Show HN: I built a thing (opens in new tab)

You shouldn't be marketing this towards consumers. If you and your friend had this problem with the apartment gate then I'm sure more people at your apartment have to deal with it also. Why don't you talk to your apartment complex and see if they'd be interested to use it as a service for their tenants?

You should be marketing this towards apartment complex properties, not consumers living in apartment complexes.

Tell landlords they can offer the service to tenants for $10/mo. Split proceeds 50/50.

Call every landlord in town.

Landlords love upselling tenants (parking spaces, storage space, etc.)

I think you need a better domain name. QuestionsThree is a fun name, but it conveys no information. How about something like this:

  * openmydooor.com
  * buzzmein.com
  * apartmentbuzzer.com

etc

Is there anything that prevents this from being a phone app and sell it in one of the app stores?

You could abstract away all the web and phone (press '9') stuff and just have a button "Open the door? Yes/No" if someone activates the buzzer.

Maybe add some easy management for pins that:

- always open (roommates/family/friends)

- open only one time (deliveries, not-so-close-friends)

- open only under certain conditions (time of day, day of month, etc)

Make it possible to easily share those pin numbers via SMS, Facebook, email, etc.

I think you have a product that's great for access management. You should highlight the additional benefits in your marketing, e.g.:

- easy to invite friends over for dinner

- easy to share apartment without the need for new keys

- easy to revoke access

- easy to let cleaning staff in during certain times of day

Another thought: Market it as a helpful add-on for AirBnB customers. You don't have to give someone a key to your apartment, just a PIN that only works for the time they rent the apartment (this is also useful for sub-leases). You can revoke access at any time, no matter where you are (big problem with keys).

Short version: I think you'd have a better chance packaging your product as a mobile app, abstracting away all the web/phone stuff and sell it as "entry management" instead of "automated buzzer".

I love the fact that you solved a specific pain point and can potentially help others, but I'm not sure this is something that would be worth $10/month for most people. This is also a pretty trivial app to build with the twilio/tropo APIs, so it's not an earth shattering product.

Can you set it up to use the same number, but validate accounts with access numbers? That way you only pay for 1 number and could possibly ask for donations on the site for hosting costs (sounds like you could still get away with the free heroku account for your building).

Why wouldn't you just (1) get a local google voice number, (2) forward it to your cell, (3) ask who it is (yay security!), (4) press 9 (or not). I'm honestly not getting the value here.

I'm also totally not getting how the security aspect of this is being glossed over. To the suggestion that apartment owners/managers would be interested, why would they put up a security gate then install a system that allows it to be bypassed by anyone with your phone number?? I actually bet if you told your apartment manager he would demand you immediately disable it, not pay you to give it to your neighbors.

That's strange, of all the places in the world I wouldn't suspect that US have a higher price for calling non-local cells/phones (and even has such thing as a long-distance call). Here were I live the long/short distance have the same price for about 15 years now). I know that Poland is small in comparison to the US, but I don't see a point in charging more for longer distance (one could just average the price).

You've done the easy bit. The hard bit is how to make money. Selling to the apartment owning/building/management industry will be very difficult. The product needs to be a lot more refined. The marketing materials just so. The team selling experienced in the industry. And so on.

Some fights are worth having. If you can find a sidekick who relishes the sales battle then sobeit.

Else consider open sourcing what you've done and move to the next problem.

Very cool thing. I would include a summary on the use case on the questionsthree website or a short paragraph describing what exactly it is. The only reason I had some idea of what it was, is due to the blog post that directed me there.

Just some information (also, pricing) to provide before asking for people to give away their emails.

Cool thing, though!

> I’ve built a thing.

> And unfortunately, I haven’t found a succinct way to market it or even just describe it.

My first tip is to stop using such vague and obnoxious phrasing.

Cool idea, but you can get a local phone number from Magic Jack or its ilk for $10/year, I have a hard time seeing how you charge much more than that.

I need this, thank you! How do you get the local phone number? won't I have to pay for it anyway?

