It looks like OP is in the process of building a prototype, so I was curious how many idea stage or prototype in development stage companies YC accepts? YC has stated that they accept companies in all stages of their life cycle, which is probably true, but from a distance it looks like most accepted companies either have significant revenue, traction or both.
I think I like the idea of having a single point of reference that's me on everything that magically knows where to route the specific protocol to, but why a phone number? Phone numbers are horrible. They're hard to remember (we'd still need that business card with your proposed idea), they're easy to mistype, they're not machine readable unless you make some font compromises, and it seems likely we could do so much better.
Hey onion2k, I thought a lot about what you said and I think you are really going to like what I came up with. Can't share it yet but it will definitely solve your problem.
but with the size of the audience you're targeting there is no way this is going to be a memorable number. Keeping a contact book with these isn't a big step forward from managing the one already present on my phone
I'm not planning on it being memorable, and in most cases you will have a choice to use a global number or add this service(s) to your existing number.
OT but I hope you appreciate some feedback. I had a hard time getting past the "What are you going to make?"
EX: "We are going to build the world's largest private network based on e.164 addresses."
Then you go into how it technically works. I think you should spend less time on the specifics of how it works and more on what it does for customer, and if it's not clear why it's so important, maybe a sentence on that, in clear and plain English.
The chicken-and-egg problem is really what matters here.
Your 'address' is never going to cover all services that people use from day one, so my friend would have to keep that number around + my other contact info that are not covered.
Similarly I'd have to keep in my contacts all the information regarding people who are not registered to your service.
From my point of view as a user, this is just another line in the contact card...
I think this is exactly the kind of idea I would fund if I were a decision maker at YC. It simplifies the process of making contact with a target. It has potential to be a unicorn. In some iteration or other, it is bound to have utility.
Well done.
If you don't mind my asking, what's your background?
You appear to know a lot about communication protocols and specifications as well as the stock market.Is this from research?
Thank you very much! My background for the last 20+ years: I have been an inside sales rep for computer peripherals, an outside sales rep for a manufacturing company, a contractor, an inventor, a real estate broker, and an options trader. And yes, everything else about specs/protocols is from research...I'm a big fan of self-education.
Hi Lordarminius, I wanted to let you know that if you are interested in investing you should contact me. My email is timothy.mcsweeney at parameterone.com
How will you deal with identity theft? Having all your eggs in one basket is convenient but if the basket should fail then you need a way to dissociate and to rebuild a (credible) identity from scratch.
I'm going to think about this but in reality it could be used as over the top so that you would never have to give out your real number but still receive calls to your current number.
