Hacker News

Show HN: Automate phone calls with AI for 2 cents a minute

Hacker News - Thu, 04/17/2025 - 4:45pm

Hi folks, my partner and I just finished the MVP of a no-code AI phone automation tool called ThunderPhone. I'd love to get your thoughts.

We've worked on a few phone AI projects recently, and have had a couple of persistent frustrations with tools like Retell, Vapi, etc. - namely that they're quite complicated to set up, and pretty pricy, around 10 cents a minute.

After kicking the idea around for a while, we finally decided to go for it and build this.

ThunderPhone costs 2 cents a minute for inbound and outbound calls, telephony charges included.

It also handles a variety of integrations directly or through Make.com. We've set up templates and wizards to make it easy to set up integrations to trigger calls however you'd like, and to have phone calls read and write information dynamically to/from spreadsheets, emails, calendars, etc.

This is an early release, so still lots of work to do! We'd appreciate your thoughts if you have a chance to try it out.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43722042

Points: 1

# Comments: 1

Categories: Hacker News

What Shopify got wrong – and how we're unbundling it

Hacker News - Thu, 04/17/2025 - 4:15pm

I’ve been obsessed with how traditional businesses in Africa and beyond are still stuck on Instagram, WhatsApp, and walk-ins — not because they don’t want to grow, but because today’s platforms don’t speak their language.

Platforms like Shopify, Wix, and Bubble are too horizontal. They require too much thinking, design, configuration. The next wave? Hyper-vertical platforms that "think" for the user.

Imagine:

A platform just for spare part dealers — with inventory categories built-in.

A platform just for mobile barbers — with preloaded service menus and booking calendars.

A platform just for tailors — with customer measurement tracking and fitting reminders.

That’s what we’re building: the unbundling of Shopify, into verticalized, plug-and-play platforms for real businesses around the world.

We’re starting in Africa — where this leap can have a generational impact.

I'd love feedback on:

Best vertical to start with

How to balance UX simplicity with extensibility

Building a scalable engine for multiple verticals

AMA — and brutally honest feedback welcome.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43721717

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Categories: Hacker News

Sql Semantic Search

Hacker News - Thu, 04/17/2025 - 4:12pm
Categories: Hacker News

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