ziggystardust

I wanted a neat way to read the top HN stories without opening HN and going down the rabbit hole

So me and my friend created a WhatsApp HN digest that sends top 5 HN stories + a bonus daily

Would you like HN delivered to your WhatsApp too? If yes, follow this link -> http://bit.ly/hnwadigest

Cheers !

With all the hype towards chatbots, I still haven't come across a chatbot I can say was really useful to me or was really fun to use.

PS: I don't consider the "type 1 for x, type 2 for y" bots as conversational bots

Have you come across any truly conversational chatbots that you really enjoyed engaging with?

What was your experience like?

Discussion on twitter: https://twitter.com/codezed_/status/1302564268240297984

I am a freelance consultant mainly consulting startups over Skype. I do provide software development services for startups but that's an less frequent affair than daily consultations over voice/skype.

The problem is I am unable to bill these voice consultations efficiently.. though I have a hourly billing model, most of the times it's unclear where the consultation starts and ends. which makes it hard for me to turn an on going conversation into a billable conversation.

The second problem I face is the actual billing. Skype is a great platform but there's no way I can bill a conversation over Skype. then there's the whole cycle of send invoice-> follow up -> get paid or die.

How do you deal with such issues? (also, mention your domain of consultation, since I feel each domain would have it's own set of challenges)

Tl;dr : We have a idea to build a platform where people can connect and get paid to have meaningful conversations. Roast this idea in the comments section.

Long version: Me and a colleague have been brainstorming this idea to build a platform where people can find other people to talk to about any topic they want. It could be life coaching to startup advice to maybe just talking to a person who is depressed and whats to have a casual conversation.

either party in the conversation could pay for this call. for eg: you're a tech guy and want to talk to some business person to see if they might be a good lead for the software services you provice. you can pay maybe a few dollars for a 5 min conversation with him!

I know there are niche players in the market who have similar platform for education, legal services, medical consultation etc..

we are wondering if we can have a general platform where people can directly connect with each other and make money instead of going through one of these niche players.

obviously we may need to start off with niche sectors but we want to give people a platform to make money by providing their services online.

that's the gist of what we have been thinking.. Where and why do you think this would fail? if you think it's a good idea, tell us what sector could we start with if we decide to go ahead with this idea. and how we can get some network effect?

Let the roasting/"this idea sucks" begin!

Cheers :D