I ether need to;

1\. Raise the onboarding cost high enough so leaving at the drop of the hat is
not expensive for us.; or 2\. Lower the cost of acquisition of customers.; or
3\. Pass the onboarding costs on to customers as a setup fee.

If it costs me 250 dollars to bring on a customer, and they leave after two
months, I'm never going to make money. Obviously a contract is always an
option, I get stability, customer gets lower pricing, at a cost of flexibility
on both sides. The big advantage of startups is customer acquisition is easier
for us, they are less barriers for contracting, and getting them to try our
service, furthermore; these are companies that have no real viable way of
providing support as-is – it’s a win-win.

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matdwyer
I'd spring for this. I spend a ton of time doing customer support that's
pretty unnecessary, but not enough to hire an additional dedicated person.
Outsourcing the whole thing would be a good idea.

I'd assume a basic per monthly fee of $xxx with a $x amount per interaction
($x for an email, $x*1.5 for a phone call, etc)

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adamtaa
Unfortunately I don't have a budget for this yet, and our MVP isnt launched
yet, but I am going to wish I had a budget for this when we go live in june
with our customer loyalty management app. located at www.lifebadges.com

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Aloha
I think its a good model though.

