The nice thing about builders is that when they see a new problem, they try to fix it. Not everyone comes up with good solutions, but it's the thought that counts. Very inspiring to see people tackling problems from the new WFH situation, CONVID-19 testing, distribution of medical equipment, in-home fitness, social, essentials for the elderly and sick, helping SMBs like restaurants, etc
Hi HN! We're launching Hallway https://hallway.chat to encourage people working from home during this pandemic to socialize more.
This started because my roommate started working from home recently and was sad because he doesn't really talk to anyone anymore. Given that this is the new normal for a while, we hacked together a project to make WFH a little less forlorn!
It prompts you to take a break and join a short 10 min video chat with your co-workers throughout the workday. Just add the bot to a Slack channel, set the frequency and timezone, and it'll ping the channel with a link to a timed video call
It's a fun and simple way to simulate watercooler conversations like when you bump into a friend at work. We want to encourage spontaneous conversation and keep mental health positive during these stressful times
You can also use your own Zoom/Hangouts Meet links for free, but if you don't, we'll generate one for you (it's timed so you still get some work done). It costs us to host video chat rooms so we do have a paid plan, but if we make any profits in the next few weeks, we'll donate it to fight COVID-19
Remember to talk and be social with your co-workers during the workday - don't forget how to speak. Practice social distancing, stay safe and healthy!
They're a great company competing Google Voice. We're really trying to focus on customer support and success. We don't want to be a general purpose business phone since other companies like OpenPhone are doing a great job there already
You're thinking a step ahead. Yeah, I think businesses are going to start using SMS for marketing because it's not a saturated channel like email. We're trying to do customer support which doesn't deal with high volume of spamming. If SMS does take off, iOS and Android will beef up iMessage and Messages to handle spam and separate business from personal texts
Thank you for your thoughts! Yeah, technology is making everything more distant and impersonal. We're trying to figure out how we can make business to customer interactions feel like you're actually cared for by a real person instead of a nameless entity. We definitely have a lot of work to do to figure out the right way to scale that while keeping it authentic. This is the first step
We can do that for you. We can give you the API endpoints to hit from Twilio. Want to shoot me an email at parthi@founderphone.com or text at 510 756 2522?
