The SendHub site makes it hard to understand what you do. My takeaway is that you make it easier to use the Twilio SMS send API. In other words, you can help me reduce this:
require 'twilio-ruby'
# find your credentials at twilio.com/user/account
account_sid = 'AC043dcf9844e04758bc3a36a84c29761'
auth_token = '62ea81de3a5b414154eb263595357c69'
@client = Twilio::REST::Client.new account_sid, auth_token
@client.account.sms.messages.create(
:from => '+15105551234', # From a Twilio number you own
:to => '+16105557069', # Text any number
:body => 'Ahoy hoy!'
)
to a single line (the first code is from Twilio's page). If that's not what you do, you should make it clear what you do. Otherwise, I wonder why I'd pay (and add a point of potential failure) to reduce a single line of code to a different single line of code. Also, it looks like I'd lose the inbound SMS feature of Twilio.
Gosh, this sounds like I'm bashing your app, which I don't mean to do. You're YC-backed, so I'm sure the issue is the content on your website not representing your actual value. Hope this helps you align the two.
The main issue is what happens when you want to receive a reply to your message - you're going to have to build an inbound endpoint and process those requests. Then how do you know what you sent that contact in the past or what they sent you? We fix those kind of problems and it's just one call for each of them.
X of Y is pretty powerful when it makes sense. In this case it's tough for me to parse.
Edit: For me, I see EC2 as virtualized servers, and Heroku as Application management. I see Twilio as currently on the same playing field/complexity as Heroku (compared to say, hosted Asterisk)
We add a lot of extra features on top of the twilio api, like: send and receive messages, context for conversations, scheduled messages and contact management.
A lot of other comments are bashing you guys, and I'm not interested in doing that. Of course, I have some questions that I often ask myself when I'm brainstorming and perhaps they will help you as well.
1. Is this a product or a feature? Realistically, what's stopping Twilio from providing these features if you prove that there is a market? Or what if someone implements this functionality as an open source gem out of spite? (See: Growl's painful movement away from free)
2. What is your unfair business advantage? And why you instead of someone else? Do you have years of experience working with Twilio or SMS in general? Are you super wealthy or connected politically in an advantageous way? Are any of your employees or founders former Twilio folks?
3. Is there a market here big enough to justify the existence of your company? Even if your CAC is low and your LCV is high, are there more than 1000 people that need this, and are they willing to pay a premium for what you offer?
I'm genuinely curious what kind of customer development you've done to demonstrate that you're solving a hair on fire problem. I'm had no idea there were so many Twilio SMS apps under current or future development.
1. The API is certainly one of our suite of features, you can also use SendHub via the web or any sms enabled cell phone. We expect to see more competition in the space and will be doing our best to contribute to open source ourselves.
2. A lot of our users have tried other SMS products and found them to be a poor experience - based on the feedback we get. We try to spend our time focused on building the best possible product and let that, rather than our backgrounds, do the talking.
3. We believe so, and our initial sales are reflective of that.
I strongly believe in the concept of "outsourcing" components of an operation in order to specialize more, but is Twilio's API really that hard to use?
We think the Twilio API is great but there's lot of features you might need for your app that aren't built in and that SendHub's api provides, for example: we have an inbox with threads so you don't need to build an endpoint to receive messages and they can be kept in context.
We're built on the Twilio API, we add a lot of features that you'd need to build yourself otherwise, like: sending and receiving messages, contact management, scheduled messages etc.
I've done a significant amount of development with Twilio, and I can say that I do see a need for a service like this. Developing conversations with Twilio is a pain, and requires a bank of phone numbers. A service like this can pool phone numbers among apps, and result in savings for everyone.
The question is, how many apps need to implement conversations for Twilio?
This may be answered the developer guide, but what's up with the rate link in every message sent? I get that it's for recipients to gauge whether or not the sender is spamming, but where's the option to not include it?
If using this on top of an app I'm building, chances are I don't want to refer users to SendHub each time I send them a txt.
We do this for a few reasons: 1. you can send msgs longer than 160. 2. You get realtime feedback on the msgs. 3. It helps to prevent spam.
We don't allow the removal of the links but you can control the landing page with your name and avatar and our paid plans include complete branding of the page.
Curious...what throughput do I get when I use your service? Twilio limits you to 1 SMS / second unless you get a short code (30 SMSs / second) or otherwise use multiple numbers.
Do I get any benefit from you guys regarding this?
We give you 1 number per plan, but always happy to talk through individual needs: sales [at] sendhub.com or feel free to ping us on live chat on our site.
[+] [-] runako|14 years ago|reply
Gosh, this sounds like I'm bashing your app, which I don't mean to do. You're YC-backed, so I'm sure the issue is the content on your website not representing your actual value. Hope this helps you align the two.
[+] [-] ashrust|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jonursenbach|14 years ago|reply
Or am I alone in thinking this?
[+] [-] izak30|14 years ago|reply
Edit: For me, I see EC2 as virtualized servers, and Heroku as Application management. I see Twilio as currently on the same playing field/complexity as Heroku (compared to say, hosted Asterisk)
[+] [-] RandallBrown|14 years ago|reply
Twilio's API is already pretty dead simple.
[+] [-] ashrust|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] peteforde|14 years ago|reply
1. Is this a product or a feature? Realistically, what's stopping Twilio from providing these features if you prove that there is a market? Or what if someone implements this functionality as an open source gem out of spite? (See: Growl's painful movement away from free)
2. What is your unfair business advantage? And why you instead of someone else? Do you have years of experience working with Twilio or SMS in general? Are you super wealthy or connected politically in an advantageous way? Are any of your employees or founders former Twilio folks?
3. Is there a market here big enough to justify the existence of your company? Even if your CAC is low and your LCV is high, are there more than 1000 people that need this, and are they willing to pay a premium for what you offer?
I'm genuinely curious what kind of customer development you've done to demonstrate that you're solving a hair on fire problem. I'm had no idea there were so many Twilio SMS apps under current or future development.
[+] [-] ashrust|14 years ago|reply
1. The API is certainly one of our suite of features, you can also use SendHub via the web or any sms enabled cell phone. We expect to see more competition in the space and will be doing our best to contribute to open source ourselves.
2. A lot of our users have tried other SMS products and found them to be a poor experience - based on the feedback we get. We try to spend our time focused on building the best possible product and let that, rather than our backgrounds, do the talking.
3. We believe so, and our initial sales are reflective of that.
[+] [-] arturadib|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ashrust|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nchuhoai|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ashrust|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jcromartie|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] randall|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ashrust|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] devinfoley|14 years ago|reply
The question is, how many apps need to implement conversations for Twilio?
[+] [-] tylerlh|14 years ago|reply
If using this on top of an app I'm building, chances are I don't want to refer users to SendHub each time I send them a txt.
[+] [-] ashrust|14 years ago|reply
We don't allow the removal of the links but you can control the landing page with your name and avatar and our paid plans include complete branding of the page.
[+] [-] matan_a|14 years ago|reply
Do I get any benefit from you guys regarding this?
[+] [-] ashrust|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sachingulaya|14 years ago|reply
Question: How many numbers can a plan have?
[+] [-] ashrust|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] europa|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] amirnathoo|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ashrust|14 years ago|reply