

MetaLab launches Flow Concierge personal assistant service - alibosworth
http://www.getflow.com/concierge/

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stevedewald
As an avid user and supporter of Flow I'm pretty sure this is a step in the
wrong direction. The effort it takes to launch another offer in this already
competitive market distracts them from some much needed updates to justify
their price.

I was happy to pay the $10/mo for what looked like a promising service, but
with other task management apps making real progress towards helping me manage
my tasks and MetaLab focusing on monetization, I'm not sure I'll renew.

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metalab
Hey Steve,

We view this as a business within a business. Nobody from the Flow development
team is being distracted with Concierge, it's just another part of the MetaLab
umbrella.

Also, I find it weird that you think us "focusing on monetization" is a bad
thing. What's wrong with having a sustainable business?

-Andrew

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taitems
Wow, no idea who's downvoting. Have a sympathetic upvote for answering
honestly.

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taitems
This is really exciting. If this stood alone as it's own service and paired
with Siri, well... take my money! But something niggling with the banner: the
strange depth of field, combined with the sheer size and incorrect angle of
the laptop cannot be unseen.

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jayp
Nicely done. Really.

Nice way to differentiate and monetize yourself from the competition.

Would it not be good to be able to assign a one-off task to a concierge (a la
Exec)? Alternatively, have a "roll over" for unused tasks.

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heliostatic
I wonder if they're using somebody else for the actual assistant. It seems
like a big business to build outside your core competency, otherwise. Great
feature regardless.

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pbreit
Wow, that does seem like quite a departure from the original business. And
MetaLab pitches itself much more as front-end expert. Is it conceivable this
is a front-end for some other virtual assistant service?

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heliostatic
My first thought was FancyHands, but the pricing is different enough that I'm
not sure.

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1123581321
The pricing is actually the same but TR said it is not backed by FH.
[https://mobile.twitter.com/tedroden/status/20798591017065267...](https://mobile.twitter.com/tedroden/status/207985910170652673)

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heliostatic
Ah, interesting. I was thinking that there was no $95/unlimited option, but I
guess for a white label you wouldn't want it anyway.

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CubicleNinjas
After using a few of these services, I realize why they're so useless: you
never have a flow. You're interacting with a changing team, with huge time
delays (hours in reality) in between request and response. In my experience it
would be better placing the same email text in a search engine. Maybe they've
cracked this nut though.

I can't help but wonder, why go so far out of their core competency? Maybe
they've invested in a support team and hope to generate ROI? It just doesn't
seem to make sense from a focus perspective.

