FounderPhone
A direct line for your top customers
We rebranded FounderPhone to Convey. We started FounderPhone for B2B founders to maintain a personal relationship with their customers via text, but the market just wasn't there.
BUT, customers were using us for marketing and support, and loved our Slack integration - being able to send, receive, and discuss text conversations with customers all from Slack.
So, we decided to rebrand FounderPhone to Convey, and just launched on Product Hunt. We're focusing on features to make it super easy to have highly personalized text conversations with customers at scale.
Check it out :)
We've been releasing products in the customer success and support spaces for the past few months.
In early January, we released meettalkative.com, which let you see all visitors to your website or web app and video and text chat with them in app. We got a few customers but very low usage.
In early February, we released founderphone.com, which let you send and receive texts and calls directly from Slack. FounderPhone is going decently well and is at a couple hundred MRR with ~10 happy customers, but we realized there was a larger pain point in companies who communicate with their customers through Slack.
So, we just launched acrossapp.com, which helps companies who want to provide support and communicate with customers through Slack. We've built a ticketing system on top of Slack so you can manage open issues, automatically follow up with customers, and manage SLAs.
We have a lot more to build on our roadmap but the MVP is out, and we're working with a few initial customers to design a great experience in Slack. Hoping this one takes off!
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questions,
- how are you building products so quickly?
- Why are you pivoting so quickly?
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Crazy impressive execution to build 3 products so quickly. IMO talking to customers in slack sounds like a great way to engage IF slack is a tool they're regularly on - hopefully this bet on the slack platform pays off. Keep grinding @memn0nis and team!
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Very impressive @memn0nis! Good luck! The websites look great too. I am curious which tools you used to build those.
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Thanks for sharing.
Why are you pivoting so fast? 3 products in 3 months?
It takes time to turn ideas into a profitable business.
I think it's better to give each one more time and effort to build/market rather than moving from 1 idea to the next so fast.
Best of luck in your product!
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You could definitely be right, but they are all MVPs trying to solve similar problems for the same customer base. After 1 month on an idea and speaking to 30-40 potential customers for each product, I think it is possible to tell whether it is "working" or not
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Congratulations. 3 launches in 3 months. That's one thing that requires :claps:.
I'm trying to access the site acrossapp.com but it's down. Hopefully you are in the middle of some updates.
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nice share bro
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Hey @Kunal, your capability to create all these products in a short period of time is baffling and awesome.
I'm sure it takes lots of work and dedication - really admirable.
As for pivoting often, I am in favor of quick iterations & testing and changing directions as often as needed. Good luck and hope you find your market fit!
PS: Thanks for reaching out to me to notify me regarding a certain private survey link last time :)
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Thanks for your kind words. Hope all is going well with Ryeboard as well :)
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Just don't let Russ Hanneman invest. Don't do it! It'll turn about baaaaaad.
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Haha I'm not sure I could turn down anyone's money ;)
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How much core functionality were you able to preserve which each of these new products/pivots?
Was a lot of the work mostly UI/product positioning shifts?
Any regrets?
Best of luck with the new direction!
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A lot of the functionality could be carried over, which was nice. If you notice the websites and front ends are pretty similar across the products. And we already became comfortable working with the Slack APIs from founderphone
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Really interesting problem and idea. are there a lot of companies that have customers in their slack?
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It's very common at least here in San Francisco. We do it with all our customers and it helps us get instant feedback (and also its nice to chat / become more friendly :))
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Thanks for sharing. How do you go about deciding to pivot vs improving upon the current product?
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This is always a really hard decision. Ultimately we felt that there was a good underserved niche here we could solve quickly
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Always great to see purposeful pivots. Keep it up!
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Thank you!
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Also, if you don't create shared slack channels with your customers I highly recommend it! And happy to talk about how to make it successful
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Keep grinding, @memn0nis and team!
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Thank you :)
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This comment was deleted 7 years ago
We did a Show HN today and got to the front page with 91 upvotes and 40 comments! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22357517
The comments were mixed to say the least, which was tough to read...on the bright side, at least this showed that some people have an interest in using our product to communicate with their customers via SMS.
For those interested, this generated 2221 unique site visits and ~20 signups for free trials today.
We still have a lot to build, and are more excited than ever about our roadmap!
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Don't be discouraged about mixed or unhappy feedback.
Two reasons why:- The market will pull the product out of the ideal team. (not the other way around)
- The customer is the one using the furniture at the end of the day. You need a suggestions box, comments, and a showing room, because in contrast to real furniture you cannot overhear people trying it out in the showroom.
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This is a great perspective, thanks!
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is there anything you did to get there with "Show HN:" type post?
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Would also be interested to know! Whatever I post drop right off the radar never to be seen again.
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We honestly didn't do anything special. We've done other show HN posts with other products in the past that I would have expected to take off and didn't (and other articles as well). I think it was just luck perhaps?
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If that is so then I'd say it was well deserved in any case, and I hope you have a lot more luck coming your way!
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well done, Kunal! (and see you around MV ;))
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Also, it's always great to have mixed reactions when launching a product. Creating a bit of love/hate is a perfect catalyst because it will cause more noise, organic marketing, and is way way better than being unnoticed. It generates debate and a conversation that are good for your product, both from a feedback perspective but also conversion. Cybertruck love & hate is good for business. There needs to be a balance of course, and it can't be deep concerns, but I think what you found with HN is fantastic.
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Wow, people are harsh on HN!
