building a pay-as-you-go alternative to per-seat business international call phone systems (Currently at $125 MRR)
Been working on Teams for Airlophone lately.
Most business phone systems charge you monthly + per seat, which makes sense if your team is on the phone all day.
But there’s this weird middle ground where an individual or a company needs to call internationally, just not enough to justify paying for another phone system every month. That’s what I’m building Airlophone around.
One shared wallet, invite your team, set limits, and everyone just pays for whatever calls they actually make.
Also working on AI notes for recorded calls. it takes the call + whatever notes you typed yourself and puts everything together after.
Basically Granola but for your phone calls.
Airlophone did ~$125 in the last 4 weeks from 19 payments. still tiny and I’m very much figuring out distribution, but pretty cool seeing strangers actually paying for and using it.
still building Teams rn. would love to get a few companies using it while I figure this out.
Nice work! How long did it take you to build the first version?
Nice progress. What is the next thing you are focusing on?
Nice progress. What is the next thing you are focusing on?
This positioning is spot on. The 'per-seat' pricing model for tools you only use twice a month is the biggest scam in B2B SaaS right now. Shared wallet with hard limits is exactly how you win over small teams who are tired of being nickeled and dimed. Good luck with the launch!
Nice progress. What is the next thing you are focusing on?
Appreciate the build-in-public detail. On our side we kept the free tier honest (screen/parse only, not hire/reject) while growing: https://firstpass.surge.sh/#try — First Pass desk
Congrats on the 19 payments — strangers paying is the signal that matters at this stage.
A market thought from Nigeria: pay-as-you-go isn't a compromise here, it's the default. Airtime, data, everything — we pay for exactly what we use, and subscription fatigue is real when income is irregular. A lot of SMEs here call China, Dubai and Turkey weekly for trade and would never justify a per-seat phone system — but would absolutely top up a shared wallet. If you ever test emerging markets, your pricing model already speaks the local language.
On distribution — I launched my own product on Product Hunt last week and got 2 points, so I feel the "figuring it out" part deeply. What's slowly working for me: finding the one place my buyers already ask questions and showing up there consistently, instead of spraying everywhere. For international calling that might be expat and trade communities rather than general startup channels.
Watching the Teams rollout — shared wallet + per-member limits sounds like the actual unlock for small companies.
Nice progress. What is the next thing you are focusing on?
Thanks for sharing the numbers, that makes it much easier to follow.
Makes sense. Are you planning to charge for it, or keep it free for now?
Nice progress. What is the next thing you are focusing on?
What made you pick this stack over the alternatives?
Nice progress. What is the next thing you are focusing on?
Helpful post. How did you get your first bit of traction?
Makes sense. Are you planning to charge for it, or keep it free for now?
Appreciate the honesty here, most people only share the wins.
Interesting. How are you measuring whether it is working?
What made you pick this stack over the alternatives?
Really relatable. How much time do you put into this each week?
Clear and practical, thanks. Did anything surprise you along the way?
Appreciate the honesty here, most people only share the wins.
Interesting. How are you measuring whether it is working?
I’d push back on the shared wallet idea a bit. It sounds cleaner for companies, but doesn’t it create an awkward control problem once you have several employees making international calls from the same balance?
If one person suddenly burns through a big chunk of the wallet, the “pay only for what you use” advantage could start feeling less predictable than per-seat pricing. Are the per-user limits meant to solve that completely, or are you considering separate departmental budgets/approval rules too?
Makes sense. Are you planning to charge for it, or keep it free for now?
Interesting approach. What was the hardest part to get right?
Makes sense. Are you planning to charge for it, or keep it free for now?
Interesting approach. What was the hardest part to get right?
Nice work shipping it. What has been the biggest challenge since launch?
Nice progress. What is the next thing you are focusing on?
Solid lesson. Which channel has worked best for you so far?
Nice work shipping it. What has been the biggest challenge since launch?
Makes sense. Are you planning to charge for it, or keep it free for now?
Solid lesson. Which channel has worked best for you so far?
Interesting approach. What was the hardest part to get right?
Nice progress. What is the next thing you are focusing on?
Makes sense. Are you planning to charge for it, or keep it free for now?
Interesting approach. What was the hardest part to get right?
Solid lesson. Which channel has worked best for you so far?
Interesting approach. What was the hardest part to get right?
Makes sense. Are you planning to charge for it, or keep it free for now?
Makes sense. Are you planning to charge for it, or keep it free for now?
Interesting approach. What was the hardest part to get right?
Solid lesson. Which channel has worked best for you so far?
Nice work shipping it. What has been the biggest challenge since launch?
Appreciate the honesty here, most people only share the wins.
Makes sense. Are you planning to charge for it, or keep it free for now?
Interesting approach. What was the hardest part to get right?
Interesting approach. What was the hardest part to get right?
Makes sense. Are you planning to charge for it, or keep it free for now?
Solid lesson. Which channel has worked best for you so far?
Of the 19 payments, have any revealed recurring team or company usage—and what behavior would validate Teams as a stronger growth path than expanding individual calling demand?
Makes sense. Are you planning to charge for it, or keep it free for now?
Solid lesson. Which channel has worked best for you so far?
Makes sense. Are you planning to charge for it, or keep it free for now?
Nice work shipping it. What has been the biggest challenge since launch?
Interesting approach. What was the hardest part to get right?
Appreciate the honesty here, most people only share the wins.
Nice progress. What is the next thing you are focusing on?
Nice work shipping it. What has been the biggest challenge since launch?
Interesting approach. What was the hardest part to get right?
Nice progress. What is the next thing you are focusing on?
Makes sense. Are you planning to charge for it, or keep it free for now?
Nice work shipping it. What has been the biggest challenge since launch?
Interesting approach. What was the hardest part to get right?
Appreciate the honesty here, most people only share the wins.
Solid lesson. Which channel has worked best for you so far?
Interesting approach. What was the hardest part to get right?
Makes sense. Are you planning to charge for it, or keep it free for now?
Nice work shipping it. What has been the biggest challenge since launch?
Love this angle. Building Xstream4K right now so this hits close to home — what made you look into it in the first place?
Nice, this makes a lot of sense. What's been the most surprising part of it so far?
Makes sense. Are you planning to charge for it, or keep it free for now?
Makes sense. Are you planning to charge for it, or keep it free for now?
Interesting approach. What was the hardest part to get right?
Appreciate the honesty here, most people only share the wins.
Solid lesson. Which channel has worked best for you so far?
Makes sense. Are you planning to charge for it, or keep it free for now?
Nice progress. What is the next thing you are focusing on?
Interesting approach. What was the hardest part to get right?
Nice work shipping it. What has been the biggest challenge since launch?
Nice work shipping it. What has been the biggest challenge since launch?
Makes sense. Are you planning to charge for it, or keep it free for now?
Interesting approach. What was the hardest part to get right?
Appreciate the honesty here, most people only share the wins.
Solid lesson. Which channel has worked best for you so far?
Makes sense. Are you planning to charge for it, or keep it free for now?
Love this angle, honestly. What made you look into it in the first place?
I have banks and clients overseas and many of the entity I need to call kinda use landlines, I looked at dialpad and rebtel (recommended by some friends) but they have monthly subscription while I don't use it that frequently honestly, so I thought there must be some people out there with a simmilar issue. now I’m experimenting with the team side + AI notes bc I usually use AI notes for my clients meeting in general.