11 ms·

Magic+

• w1ntermute 11y ago
  Isn't this just an overpriced Zirtual? https://www.zirtual.com/plans-pricing https://www.zirtual.com/plans-pricing
  • pbreit 11y ago
    No. It's not even that similar. Zirtual is virtual/remote. Magic is physical/local.
  • pdq 11y ago
    Right, this is text-message-only Zirtual, at $100/hour. They also include the standard Magic physical services as well, but I don't see why you'd pay for physical at $100/hour plus the Magic surcharge, when you can use Magic alone or Zirtual alone.
  • melvinjacobh 11y ago
    Zirtual may be overpriced Check their competitors to compare pricing, these might be comparatively cheaper without compromising on quality http://www.habiliss.com/indiv/virtual-assistant-services-pricing/ http://www.habiliss.com/indiv/virtual-assistant-services-pri... http://www.asksunday.com/dedicatedplanspricing http://www.asksunday.com/dedicatedplanspricing https://www.redbutler.com/plans https://www.redbutler.com/plans
• minimaxir 11y ago
  I really am not a fan of the hyperminimalistic "we can do anything trust us!" landing pages that every text-for-personal-assistant seems to think is brilliant marketing copy. There are examples of Magic+ requests, but no real-world examples of outcomes and whether the request was filled successfully to the customer's satisfaction. Relatedly, the $100/hr is suspicious because it's impossible to audit the time spent by the assistant. (Contrast with flat fees stated upfront from the normal service.)
  • seangrant 11y ago
    I feel like the whole thing is being oversold. They're making huge claims on this page and I have no idea whether or not they're true. > Never says no > Hits 100% of promises and expectations I'm sure these are achievable...
    • patmcc 11y ago
      Given unlimited funds, anything possible is easy for the guy writing the cheque. If I was willing to foot the bill, you could probably do any of the example magics listed (assuming you had my details/logins to email/calendar) in an hour or two.
      • deleted 11y ago
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    • Reedx 11y ago
      Yeah, pretty hyperbolic. There are a lot of cases where they will have to say no or "sorry, we'll have to set that up for another time". Some requests are simply not always possible. To pick one of their examples: "I need to rent out the Exploratorium this weekend." What if someone already rented it out? Or it's under construction? Or there's a special event? Or *?
      • deleted 11y ago
        [deleted]
        • Nadya 11y ago
          >Anything you want. As long as it’s not illegal. Seriously. I think murder falls under the illegal category of exception.
          • derefr 11y ago
            I wonder whether one could use Magic to hire a prostitute in Nevada, given that they're a California company presumably incorporated in Delaware. Which is a more localized version of the question I really want to ask: if Magic ever expands outside of the US, could I use it to order Cuban cigars to be shipped to Canada from Cuba? The US would never have to import them—so no illegal/trade-sanctioned act is occurring—but an American company is still profiting from the exchange.
• cballard 11y ago
  Is this a parody?
  • deleted 11y ago
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  • deleted 11y ago
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  • archimedespi 11y ago
    I don't think it is.
  • arcatek 11y ago
    No, Magic has already been discussed before[1]. It seems they are moving from a percentage pricing (Magic) to a per-time pricing (Magic+). [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9087819 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9087819
    • cballard 11y ago
      Ah, the copy ("Magician", somehow they're going to conjure up Tina Fey for $100?) made me think it was a joke.
      • cthalupa 11y ago
        It's probably not that difficult to actually facilitate meeting Tina Fey. There are agencies that handle celebrity appearances, and many celebrities will do appearances for a fee. It's expensive, but not particularly outlandishly difficult.
  • minimaxir 11y ago
    It should be noted that Magic was rumored to have raised $12M: http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/26/sources-magic-is-raising-12m-from-sequoia-at-a-40m-valuation/ http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/26/sources-magic-is-raising-12...
• petke 11y ago
  I thought this was about http://www.imagemagick.org/Magick++/ http://www.imagemagick.org/Magick++/
  • deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
• archimedespi 11y ago
  Really, really freaky. Especially all the copy about how "you can trust us".
  • ethbro 11y ago
    How is this that different that Google Now? Except there are actually people (at least some of the time) at the other end, rather than massive amounts of logged data and code?
    • oxryly1 11y ago
      Google exists and has a reputation.
    • BookmarkSaver 11y ago
      ...because you are paying them? Quite a bit? If you are paying $100/hr for something, it is probably pretty important. I really don't see the comparison to Google Now at all.
      • ethbro 11y ago
        My comment was in reply to the original "you can trust us" bent. Money paid is kind of immaterial to trust. Well, other than as an inversely related quantity. I'd probably be more likely to trust someone I was paying $100/hr.
• pbreit 11y ago
  $100 an hour sounds expensive. $1/minute might be a better published price. And also suggest that it's priced in minute increments.
  • Reedx 11y ago
    Well, they're targeting people who want on demand helicopters. I feel like $100/hr makes sense given that context.
    • shogun21 11y ago
      These are people who buy an iPad Pro in the checkout line on a whim.
      • zobzu 11y ago
        And suddenly decide to next-hour ship it to their mum (again according to examples)
  • pierre_massat 11y ago
    That would change the price of the hour. We can still say $1.66 per minute but less appealing than $1.
    • pbreit 11y ago
      Then it also solves too-high pricing.
  • cmikec 11y ago
    Thanks for the feedback. You're right, you bring up a good point that isn't explained as much on the website as it could be. We actually track time down to the second and display really detailed reports to users every day about how the time was utilized. Quite often a simple request can end up being $3-$4.
    • vonklaus 11y ago
• such_a_casual 11y ago
  > Our unique combination of humans and software Oh god, I can't stop laughing.
• Animats 11y ago
  This, of course, comes from Heinlein's "We Also Walk Dogs". Does Magic+ have anyone as good as Grace Cormet?
  • deleted 11y ago
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• S4M 11y ago
  > Q: What about the purchases that I make through Magic+? > There is no markup on the purchases you make through Magic+. We find you the best deals that we can on every purchase, and we negotiate strongly with vendors. Often you will save more money using Magic+ than if you had done things yourself. ... I see a conflict of interest there.
