Sorry, right now I don't think we have a good way to validate international phone numbers, we should fix that soon. The email refusing "+" was because of a crappy lib that I was using, and it isn't terribly high on the list of things to fix.
So, I guess the real answer is that it is restrictive because that was what was easiest.. sorry :(
Neat way to kill two birds with one stone. Not only do you get to promote Exec but you also get people to donate to a wonderful charity. Its great that you got such great founders to donate their time.
Win-win indeed! Thanks. I'm on the advisory board of donorschoose.org, so I'm super biased, but they're indeed awesome (also, use my matching code! 'breadpig')
This really demonstrates the power of strong personal/professional networks. Each of these founders are probably happy to talk to smart, budding entrepreneurs, for as the saying goes: "He who teaches, learns".
Justin Kan was able to bring them all together in one place, that place being his most recent startup. The charity angle doesn't hurt either, and adds a "feel good" element to this that makes it much more share-worthy.
I love seeing creative marketing and promotional ideas like this. So long, and thanks for all the inspiration.
This is full of win.
$100 for charity and an hour of advice from some really great people. I'm on board, now I just need to figure out who I'm going to talk to. Edit: signed up to talk with Tikhon Bernstam.
This phone-calls-with-celebrities model has been tried many times before but it simply isn't viable in the longterm for various reasons. Clearly you can get people to do it occasionally and even enjoy it, so it's great for things like what exec is doing, but it's not something that many people would do on a regular basis.
That said there are definitely still unexplored variations on this idea that have at least a decent probability of success, so I think it's worth it for those seeking ideas to take a closer look here.
I did a lot of interviews via GLG (and similar services) as a consultant, with rates ranging from $200-700 per hour. The $700 range was for C-suite interviews at $5-10B revenue companies. I imagine a senior person at Apple or Boeing would be well in the thousands per hour for a similar service.
The people who are paying for these services aren't small start-ups trying to grow -- it is private equity and consulting firms with really deep pockets making multi-million/billion dollar decisions. They'll pay what it takes.
This is a really cool idea. I tried to book Matt or Justin saturday for an hour but any would be worth that small price. I bet if you had pg people would pay 1k+ per hour.
I seriously wonder why someone hasn't created an app/escrow service to mimic/enhance 900 numbers.
Experts enter, hours available, and their price per unit (minutes, hours, whatever).
Users would basically pay the experts premium to cut through any and all communication filters to get ahold of that person right then. If the expert doesn't answer his phone right then it would text them to respond with 3-4 digits for a set time (clients chooses time range) to reschedule (or deny).
If you find yourself not taking calls the system will automatically increase your cost per hour until it is worth your time to just answer the damn phone (it will be eventually).
Think of it as a simple handshake service for payed phone consultation.
In the speaker/entertainment industry you quickly come to realize that pretty much everyone has a price to get their full immediate attention, it doesn't matter if it's Bono or Tim Cook. Not to be crass but everyone is pay-for-play at some dollar amount.
Anyone from Ilya Grigorik, to Gary Vaynerchuk could probably set a price point that would make them very happy and generate calls.
We haven't launched yet (just testing out the system), but we've processed five client/expert sessions in the past couple weeks and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.
No founder is so cheap as to have their time to be rented from. Besides, if I want to connect with some of the founders, all I have to do is send them an email.
[+] [-] bambax|14 years ago|reply
- email cannot contain the '+' character (yes it can!)
- phone should be 10 characters long
I can go around the first problem but not the second one (I'm in France: country prefix (33) + number = 11 pos).
I understand the service is targeted at SF residents right now, but since it's available for "virtual" tasks, why be so restrictive?
[+] [-] justin|14 years ago|reply
So, I guess the real answer is that it is restrictive because that was what was easiest.. sorry :(
[+] [-] zitterbewegung|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kn0thing|14 years ago|reply
http://donorschoose.org/alexisonCNN
[+] [-] _sentient|14 years ago|reply
Justin Kan was able to bring them all together in one place, that place being his most recent startup. The charity angle doesn't hurt either, and adds a "feel good" element to this that makes it much more share-worthy.
I love seeing creative marketing and promotional ideas like this. So long, and thanks for all the inspiration.
[+] [-] kenrikm|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rdl|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|14 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] anandkulkarni|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|14 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] Alex3917|14 years ago|reply
That said there are definitely still unexplored variations on this idea that have at least a decent probability of success, so I think it's worth it for those seeking ideas to take a closer look here.
[+] [-] justjimmy|14 years ago|reply
It's more of a promotion/marketing approach, and depending on the response, then they'll decide where to go next.
[+] [-] joshu|14 years ago|reply
http://www.glgresearch.com/
[+] [-] brown9-2|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dustingetz|14 years ago|reply
i would like to speak to a similar group, except 20 years more mature, running a business like Apple or Boeing.
[+] [-] justin|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] milesskorpen|14 years ago|reply
I did a lot of interviews via GLG (and similar services) as a consultant, with rates ranging from $200-700 per hour. The $700 range was for C-suite interviews at $5-10B revenue companies. I imagine a senior person at Apple or Boeing would be well in the thousands per hour for a similar service.
The people who are paying for these services aren't small start-ups trying to grow -- it is private equity and consulting firms with really deep pockets making multi-million/billion dollar decisions. They'll pay what it takes.
[+] [-] Caligula|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jreposa|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kn0thing|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] medinism|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fellowniusmonk|14 years ago|reply
Experts enter, hours available, and their price per unit (minutes, hours, whatever).
Users would basically pay the experts premium to cut through any and all communication filters to get ahold of that person right then. If the expert doesn't answer his phone right then it would text them to respond with 3-4 digits for a set time (clients chooses time range) to reschedule (or deny).
If you find yourself not taking calls the system will automatically increase your cost per hour until it is worth your time to just answer the damn phone (it will be eventually).
Think of it as a simple handshake service for payed phone consultation.
In the speaker/entertainment industry you quickly come to realize that pretty much everyone has a price to get their full immediate attention, it doesn't matter if it's Bono or Tim Cook. Not to be crass but everyone is pay-for-play at some dollar amount.
Anyone from Ilya Grigorik, to Gary Vaynerchuk could probably set a price point that would make them very happy and generate calls.
[+] [-] jayro|14 years ago|reply
We haven't launched yet (just testing out the system), but we've processed five client/expert sessions in the past couple weeks and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.
[+] [-] dwynings|14 years ago|reply
Also, Dan Martell's new startup, http://clarity.fm/, seems to be tackling this market as well.
[+] [-] jaredsohn|14 years ago|reply
Edit: Ether (mentioned in another post) at least used to be a division of Ingenio.
[+] [-] newman314|14 years ago|reply
I have no insight as to how much traction either offering has. Just wanted to point out this is not new.
[+] [-] lien|14 years ago|reply