Very cool, congrats. You may want to read this post-mortem of a company that did the same thing, but then shut down after 50 paying customers. (I used to be a customer, and we re-built it ourselves once the service went offline)

http://buzzer-o-matic.tumblr.com/

Market this to the management of every apartment complex with a gate. Have them spread your app to their individual resident base.

Your marketing copy has to change a little because you are now targeting management to be your distribution channel. You could say something like our app reduces the line in front of the gate because it makes it easier for trusted outsiders to enter the community.

Or if you think it's easier to go after your end-users, then you could:

- try and cross-market with other startups targeting apartment residents

- try to get access to different apartment community/common rooms and drop some flyers or quickly talk to some folks (this is kind of creepy and risky, but you might be able to hack the process by asking for a tour of the apartment from management)

- try dropping your message on apartment forums or review sites

sell this to apartment owners directly, starting with your own. Tell them it's a selling point they can put in their listings "Includes QuestionsThree easy-access system" or something along those lines.

Billing landlords is a better way to price it, after-all you said you hated getting a $20 bill every month just to access your apartment by phone, so residents wouldn't be much happier if they were billed by this system.

Very cool. Still I wonder, why don't these gates accept non-local area codes, seems like a design flaw.

I build something like this a year ago but never did anything with it. . .

I would take it area by area, walk around to find the buildings that have gates, then mail everyone in those buildings with a voucher code. A/B test your letters, refine as you go. Consider partnering with local pizza delivery stores, maybe 50c off if you have this service?

Work out how many people you need signed up in order to live off the income, after a few weeks of marketing extrapolate out how many weeks it'll take to get enough people signed up to live off this business. Consider whether it's worth continuing or re-evaluate at that point.

I also build something similar when I was living in an apartment.

I've open sourced the it here: https://github.com/amccloud/django-tropo-webapi/

and the bulk of it https://github.com/amccloud/django-tropo-webapi/blob/master/...

It was great because it allowed my roommate and I to buzz people in from our own cell phones. It also allowed me to set an entry code to give out to friends and for deliveries. It would sms me and my roommate when someone came through the gate. To further extend on that idea you could create specific codes for specific people that only work at specific times.

Using technology to solve a personal pain point. Not a huge problem, but a problem nonetheless, and now your life is a little bit better. I like it. It's stuff like this that really makes me appreciate the power of coding.

I've seen (and built) similar things on top of Twilio before. Even set it up to have multiple passcodes for different friends, then it will text me "John just let himself in."

Some people don't get the pain point, but it's definitely nice!

Check out how Lockitron is marketing their product - yours can deliver similar value, except to residents of apartment complexes. https://lockitron.com/preorder

I would first figure out the size of the market, then pick a price point (informed by the size of the market + the pain solved by your solution), then a marketing strategy (target either building management or individuals).

While most people on HN are telling you to market to the apartment complexes, I think you might want to market towards individuals, since they are the ones who feel the pain that you alleviate. You can target apartment complexes if you alleviate some pain that they have (maybe having your system is something they can include in marketing materials, which will get them more occupants/better occupancy).

The best thing about targeting individuals is that you may be able to get them to market for you (see dropbox), and that they will cross pollinate your solution to new apartment complexes when they move.

So this isn't a problem where I live, they actually let you use any number, (my cell, landline, etc) and it does the dial and press 9 thing.

However, I am renting out my apartment to people and they would sometimes forget the gate key or whatever, and I'd get a call literally once or twice a day all to just press 9. I could see this being useful.

I'd suggest manually taking on the first few dozen customers by word of mouth, as many as possible, then using that as evidence of a quantifiable need - after that point, contacting letting agents who may be able to use it as a neat selling point?

You found a bad user experience for you (a problem) You built an e-doorman (a product)

Now think about the problem an solution in terms of Product and market

Is the market who you think it is ? (I.E. who will buy this ? people, buzzer system makers or building owners ?)

Then think about what would be the product that would allow your market to solve the problem. Might not be the one you built exactly.

A product is only successful if it solves a problem for a market. Both problem and market are mandatory.

This is great! I have the exact same problem with my apartment building needing not just a local number but one with the same area code as the building (so an area code in a neighboring city 10 mins away wouldn't work).