  • ethbro 11y ago
    Granted, but they're also making $100/hr to fulfill your request. Sure, people are greedy, but I feel like you could staff some pretty honest, capable, and reliable dispatchers at $33/hr (using a standard 3x billing vs salary multiplier).
• soared 11y ago
  Based on their web design I doubt their ability to complete any simple task.
  • lectrick 11y ago
    I'm a fairly highly-paid web dev and I don't have a curated personal website. Shocking, I know. I'd just rather spend time on other things, like paying work
    • soared 11y ago
      Your personal site is irrelevant. A business that is public facing should have a good website, and theirs simply is not designed well. If you can spend $x building this service you can spend .01x on your website.
      • ommunist 11y ago
        Ehm... 37signals.com comes in mind.
      • fractallyte 11y ago
        I'm genuinely curious: what's wrong with their website? There's a logo, one-sentence explanation (with further details beneath), examples, FAQ, and footer. So the content is all there. Furthermore, it's minimal-looking, and minimally coded, and all on a single responsive page. Isn't this the ideal for a modern website that's also expected to work on mobile devices?
• omarforgotpwd 11y ago
  Good morning, I read all your email while you slept. Your wife is very pretty. I wrote a message to your son telling him you loved him. He responded "you're not my real dad". I also hired that Visual Basic expert who emailed you yesterday. Don't worry, I already charged your AMEX $230 for the trouble.
  • shogun21 11y ago
    - Requires no effort to train - Requires no effort to manage
  • cmikec 11y ago
    This would be a real risk if you hired an ordinary personal assistant. This is actually exactly the sort of challenge that traditional assistants pose and that Magic+ is designed to fix. Magic+ is actually not just one person, but it's a software-driven service with a highly trained team of professional assistants that are held to a very high bar. They are managed, supervised, and trained by us so that you don't have to worry about it. And, on top of that, every task and request is managed from beginning to end using custom software that is designed specifically to monitor the execution strategy and enhance both the quality and the reliability of the output. It's difficult for me to say more right now about how this works without disclosing IP that we cannot disclose at this time, but I hope to be able to say more about how this works in the future. A good way to think about Magic+ is that it's a natural-language command-line interface for complex tasks that require some human interaction. A component of how we handle your email is more like a ~/.procmailrc file that can pipe things to a highly-supervised human assistant than it is like having a random person somewhere in the US logged in to your Gmail. You tell us how you need things done, using natural language, and it gets done, assuming it's possible. Again, I recognize that this explanation is not as detailed as it could be, but I hope that it helps. I will think about how we can explain this better before we are able to disclose the inner-workings of our software.
    • omarforgotpwd 11y ago
      I have a real assistant. I've known her for years and trust her. I don't know who you guys are hiring, who will see my info, whether your internal systems are secure, etc. I've used magic before and liked it but clearly there is a signicant loss of privacy cost that is paid in addition to the hourly rate.
• xirdstl 11y ago
  The examples are puzzling to me. Take this one: "I’m out of the office today. Check my email and let me know if there’s anything urgent." Are they proposing we should be ok with giving them our credentials?
  • cmikec 11y ago
    Many of our users give us access to various aspects of their personal and work lives in order to gain the benefit of efficiency and saved time. We also set up users who don't want to share their primary email with email addresses at our domain.
    • davecraige 11y ago
      Yea, I gave Magic access to setup recurring donations to two charities I support. Unfortunately they closed my account and stopped the donations. They provided no information on when the last donations went out so I could resume them. They went completely dark.
    • nullrouted 11y ago
      I sure hope they aren't giving you their work credentials....geezus, talk about an infosec nightmare.
• relaxatorium 11y ago
  The example they're trying to use to show you that prices aren't crazy quotes a $30+ surcharge for having groceries delivered.
  • TranquilMarmot 11y ago
    I really loved the $3,750 helicopter ride to the airport, like your average joe has that much money to blow so they don't have to sit in traffic. I guess I'm just not in their target demographic?
    • gcr 11y ago
      I like that copy. It signals who they expect their customers to be.
    • corin_ 11y ago
      There's also business use cases to think of. I've often had to spend what on a personal level would be an obsene amount of money but in a work context was justified. Most common examples for me have been very long taxi journeys, last minute and therefore way overpriced flights, and same day international shipments. I've never needed a helicopter, but for example if there had been some screw-up that meant I badly needed to get an unreleased product to a press event in the next few hours then sure I'd have spent a few thousand on a helicopter rather than waste the hundred thousand spent on the event. (Side note: sounds like a "should've been better prepared" situation, but I've seen this happen with so many companies in the tech industry. Normally solvable by expensive taxis or couriers rather than helicopters, though.)
• sergiotapia 11y ago
  This sounds utterly insane, yet so amazing. “Find someone to train me like Jason Bourne.” Hahaha.
• joslin01 11y ago
  Looks like the reception isn't doing too well. I remember when Magic launched here on HN and it BLEW up. I was one of the people who tried it out. I live in NYC and actually had a poor experience. The first two times, I said "hey I want a sandwich with [x]" and I got it but it took a lot longer than if I just clicked the necessary buttons on Seamless. Then I kept getting random calls from time to time from pizza delivery men saying they were downstairs. They were very apologetic and nice about it, but really it just wasn't worth it for me. The CTO (I think) reached out to me some months later asking why I stopped and well it's the same answer: very little utility for someone like myself. If I were rich, hey sure why not boss someone around for random things (though I don't know why I wouldn't just hire someone I can trust). However, if you're middle income or even a little higher, what's the point really? Everything else is basically on-demand in this new uber-fied world.
  • Mahn 11y ago
    > If I were rich, hey sure why not boss someone around for random things (though I don't know why I wouldn't just hire someone I can trust). However, if you're middle income or even a little higher, what's the point really? Everything else is basically on-demand in this new uber-fied world. Judging by the price and the copy in the page, I wouldn't be surprised if it's actually targeted at rich people.
    • joslin01 11y ago
      Yes - plus appears to be targeted at rich people ("I need to have 6 convertibles by tomorrow"). But remove that trailing `/plus` at the end of the URL and you have their base product Magic, which isn't.
