Expert Advice

How a startup worked to connect people with questions with the experts who could answer them

  • Industry

    Startup

  • Time Frame

    2 years

  • Business Type

    Software

  • Team

    13 team members

Idea

It’s 3:00 AM. You wake up to the sound of rushing water. You stumble into the kitchen and are greeted by a lake of water pouring from under the sink.

You know nothing about plumbing. An after-hours plumber will charge you a massive amount of money, but waiting isn’t an option. If only you could do something about it yourself.

Only you don’t know how. Perhaps you do an internet search, but a scroll through the answers only turns up suggestions that are each more bizarre than the last.

If only your sibling or friend was a plumber. Only they’re not. If only you’d taken that random class fifteen years ago that might have helped. Only you didn’t.

With a sigh, you dial the plumber and try not to scream at the thought of the massive bills floating your way on a bridge of broken pipes.

If only there was a better way.

About

The client wanted to change the way people could receive the help they needed. Why should someone have to make an appointment with a lawyer and spend hundreds of dollars an hour to get an answer to a simple question? Identifying his goals was the first step. The client would create a better way for people to receive advice from the people who had the necessary skills and qualifications to give it. Instead of internet searches with everyone’s Aunt Sue and Cousin Carl sharing their opinions, people would be able to connect with industry experts and find actual factual answers to their problems.

The client was no stranger to entrepreneurship. At this point in his career, he had already experienced great success. The idea was born when he and his wife were going through an experience that was unfamiliar to them. Constant questions raced through their brains at all hours of the day or night. “What about this?” “Was that normal?”

They desperately wanted answers to relieve their minds, but they could only receive answers at set appointments with a professional.

There had to be a better way.

Then the client had an idea. What if he created a way for people with a legal question to ask an actual lawyer.

Or a person with a sick pet to connect with an actual veterinarian. Doctors. Plumbers. Electricians.

The list went on. Everyone at some point had a question only an expert could answer. No more waiting weeks for an appointment, his site would enable those in need to have an answer within a day.

Convinced that the idea would work. the client created a startup and began to take the steps to bring the idea into reality.

Problems

Affordability

As a startup, the client did not have infinite amounts of money to pour into the business. Although confident that the business would be a success, he needed an affordable development option so that he could take his product to market and begin to earn revenue.

Qualifications

As the old saying goes, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” If the startup was going to work, it needed to work from the beginning. The client needed highly skilled and qualified developers who could take his idea and help develop, test, and assist in making sure the product taken to market was useable and bug free.

Infrastructure

The main component of the startup that would make it a success was the infrastructure. The application needed to connect users with the right experts and host a secure environment where information could be exchanged. The client needed developers who could create this vast infrastructure so his application would have the right foundation.

Development

The client approached Swan Software Solutions for help in creating and deploying the application. Soon, the companies were working together to transform the client’s brilliant idea into reality.

Swan provided the startup with a qualified team to work under their leadership to create, maintain, and develop their applications. Swan built a .NET platform and custom CMS and CRM using an augmentation model with US management and European development where data was fed from the US to Eastern Europe.

Team

13 team members.

Time frame

2 years.

Java

HTML5

AngularJS

Windows

MacOS

NET

Microsoft SQL Server

MySQL

Difference

Before

Tallie inherited a house and decided to rent it out. She and her husband are expecting twins, so the income will help tremendously. After leasing it to a family, she stops receiving rent a few months after they move in. She wants to kick them out, but can she get sued if she does? How does one legally kick someone out?

After

Tallie hasn’t received rent in four months. With twins on the way, Tallie needs the income, but she doesn’t want to get into legal trouble. An internet search yields many–and conflicting–pieces of advice. Then she discovers a website where she can talk one on one with a lawyer. Within minutes, he has answered her questions. Relieved, Tallie follows the advice and goes back to decorating her nursery.

Before

Peter’s truck for his lawn care company is making a strange noise. He decides to drive it anyway since it’s probably not a huge issue. Later, by the side of the road with smoke billowing from his engine, he regrets his decision. A tow truck to the shop later, the mechanic tells him driving his car was a very costly mistake as it worsened the issue tenfold. He now needs to pay thousands in repairs.

After

Peter notices a noise in his truck on the way to a job for his lawn care company. He weighs the pros and cons of missing work or driving a potentially broken vehicle. He heads to a website that connects people with experts. Within minutes, a mechanic is chatting with him. The expert recommends he call a tow truck. It is later confirmed this choice saved him thousands.

Results

10,000,000

Customers served and counting!

1000s

of Experts

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