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Props for getting on the front page and generating vigorous discussion. I think you answered their 'concerns' really well! 👍
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Thank you Devan! We definitely have items on our roadmap to expand beyond Slack and address many of the concerns
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This comment was deleted 6 years ago
We've committed to a major release of founderphone.com every week and are continuing to build rapidly - well as rapidly a couple people can :)
This week we introduced:
- No CC required free trial for every customer
- Hubspot and Google integrations to pull your contacts directly into FounderPhone, as well as a CSV upload
- Automated text campaigns directly from FounderPhone!
As a reminder, FounderPhone lets you text and call your customers directly from Slack!
Kunal
Hey all,
We need more feedback from other startup founders on founderphone.com, so we've decided to give away 20 free business phone numbers (U.S. numbers only) to other companies, along with 14 days of unlimited texting and calling. If you decide you don't want to stay with us after 14 days, we'll port the number to your carrier of choice!
FounderPhone is a VIP phone number for your top customers. We create a shared inbox for your team in Slack so that you can get back to your top customers asap via SMS or phone call. Give out your number to your largest customers, and ensure they always have a direct line to your team.
Please comment below, send me an email at kunal@founderphone.com, or text me at (510) 756-2522 if you're interested in receiving a number.
For more info you can also visit founderphone.com
We just released our second version of FounderPhone (founderphone.com). We're trying to release a new version every week, which is really fun but also I suspect will become exhausting :)
Last week, we released our first version which allowed you to send and receive texts through Slack.
This release contains a lot more functionality, such as:
- Call forwarding - forward calls from your founderphone number to any other number
- Contact sync - sync your contacts from Google or Hubspot. Other CRMs are coming shortly
- Send images and videos - now supported!
- Auto-naming slack channels - we automatically name channels for your incoming texts by contact name
- Risk-free trials - implemented a 7 day free trial. If you decide to leave FounderPhone, we'll port the phone number to your carrier of choice, so you don't have to worry about giving out your number to a customer and being stuck
Coming soon: proactive alerts from Segment and Sentry so that you can communicate issues with your customer in real-time, WhatsApp support.
We released FounderPhone (founderphone.com) last Tuesday, and posted a link to a bunch of places (IH, Facebook, Reddit). We also emailed a bunch of friends asking them to check it out!
And... we know have our first 5 paying customers! It's only $100 MRR, but at least it's something :)
For those who don't know, FounderPhone is a bat phone for your most important customers. If a VIP customer calls or texts the number, your team can respond with a personal touch as themselves or as YOU. The idea is to scale the "text the CEO" experience of an early startup.
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5 paying customers and $100 MRR in less than a week is fantastic, don't sell yourself short dude ;)
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The idea is amazing, a great answer to today's needs! I love the design and the explanation of the product! Definitely will use it in the future! I am still on the hunt for my own idea!
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cool idea!
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Wow, I think this is an amazing idea. Once I got enough revenue from my projects, I'll definitely use your service to improve customer support. Right now, I just can't afford it yet.
Anyway, congratulations on getting new customers! I've bookmarked your website for future reference and will let my circle of friends know about this.
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Thanks! Really appreciate it :)
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It is a lot — Congrats! Great job. How much effort (demos, calls) did you put to convert those 5?
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Congratulations! I was jumping up and down when I got my first customer. Enjoy the moment.
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Wow... that's great. Congrats
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Hey Kunal!
That's a great idea, I was looking for something similar yesterday and there is clearly a need for this product! Your $100 MRR is a great one!
Will give it a try later today or tomorrow :)
Did you consider lowering the minimum price but limiting the # of messages per day? (for example). Would become a risk free option for your prospects and when they start to use the service, upsell them with higher plans. Just my 2 cents. Your idea is great and I'm sure it will grow!
Cheers
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I gotta say I really love the Silicon Valley vibe on the landing page. Made me laugh.
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Haha thanks!
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That's cool, congrats..
btw, I love your logo:) -
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Smart idea and well written copy.
Also your free trial approach piqued my interest. I haven't seen that approach. What was your thinking behind that?
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Congrats.
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Thank you :)
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Congrats! Is Founder Phone sort of going for the business version of Community?
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Community is an interesting comparison! That was one of the inspirations for sure. We really want to be able to "scale" the experience of building in direct contact with the CEO of a small company. Or maybe help leaders become more productive so that they can preserve this experience for longer?
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This comment was deleted 7 years ago
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Uu, I like the idea. Although I am not the target, pricing feels a little bit odd
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Thanks for your feedback! What do you find odd about the pricing?
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Also if anyone wants to see how it works you can text our company founderphone at (510) 756-2522
We just launched our latest product, FounderPhone: http://founderphone.com. We're getting faster at building / releasing with every new product :)
FounderPhone gives your most valuable customers a VIP hotline, a phone number for your top customers that your team can respond to in Slack.
We created FounderPhone as an internal tool to make communicating with our customers more personal, and decided to release it to the world in case its useful for other founders
Here's what FounderPhone does:
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Gives you a U.S. phone number to share with VIP customers, ensuring they have a direct line to your team
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Sends and receives text messages from that number directly from Slack
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Only messages after "@founderphone" in Slack get sent to the customer. Therefore, you can discuss responses / issues with your team in the same Slack channel as the one where you send and receive texts customer
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Forwards any calls directly to your personal phone number
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It's intended to be pretty cheap. 27 dollars per month for unlimited customers and 3 users at your company
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Congrats on the pivot. Looks promising!