  • cmikec 11y ago
    I'm really sorry that your initial experience with Magic last year wasn't ideal. We have come a long way since those initial days. Believe it or not, we actually did not plan that original launch -- rather, we released the website and number to a few people and it went viral practically overnight. We set up a waitlist as quickly as we could, but there definitely were some people in the beginning who did not have a good user experience. I hope that if you asked for a refund back then because you were dissatisfied, that you got one. If you didn't, please feel free to text in now and claim it. Some of the themes you're bringing up here actually point to why we created Magic+ in the first place. Magic+ was developed as a response to the needs of the most active and demanding users of our standard Magic service. In particular, a common demand was to hold a very high bar for quality and seamlessness of experience. Right now, some of these user-requested experiences are more expensive to deliver than the original Magic pricing model accounted for. Our plan is to offer Magic+ at this price now, because there is good demand for it at this price, and drop the price over time to reach a larger and larger market. $100 dollars an hour is a lot, but our most active users tell us that for this level of elite service, it's a bargain.
• habosa 11y ago
  “Find someone to train me like Jason Bourne.” “Get me a mobile dentist to my office ASAP.” “I want to meet Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.” “I need to rent out the Exploratorium this weekend.” “I need 6 convertibles tomorrow for rent.” “Organize my team for a town hall tomorrow.” “My 1 pm ran over. Bump my meetings back 1 hour.” “I’m out of the office today. Check my email and let me know if there’s anything urgent.” They're going way over the top here to market it to busy douchebags. I thought about using it until I saw who they think I might be.
  • cmikec 11y ago
    These are all real requests that our users have actually used Magic+ for. We obviously cant divulge their identities, or show photographs, etc. (since these are personal things), but it's important to convey how people really use the service. I'd love ideas on how we can communicate this point better. Part of what our users love about Magic+ is that you truly can do some pretty amazing things with it.
    • ethbro 11y ago
      If there's a way to anonymize data (or even just flag requests as anonymous in content), it'd be nice to have a bit more of a randomly picked live feed. I think some of the incredulity is that there's... an authenticity skepticism as to how much these represent average requests (and therefore responses). But like you said -- if you don't have a marketing problem, who cares what the HN peanut gallery says. ;)
      • istorical 11y ago
        These aren't supposed to be average requests, they are there to demonstrate how Magic+ can handle even really difficult tasks without easy solutions (order me a pizza).
        • ethbro 11y ago
          As other people stated, if there isn't some kind of detail on the fulfillment then it's not demonstrating anything. Forgive my skepticism, but a chat log doesnt count for much in an age where CGI'ing uncompleted UIs on device screens in startup project videos is "acceptable". So the choice is between exorbitant claims + no detail or some exorbitant claims + some average claims + no detail.
• pmichaud 11y ago
  I'm deeply skeptical of this. It would be worth $100/hr to hand off highly complex task like planning a wedding (from their copy), but it's impossible--there is way too much interaction and iteration necessary on tasks like that. For things you can realistically text to have done, the task has be crystal clear, and basically atomic. If I've already done the work of making it crystal clear and atomic, then it's not worth $100/hr anymore, because it's just rote busy work at that point.
• supernintendo 11y ago
  Rich people shit.
• stephenc_c_ 11y ago
  So this is just Amex Plat/Centurion concierge for people who prefer to text than call?
  • peteretep 11y ago
    Have you tried Amex Platinum concierge? If they can deliver, this looks better in practice.
    • modoc 11y ago
      FWIW I've been very impressed by what the Amex Plat concierge can do
      • gcr 11y ago
        Do you have any fun examples?
    • umeshunni 11y ago
      The number of interactions (over email) that I need to have with them to get even a simple request like a restaurant reservation done from Amex Platinum concierge has made me look around for alternatives. FWIW, even Facebook's assistant 'M' is far better at handling tasks that Platinum concierge.
    • Jack000 11y ago
      not sure what the amex platinum version is like, but I wasn't that impressed with the visa infinite version. I asked them to go through the craigslist of another city and find a certain car for sale, then return a list sorted by mileage and price. They couldn't do that for whatever reason and just offered to give me the KBB value. Took me 5+ minutes to navigate their phone menu, enter my card number and get to the service.
  • derefr 11y ago
    That's exactly the comparison I wanted to make as well. I thought of the original Magic service as "a Visa Black Card concierge-service automated and scaled enough to target the middle class"; this just returns it to the parent concept.
• pazimzadeh 11y ago
  Episode 5 of Rick and Morty's first season is relevant (the Mister Meeseeks episode).
  • mikeash 11y ago
    So, don't ask them to take two strokes off my golf game?
  • Splines 11y ago
    Magic- (Magic-ish) Text this number to get a regular human assistant for $50/hr: xxxxx Using Magic-, you have a regular power - highly trained Magicians can ask regular people for help with minor tasks. Send our very normal people a text message 24/7, and you can get help doing your very magical things.
  • SandersAK 11y ago
    OOOOOH YEAH, CAN DO!
• smegel 11y ago
  Out of my world, but I could see why the super-rich might like something like this. But I guess they have their own personal assistants for this stuff anyway.
  • peteretep 11y ago
    I'm far from super rich, but I make a small multiple of most senior dev salaries, and I could see this being useful
    • rootedbox 11y ago
      If you make 3x of senior dev salary in the SF then you are in the 1%. So i'd probably consider you super rich.
      • tempestn 11y ago
        To me, 1% is rich, but not "super rich". The 1% net worth cutoff in the US is somewhere in the single-digit millions. I'd say "super rich" starts around a 9 figure net worth (hundreds of millions). That's more like the 0.01%.
      • peteretep 11y ago
        $400k household income puts someone in the US top 1%. I don't think that fits any common definition of super-rich in the US.
        • duderific 11y ago
          I'd say that depends what part of the US you're in.
• dyladan 11y ago
  I thought this was satire. Came here to see the jokes. None of you seem to be treating it like satire though.
  • Someone1234 11y ago
    Why did you think it was satire? They're just trying to offer a personal assistant service over the air, nothing that beyond imagination. Likely costs less than actually employing someone.
    • duaneb 11y ago
      You wanna know what's great about actually employing someone? They can actually devote their full attention to you. They'll also get the door for you; can Magic+ do that?