I ended up getting a google voice number to solve the issue which then simultaneously rings both me and my wife. However, I love your PIN idea and the "automatically let anyone in during a set time period" approach.

This is a no brainer product to sell to the pizza joint. The sales pitch, You should start with your pizza delivery place and tell them, you will give them delivery access to the building exclusively for X dollars... "We Are The Only Pizza Place That You Don't Have to Open The Gate For." would be a very compelling USP, much like what built the massive brand dominoes pizza, "Fresh Hot Pizza in Thirty Minutes or Less."

You would be surprised how a simple small compelling USP can nearly monopolize a small market... Than I would branch out to other delivery services to your building... Once you have 3-5 places using this marketing pitch you can go to property owners and say, "Here is a way to squeeze extra revenue out of your property, while providing a great service to your tenants... You can take it a step further and offer the first part of the app (with a PIN) to tenants for free, sponsored by the local pizza delivery joint...

The best part is that you already have a relationship with the local pizza place, so start there... prove the model and slowly scale throughout your neighborhood, etc...

That's a really cool idea, but just out of curiosity, is it normal for the gate to have to be programmed with a phone number? In the apartment complexes that I lived in, the gate would just buzz through to a small intercom type system beside the door in the apartment.

Is the phone calling thing a new process, or is this just an Australia vs. USA thing?

It feel so good to read "I built a thing"

How much is the price after 30 day trial is over? You may want to put up that price somewhere on the site.

I did the same thing using twilio here (http://www.ryanfaerman.com/notebook/2012/07/10/gate-insecuri...). The plus-side is it only costs me 3 cents per gate call.

did something similar in school a couple years ago. Basically was a web server and an arduino connected to the apartments buzzer and door unlock system. When you were at the front door you would be connected to our wifi network and could then go to a url that would open the door. Never thought to sell the service to others in the building - would have been a good idea. although when the maintenance guy came in and saw an arduino hanging down from the intercom/buzzer box he was a little pissed. lol

I had a similar issue at an apartment building. I just setup a new Google phone number (with a local area code) and had the number forward to my cell phone, and then to my wife's cell phone if I didn't pick up. So while I didn't have the cool PIN thing, I could let someone in if I was out since it forwarded to my cell phone. I only bring it up because I wouldn't pay for this solution when the free one (which is nearly if not as good) exists.

I would suggest to enter in contact with companies that build and sell these gate locks. These are your clients. Check HN posts on how to cold call sell something the most efficient way to succeed. Don't expect to get rich from it. But this will be of high value for people reading your cv and might take your virginity off in making business. ;)

Note: rule n° 1 of marketing: identify your market (clients)

Hahah nice. I built that same thing about a year ago with the Twilio API. It took about an hour. I still use it 2 apartments later. Awesome.

This is a wonderful idea. I've thought of doing the same with Twilio. You could also make it a little more secure with Twilio by only opening the gate (dialing "9") for specific phone numbers that call in - for example your friend's number of the pizza place's number.

A similar 'thing' done using SMS (by Hilary Mason in 2010), code included http://www.hilarymason.com/blog/sms-to-e-mail-gateway-the-sm...

This is a problem that many people have in Boston because most are transplants without local numbers and it seems like you've built a nice solution.

My current fix: I created a Google number with the local 617 area code.

I could see this being very useful however.

Have you considered a one-time-use (or limited-time) PIN for deliveries? You could also replace your PIN-free pizza-guy mode with a fixed pizza guy PIN (say, 74992) that's similarly only valid for an hour.

Lots of people are saying that your pricing is too high, but I presume that people who live in apartments with fancy gates for protection can probably stand to throw away $100/year without even thinking.

Phonestub - when you need a local phone number you dont need.

Very cool, I've been using Google Voice for this exact reason over the last 2 years. Was thinking of making something like this using Twilio but you beat me to it...well done!

Draw a stick figure comic for your pizza||ups delivery story! Much other consumer packaging to do, but that solves your messaging question

Ha, I had an idea to build a product around this (and related services) the other day.

I had similar problem and I gave google voice number, which is local

What thing did you build? I'm not gonna click on titles like these.