Meet Amy, Larry, Alfred and Stefanshead, some app and text assistants
NEW YORK–Some apps certainly function as if they were invisible like Dennis Mortensen’s x.ai. It’s an artificial intelligence powered personal assistant that schedules meetings for you.
Mortensen was again going the rounds with Amy, the name of his A.I. personal assistant who happened to be in the same room as Larry, which is Raad Ahmed’s text-responder of a lawyer, a mix of automation and human beings. Larry is the text version of Ahmed’s LawTrades. It’s personalized legal help tailored to your business over text.
Both presenters and other startups Alfred and Stefanshead were at The Product Hunt meetup last July 22 at Animoto’s offices.
Launched as a side project two months (and made in only 7 days), Ahmed said Larry has already sent/received over 10,000 text messages pertaining to all matters legal. Perhaps not many know this, but Ahmed said LawTrades maintains a community of vetted attorneys who “work at lower rates.”
So Larry is an even simpler for people to ask legal questions. You text, get help and then pay. “We’re never spammy,” he said to answer a question about a possible concern about giving away one’s phone number.
What has he learned by adding Larry to LawTrades?
“The community is the key to loyal user base and word-of-mouth virality. Learn early and learn often. Don’t worry about launching too early or too often. (And you need) less technology,” he said.
For errands, Alfred is supposed to take care of that for you. Alfred is an automatic, hands-off service. Unlike others who narrow down their service to one chore, Alfred does everything, as the name suggests. If you need laundry done or something delivered, Alfred takes care of it for you.
A Tech Disrupt winner last year, Alfred has come a long way from its first iteration, Google sheets, as it prepares to launch its app in a few months. To make Alfred work in the beginning, the team learned by “going to the streets and knowing their markets.”
Alfred offers errands like grocery shopping, laundry, dry cleaning, house cleaning, tailoring, and pharmacy special requests. Most common special request so far, handiwork, like TV installations. It claims to have vetted partners.
What kind of work is more common in some cities? In New York, it’s shoe repair and dry cleaning. In Boston, it’s grocery shopping. Alfred charges $15 a week.
Trey Sisson of Stefan’s Head spoke about Stefanshead, the first ever text message driven retail brand. Stefan texts you once in a while, offering products you’ve never seen before and can’t get anywhere else.
“We offer a text message list for limited-run apparel,” he said. You can also text Stefanshead to get deals.
Sisson said you just have to listen to the haters, because they can help you and in building its site, he said the moment “pivot enters your mind, pivot.”