      • sparky_z 11y ago
        That person you hire can't split themselves into 10 people on demand, nor are they easily replaced if they go on vacation or get sick. This seems to me the PA equivalent of using AWS rather than owning and maintaining your own servers. There are some potential drawbacks, yes, but there are also a lot of potential upsides, depending on your needs.
    • npizzolato 11y ago
      I too thought it was satire. Two of their examples are "I need to buy $2500 worth of electronics tonight like it's nothing" and "get me a private helicopter tonight for $3500", all the while paying $100/hour for the privilege. I understand some people spend money like that, but it seemed more likely that someone was making a joke about absurd wealth and the startup scene than a real business. If the Onion wrote an article about it, I wouldn't bat an eye. Best of luck to the Magic+ team (honestly), but this product clearly isn't for people like me.
      • justinpombrio 11y ago
• PaulHoule 11y ago
  It reminds me of the old Heinlein story "We also walk dogs." The $100/hr rate bugs me a little. Some people's time is worth more than that and other is less.
• kilroy123 11y ago
  $100 an hour? Fuck that. I'm currently living abroad and don't speak the language very well. So I hired a virtual assistant who speaks the language and English. He charges $7.50 USD an hour. I only pay him for time it takes to complete my tasks. I rarely even pay $100 for the whole month.
  • jamifsud 11y ago
    From where did you hire?
    • kilroy123 11y ago
      From upwork.com.
  • mmahemoff 11y ago
    Or maybe you're not the target market? This is like people getting mad at Heroku or Github when some commodity host costs a tenth the price. Thankfully you have a choice and no-one is forcing you to use it.
  • eibrahim 11y ago
    Where did you hire him/her? I use fancy hands but would love to have a dedicated person
  • MatthewMcDonald 11y ago
    What's his response time, and what does his availability look like?
    • kilroy123 11y ago
      He's pretty much available all day. He usually gets back to me within 30-90 minutes. Sometimes he can't get to things until later in the day.
• jcrites 11y ago
  I use Magic and they provide incredible service. They've been able to accomplish pretty much everything I've asked, including some requests that I thought were borderline outlandish, such as having food from a restaurant across the country sent to me via chilled overnight air mail for a friend's birthday as a big flashy surprise (friend's favorite restaurant). If you value your time more than your money, then they're an excellent service that gives you a new suite of capabilities for making that tradeoff. They have been able to arrange everything I've asked them to do. What I like about them is that I can make a request without having any idea how to go about getting it fulfilled, and Magic will figure out how - they'll do the research and find a solution. They are familiar with service providers for all sorts of unusual tasks and will set them up for you: personal chefs, car servicing pickup, garbage pickup - for everything I've asked they've had an answer. They are primarily limited however by their staff on the ground or lack thereof. Although they've been able to organize couriers in several cities to accomplish tasks, they have occasionally been unable to find couriers on the day of a request. Magic is a generalist service: they can do virtually anything, but not necessarily within the same hour you ask. They're worse than specialist services like Postmates at tasks like basic food pickup and delivery (mostly due to lower availability of couriers). Magic is most useful when your need is unusual and a typical service won't be able to get it done - or when you want a complex problem to be solved and don't want to have to think about or manage the solution. At such a task, they excel, and they've always come through for me in the end. The Magic staff are very friendly and personable, as well. Their customer service is a tier above any other company I've interacted with. They handle requests with unusually high intellectual and emotional intelligence, and care. (Disclaimer: I haven't used Magic+, only the original Magic which has been surprisingly cheap for the value it adds.)
  • cmikec 11y ago
    Thank you so much for your comments, feedback, and kind words!
    • deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]
    • elwell 11y ago
• captaindiego 11y ago
  It says it works from anywhere, but then only gives a number that works from within the US. How are you supposed to use this service while in another country and not having access to a US sim card?
  • MagnumOpus 11y ago
    If you are in the target group that is willing to pay $100/hour for a virtual assistant at the beck and call of an SMS, then the $0.20 or so for the SMS roaming charges seems like small change...
    • biot 11y ago
      Assuming they have a +1 ... internationally available SMS number. 5 digit shortcodes aren't guaranteed to work globally.
    • foobarqux 11y ago
      I don't think US shortcodes are reachable internationally.
  • huckyaus 11y ago
    The regular version of their service still appears to be US-only[0] (last FAQ item). I suspect that Magic+ is also US-only and they've neglected to mention it specifically on this page. [0] https://getmagicnow.com/ https://getmagicnow.com/
  • exco 11y ago
    Sounds like that's a problem that Magic+ can solve for 100/hr.
• tghw 11y ago
  I just signed up to see if they could renegotiate my Comcast price for me. It turns out you have to buy either 10 hours at $100/hour or 40 hours at $75/hour to get started. That's way too steep to try something out.
  • newman314 11y ago
    Lol. Great idea although it would likely take longer than that. I would however pay for an outcome based solution to this as it's a pain to call Comcast every year. Renegotiate to $X for Y and I'll pay.
    • tghw 11y ago
      Have you seen https://www.billfixers.com/ https://www.billfixers.com/?
      • newman314 11y ago
        No. Checking it out. Have you used this before?
  • cscharenberg 11y ago
    I was just reading about a company started by 2 brothers that does exactly this. If I can remember the name, I'll post back. Maybe I saw it in Bloomberg? Anyone?
    • jacobevelyn 11y ago
      It might be BillFixers? (https://www.billfixers.com https://www.billfixers.com) The Bloomberg article you may have read: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-10/billfixers-haggles-with-companies-to-get-your-bills-reduced http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-10/billfixers...
      • tghw 11y ago
        If so, they charge 50% of the annual savings. That's steeper than a couple of hours of Magic+.
• shaftway 11y ago
  Really tempted to make an account just to request some inane stuff.
• hackuser 11y ago
  I would love to see more comments that provided value to other readers. There is so much expertise and intelligence in this forum, but so many discussions contain only what is easiest: obvious cyncism. It's kind of fun banter once in a while, but gets old and isn't worth spending the time reading.
  • pjc50 11y ago
    This is Hacker News; it's a better, more informed, hand-crafted artisinal cynicism that we come here for.
    • ph0rque 11y ago
      Although, if you don't have time to be cynical, you can always use magic+ to obtain the ultimate super-human cynicism!
• deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
• hackuser 11y ago
  I'd love to know how they manage to scale such high quality service. They say they use "top-tier executive assistants and concierges", but it's hard to scale high-quality employees. How does it differ from other concierge services, such as the one connected to American Express cards? What have others typically done well and poorly, and how does Magic+ overcome the limitations?
  • davecraige 11y ago
    I think that is misleading. I believe the employees are only paid $15 an hour.
• aresant 11y ago
  First, did anybody else miss that what's linked here is the "+" version, at $100/hr? The original "pay per use" service is still offered at https://getmagicnow.com/ https://getmagicnow.com/
• Rauchg 11y ago
  I use Magic occasionally and it's been wonderful every time. It's definitely not something I would use everyday, but it's been great for: - a time I needed a replacement power supply cable, and really didn't have the time to research where to get it, and needed it urgently. - a couple times where I needed a dinner reservation for relatives or friends visiting - quick questions about things to do or places to go I definitely recommend the basic version!
• SwellJoe 11y ago
  I predict a few things for the future of this service (and this kind of service): 1. A lot of frustration from customers and a lot of churn. An effective personal assistant, or office manager, or whatever, effectively begins to read the mind of their employer. Lack of face-to-face, and what I imagine will be a lot of assistant churn, will result in very poor "mind reading" abilities. Cost of training a new assistant is much higher than actually having one, at least for folks who utilize their services a lot. 2. A race to the bottom on price, exacerbating the problem of assistant churn. $100/hr leaves a lot of room at the bottom, but it'll drop to the point where people in the US aren't willing to do the job of magic assistant. 3. $0 is the cost of Siri, Google Now, and Alexa. They truly suck right now, for almost everything except taking the place of a keyboard, but will get better. There's a limit to what "virtual" assistants can do for you; at some point you need a meat robot to go physically do stuff for you, if you want assistance beyond what technology can do. Not to trash talk the idea or the company, at all. I haven't tried it. I can't think of anything it could do for me that I wouldn't rather hire an actual assistant for. At $100, you can get several hours of real human time, in your local market. Someone you can meet, and develop a rapport with. I'm ordinarily not on the side of the fence that insists that the personal touch is important (I don't like car dealers and want them to disappear, I don't like sales people at any store and generally want them to disappear, etc. because in general, they know less than me about what I'm shopping for and just serve to annoy me and occasionally lie to me to try to manipulate my decision). But, in this case, there is real value in a real live human having access to your daily life or work so they can be most productive about helping you get shit done.
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• spdustin 11y ago
  1) How does one become a Magic+ "Magician"? 2) Do the Magicians post a surety bond to Magic for liability-related losses? Does Magic have third party fidelity bonds to help defend against suits brought against them due to fraudulent actions by (I assume) contractor Magicians? Disclaiming all liability and hold harmless agreements can be problematic in reality, given the example market of impulse iPad Pro buyers could easily be envisioned to have enough resources to litigate Magic into oblivion. 3) Do Magicians undergo any kind of background checking? If I'm going to trust a service with information otherwise protected by regularly rotated credentials and TFA - and I'm not beyond doing that, since the pricing for dependable and trustworthy (and bonded/insured) assistants for ad-hoc tasks doesn't seem too offensive to me - I'd want to know my risks. I know that doesn't make for magical copy on a landing page, but it's a selling point. I used the original Magic pretty early on, getting a rather esoteric accessory for some discontinued on-ear studio monitors, and I was impressed by their professionalism. If the pricing goes to the next level, the professionalism needs to follow, in my opinion.
  • flippyhead 11y ago
    Maybe you could use Magic+ to audit the legal practices of Magic.
  • bby 11y ago
    why isn't mike answering this question like he did with the other questions...
• dcpdx 11y ago
  This is like Tesla entering the market with a high end sports car, or Uber entering the market with only black cars. They're targeting a smaller niche of wealthy early adopters to tweak the service and revenue model and will eventually move downmarket to address a broader customer base (if they're successful with this initial niche). This is an ideal niche to start with because a) they have the money for it b) they're more tech savvy and generally forgiving of product shortfalls for bleeding edge services and c) they have lots of connections and can spread word-of-mouth more effectively (think Chris Dixon). It will be interesting to see if this becomes more of an API for other on-demand platforms such as Seamless or if it will be standalone. Also curious to see how this will stack up to Facebook's M and if they've built something defensible enough to pose a real threat.
  • timr 11y ago
    The metaphor is faulty. Uber hasn't brought down the cost of limousine service, and it didn't make cars cheaper or more efficient to create UberX -- it just tapped into a larger market of drivers who were willing to do commodity work for less money. You don't pay people $100 an hour for commodity work. Unless you're so rich that price doesn't matter, I guess.
    • dcpdx 11y ago
      Perhaps I should have extended it a bit more--as someone else commented, they will likely drive the price point down as the tech improves and they're able to do things algorithmically which will reduce overhead. The Tesla strategy is probably a better fit here than Uber, though.
      • timr 11y ago
        Yeah, I understood what you were getting at. That's why I was emphasizing the difference between commodity services (like driving a cab) and services that require specialized skill (like being a concierge that can get you into the restaurant, tonight, or a meeting with a celebrity). The former you can "scale" by throwing relatively unskilled people at it. The latter takes training, connections and experience. Even Tesla isn't a good comparison. Tesla is making cars, the task that invented the assembly line. This more like applying "the Tesla strategy" to the job of a butler.
• slmyers 11y ago
  The landing page seems like a joke or a scam. I was honestly confused as to whether this was a legitimate service.
• paul 11y ago
  A lot of skepticism here, which is understandable given the somewhat unbelievable scope of what they are promising. I'm a very active user of Magic+, so I'll give my perspective. (and of course I've been working with them from the beginning at YC, so you're also free to discard my opinion as biased) For me, Magic+ is basically the impossibly good personal assistant, kind of like Jarvis in Iron Man, or Emily in The Devil Wears Prada. Unlike a conventional assistant, it's available 24/7, always happy to take on more work, and capable of accomplishing just about anything. Obviously the $100/hr price point puts it out of reach for most people, but my expectation (as an investor) is that as the tech improves, they will be able to bring down the price while maintaining or even improving the quality of the service (I call this the Tesla strategy). For me however, $100/hr is totally worth it since it effectively increases my leverage and enables me to get more done in less time. I've used it to plan events for YC founders, answer questions that are hard to Google (they will find the right experts and ask them), and provide unique and memorable gifts to friends, family, and business partners. I'm used to paying a high price for quality professional services such as accountants or lawyers, so $100/hr for the best possible assistant feels completely reasonable and rational.
  • rootedbox 11y ago
    Wouldn't it be more price effective for you to hire a personal assistant; through one of your companies?
    • paul 11y ago
      I actually have a personal assistant, but for many tasks, Magic+ is simply better (and completely responsive 24/7, which I would never demand of an employee).
      • tempestn 11y ago
        Can you give some specific examples of things that Magic+ does better than a local personal assistant, besides being available around the clock?
• jkrejci 11y ago
  This literally is why San Francisco has such a huge class divide. Congrats!
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• exogen 11y ago
  I haven't used the $100/hour Magic+, but I've used Magic several times. I ordered sushi when it was first announced and the HN comment about my experience got a lot of interest. Once I used it to order fried chicken from a deli that isn't available via any delivery service. That was nice. The coolest thing by far was using it to buy a gift. I follow an embroidery artist on Instagram, and noticed she was doing a pop-up shop in Chicago (I live in Seattle). I directly inquired about commissioning pieces or buying her existing pieces, but it just wasn't possible – this pop-up shop was the only way. I showed Magic a few of the pieces I liked best on Instagram, gave them a price limit (no idea even how much they were selling for), and described how there were only a few of these things available and they'd probably be gone fast. They sent someone there and managed to get one for me and mail it!
• whalesalad 11y ago
  The examples are a little outlandish. Maybe some more realistic ones?
• gcr 11y ago
  "I need the following hash reversed: abcd...."
  • fitzwatermellow 11y ago
    From the F.A.Q: Q: What kinds of things can I use Magic+ for? Anything you want. As long as it’s not illegal. Seriously. "I need you guys to unscramble this omelette by 5pm..." Kidding, and violating laws of nature aside, am rooting for the Magic+ team. Good luck!
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• omarish 11y ago
  Based on everything I learned about this space from starting, operating, and later selling a company that does exactly this in the summer of 2014 [1] [2], I'm bullish on this idea. I think it's definitely a step in the right direction and incentives are starting to line up. The "I'll do anything for you by SMS" space (I call it the "Houdini app" space) space affords the middle-to-upper class in first world countries (where labor is much more expensive) the same power you'd get if you were in a country where labor is much cheaper. Example: in Lebanon, where I grew up, the middle-to-upper class of the population has: a stay-at-home maid ($200/mo), a driver ($300/mo), and a concierge at the bottom of their building ($30/mo), who will take care of pretty much anything for you. This is possible because labor is so cheap. I'd say you have to be in the 0.1% in the US to be able to afford this (since labor would cost you much more), but in third world countries, it's within reach of probably the top 15% of the population (by income). I think the most successful concierges have a "fixer" mindset - you give them a very loosely defined need, and their job is 1) coordinating and finding a solution, and 2) actually following through and executing on it. The fixer's advantage is 1) the end user trusts them, trusts their taste, and there is a pre-existing relationship with the customer, and 2) the user has a general idea of what they can and cannot do. The real value Magic brings is that they can be the fixer for your day-to-day life. If I were Magic, I'd change the pricing to $200/hour, but only charged if the task is actually completed. That way, the incentives really line up in that 1) they're more incentivized to complete the task successfully, 2) users trust them a lot more and know that they will get their money's worth, and 3) they develop the "fixer" brand, where Magic gets you what you want, and you only have to pay if it gets done. Lots of important technologies start off as "toys for the rich" - I could see that happening here too. What I am curious to see, is how they plan on bringing the cost of the service down. Or if it's possible to get a big enough market share at this price point. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8094351 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8094351 [2] http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/08/my-disruptive-deputy.html http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/08/my-disruptive-d...
  • fady 11y ago
    crazy. my family also lived in lebanon(zahle), and they had two maids, a driver, and a lady to come to the house and roll grape leaves for them but they still had to get their water delivered, which did cost a lot. they were not rich by american standards at all. good thoughts..would be great to get these services on the cheap out here. Lyft of grape leaves rolling? ha.
• mastazi 11y ago
  Are you guys able to read comfortably those tiny SMS screenshots? I was hoping I could click and zoom but nope...
• billiam 11y ago
  Looks to me like someone read this undergraduate econ lesson from earlier today: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10839116 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10839116
• mdevere 11y ago
  This honestly looks awesome and easily worth the money.
  • mdevere 11y ago
    And the proposition makes way way way more sense than the vanilla Magic.
    • mdevere 11y ago
      And, might I add, that this business appears to be a net job creator... jobs funded by the 1%.
• voynich61 11y ago
  FUCK CAPITALISM GODDAMN
• bredren 11y ago
  I'd love to try this, as there is an out-of-production bag that is probably out there but I could not find this holiday season. People aren't mentioning this here, but the real sticker shock is not $100 / hour but rather that to get that price you have to be ready to pay $1000 now or sign up for a $3000 a month subscription (that also begins now) The low-key information page doesn't really set you up for that level of commitment to check things out.
  • TulliusCicero 11y ago
    I think it makes sense that they only want people who are serious about it. If they didn't have a high up-front entry cost, they'd inevitably end up with lots of pranksters 'trying out' the service with ludicrous/dumb requests ("make my wife love me again"; "buy twenty pizzas, then hurl them into the ocean at this exact point") and bogging things down.
    • bredren 11y ago
      Sure, but can't this reasonably be handled with a $100 or even $150 option? I've never dumped a grand into trying out a 'crazy internet thing.' i.e. uber or airbnb. Since it is $1000, it is hard to not see this as anything but something for the very wealthy. Which may be fine, but the info page doesn't make it sound like it is for that sort of folk.
    • CosmicShadow 11y ago
      "buy twenty pizzas, then hurl them into the ocean at this exact point" Yes, you made my day.
• irascible 11y ago
  Seeing this makes me feel ashamed to be a part of the tech industry. This is why people despise the 1%. Show some taste/humility/discretion. A "service" like this is so narrowly focused on the ultra rich, that it should be marketing in high end magazines/direct outreach.. not on hacker news.
  • SomeCallMeTim 11y ago
    I'm a developer and I bill as much as $250/hour. I could totally see paying someone $100/hour to make something happen so that I could focus on a paying task. Problem is that most tasks likely to waste my time are things that would take longer to delegate (due to detailed instructions, needing to answer questions about needs, needing to set them up with the ability to pay bills...) than to just do myself.
  • Exuma 11y ago
    Oh please, give me a break.
    • irascible 11y ago
      I'll have my magic+ fungineer send one over. barf.
    • Magicstatic 11y ago
      I'm with this guy.... get over it.
  • meowface 11y ago
    How is this distasteful? First off, $100 for a "we'll do whatever you want service" is not restricted to the ultra rich. But they also say they charge by the minute, not by the hour. If something only takes a few minutes, you pay ~$8.
    • FireBeyond 11y ago
      Yeah. After you've paid your "minimum block of 10 hours" for $1000 and then you're using your 'service credit'. Or your $3000/mo subscription...
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• 1812Overture 11y ago
  "Magic+! I need the schematics of this building sent to my phone. And hack a satellite with infrared imaging so I can see where the terrorists are." - Jack Bauer
• irascible 11y ago
  Can magic+ have someone gild my butthole while I snort lines of crushed modafinil from the belly of a vietnamese teenage hooker? Preferably while I'm in my corner office at my SF crowd funded startup disrupting the sustainable grass fed cheese supply chain?
• deleted 11y ago
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• bigtunacan 11y ago
  This sounds a bit like Uber for personal assistants. So for people in the top 1% they can now have 24/7 personal assistants at probably about the same cost as they previously paid for a 9 to 5-er. Then a middle man skims most of the profits while all of the personal assistants of the world lose job stability and end up having to work 80 hours a week as "personal contractors" to try and break even with what they previously made in a 40 hour work week. Yeah; I'm a bit skeptical.
• jayzalowitz 11y ago
  I recently thought of a better way to do this with a quasi supervised ML approach... I think this pricepoint is finally a good reason to do so.
• dinkumthinkum 11y ago
  It seems like an interesting way to fiendishly separate foolish people from their money.
• eruannon 11y ago
  Wow, these guys are desperate for a pivot after getting torpedoed by Facebook M, huh?
• eruannon 11y ago
  Wow, these guys are desperate for a pivot after getting torpedoed by Facebook M, huh?
• biot 11y ago
  Show HN: I asked Magic+ to build me a Magic+ clone (getyourmagic.io) With their promise of "Anything you want. Seriously." how long before we see that? :)
• snydly 11y ago
  So wait... did I miss the part about what happens if they fail to do what I ask? What happens then? "Finish my dissertation. Thanks."
  • duncan_bayne 11y ago
    Probably illegal, therefore a no-go under their TOS. And if not, well, at $100/hr ...
  • sampo 11y ago
    > "Finish my dissertation. Thanks." There are lots of academic ghostwriting services. While not ethical, I assume they are totally legal. It would be relatively easy to hire one of them. https://www.lewrockwell.com/2010/11/ed-dante/the-shadow-scholar-the-man-who-writes-your-students-papers-tells-his-story/ https://www.lewrockwell.com/2010/11/ed-dante/the-shadow-scho...
  • lkbm 11y ago
    Most things the answer isn't "No", but "Okay, this service will do it for $huge_number. Is that okay?" Will it cure cancer for you? No. But if it can get you the best care available, that seems like a reasonable response.
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• ejhong 11y ago
  Are you going to support bitcoin for Magic+? Currently looks like you need a credit card to register.
  • cmikec 11y ago
    Bitcoin was nowhere near as popular of a payment option for Magic as some people expected it to be. For simplicity's sake, we did not include it right now in the Magic+ service. If you would like to use Magic+ via Bitcoin, please text in and mention that fact, and we will certainly accommodate.
• uhtred 11y ago
  This crap makes my socialist leaning side come out. Another unnecessary service that no-one needs, yet people with too much money will probably use. Where's Karl Pilkington's Bullshit Man when you need him.
• jaksmit 11y ago
  I tweeted about this last week and was surprised no one else noticed sooner: https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2F_jacksmith%2Fstatus%2F682749923410874368&h=5AQHmARzS https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2F_... their roll out of this pivot has been a disaster: 1) Last week the homepage was saying it was free: https://www.dropbox.com/s/6v7ctgeakcya1wi/1.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/6v7ctgeakcya1wi/1.png?dl=0 but when you signed up it asked you to pay $100/hr or $3000 a month 2) Then yesterday they updated the homepage to say it was a paid ONLY service: https://www.dropbox.com/s/t01zei3j9k6e99f/2.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/t01zei3j9k6e99f/2.png?dl=0 3) Now today they've updated the homepage wording to say it's free OR paid: https://www.dropbox.com/s/5qlrt6vfzsigda0/3.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/5qlrt6vfzsigda0/3.png?dl=0 Venturebeat did a post on the pivot: http://venturebeat.com/2016/01/04/magic-to-start-charging-100-an-hour-for-sms-based-delivery-service-that-was-previously-free/ http://venturebeat.com/2016/01/04/magic-to-start-charging-10...
  • Pharaoh2 11y ago
    Ahh, the people who can't read. It says magic+ is paid, magic is free. Also, pretty sure a service like this doesn't give a shit what the website says. If you are reading the website, it's either not for you or you have an interest in tech news and the exact pricing structure doesn't matter to you anyway. Pretty sure this service doesn't need to advertise.
    • mpeg 11y ago
      Neither of them are free, magic+ is hourly with minimum commitments and magic is pay per request, with free consultation before you get a quote.
      • mikeash 11y ago
        The screenshot says "free to chat," which Magic is.
        • mpeg 11y ago
• ageofwant 11y ago
  I'm wondering if this trend to pay for limited use, or "human micro-services" is good for society. Soon I'll have to bid for work as a developer and will have no idea if I'll be able to eat today or sleep under a roof. God help me if I'm sick. Progress and efficiency is great, but I wonder if we (you and I, common devs) are digging our own graves.
• lectrick 11y ago
  For what it's worth, I've used the service twice and it worked out great. People tend to complain more than praise (there must be some psychological concept to explain this...), so that's my two cents.
• tedmiston 11y ago
  > Q: How much does it cost? > It’s $100/hr to use Magic+. You only get charged for the minutes you use it for. If your request takes 12 minutes, you’ll only be charged for 12 minutes. This could be affordable in small does depending how much time a human is allocated to do the task. I wonder if it's possible to know the estimate before you commit to buying.
  • FireBeyond 11y ago
    Not so much. You need to either buy a block of 10 hours for $1,000, or sign up to a $3K/mo subscription, as your minimum entry point.
• mizzao 11y ago
  Magic+ isn't going to be able to satisfy all of the copycat requests to meet Tina Fey and Amy Poehler...
• rbnacharya 11y ago
  This was what I had in my head 10 hrs ago.
• free2rhyme214 11y ago
  Why Magic+ instead of Operator?
  • FireBeyond 11y ago
    Because Operator is Dave Morin's "one of a kind, custom, bespoke" app he had built for his PA... http://jesuschristsiliconvalley.tumblr.com/post/46539276780/a-cunt-and-his-iphone http://jesuschristsiliconvalley.tumblr.com/post/46539276780/...
    • flylib 11y ago
      he is talking about Garrett Camp's (Expa) Operator https://operator.com https://operator.com
  • davecraige 11y ago
    or why not GoButler?
• pyrrhotech 11y ago
  Another service for the 1%. This one will go the way of homejoy. These kids don't understand how tight the household budget is for nearly all Americans. You can smell the elitism dripping in their examples on the site. Private helicoptors, $31 grocery delivery... most people will pay a little extra for convenience, but this is ridiculous.
  • prawn 11y ago
    The 1% is likely to be a fairly large market. With Homejoy, you could avoid the middle-man and go straight to the person doing the work. Here, you don't meet the person doing the work and the middle-man is where your time is saved.
  • nilkn 11y ago
    The problem with Homejoy, in my opinion, was not price. It was the fact that it made little sense to keep using them after you found a cleaner you liked. As a middle man, they simply did not provide much value. Magic feels more like Uber to me. You don't use Uber once, then establish personal contact with that one driver, never using Uber again. The value of Uber is that you can get a driver on-demand, at any time, wherever you are; this is not possible if you just have one driver's cell phone number. Similarly, asking Magic to send some flowers to your girlfriend doesn't mean that you'll never have a use for Magic again. It's a middle man that can provide value repeatedly. Magic's generality is why it might actually stand a chance. For instance, you could probably use it as a makeshift Homejoy, asking for them to find you a cleaner who will come to your place once every two weeks. Once they find you a cleaner, you won't need them for that particular service again, as you'll have personal contact with the cleaner. But because of their generality you'll be able to find many other uses for Magic most likely.
• roarkjs 11y ago
  Hey magic, can we get a UK version of magic?
• allisonburtch 11y ago
  magic*, exploiting labor so you don't have to!
• davecraige 11y ago
  A few thoughts and questions 1. This is fascinating to watch 2. How is Magic going to compete with Facebook M and www.GoButler.com? Butler does all the things Magic does but for free. And Facebook M is being rolled out to more and more people. 3. Is there space for a premium concierge assistant that gives even better service than Butler or M can do? What prevents Butler or M from simply rolling out a premium $25/hour service and undercutting Magic if this segment proves valuable. 4. Isn't the real money in massive scale. Will Magic simply be a small concierge shop for the very wealthy and will we all use Facebook M for most tasks in the future?
• jimmytucson 11y ago
  What are the most significant improvements to this service since it launched on HN almost a year ago? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9087819 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9087819
• lancewiggs 11y ago
  $100 per hour, or $800 per day or $160k/year at 200 working days after holidays and weekends. That's arguably close to what the wealthy people who this is currently targeted at should pay a great assistant anyway. So I challenge the amount of money Magic needs to pay the very best assistants, not the price to the customers. And while the automation will increase the amount of time spent on the job by each assistant delivering outcomes, it's a very exhausting day for them to deliver this sort of level of service non stop. Over time the automation will increase the margins, but for now the best assistants will be setting themselves up to be poached by the best clients.
• JackFr 11y ago
  I think it speaks to the whole PG inequality essay. This is clearly a catalyst for a more natural equilibrium. It seems to me the main service provided by Magic+ is liberating money from those who have more than they know what to do with.
  • chippy 11y ago
    Nice observation - it certainly seems like there is some correlation between the two "events"
• shitgoose 11y ago
  is it just me or i hear indian accent when i read this web site? PS you guys flagged a recent post with Obama's gun control executive action, but leave this one on??
  • arjie 11y ago
    > PS you guys flagged a recent post with Obama's gun control executive action, but leave this one on?? Well, obviously a startup product launch post is going to show up popular on HN. Considering the community here you _would_ expect posts about startups to be more popular than some political discussion (unless directly affecting startups in some way). What does the former even have to do with the latter?
• sauere 11y ago
  What is it with all the comments about the service being for "elitist" or the "1%"? People are paying for a convenient service - nothing special about it. Some pay the neighbors kid $20 to mow the lawn, others pay Magic $100 to get something done that would otherwise be a hassle for them. Same shit.
• hysan 11y ago
  > Q: How quickly will I get what I want after requesting it? > As soon as possible. So... it's not magic. At their price point, it's only worth using the service if you have huge amounts of disposable income or your request is near impossible to fulfill on your own. It's basically a service that answers the question, "How much are you willing to spend to do X?" Where the amount is determined by them after the fact.
• voltagex_ 11y ago
  I said to myself that I'd start less HN comments this year with "I'm in a wheelchair and..." but: I'm in a wheelchair and access to a personal assistant (especially for travel arrangements) would be excellent. Access to a personal assistant in the departure country and the arrival location (to check just how wheelchair accessible that Days Inn wheelchair-accessible suite really is) would be phenomenal. There's a business idea there, just that the market is small and difficult to cater for (lots and lots of different needs) I'm one of the lucky ones and I'm relatively well off, but 100/hour (~$140AUD/hour) is way, way out of my price range.
• HorizonXP 11y ago
  So I haven't used Magic in a while. I'll probably start using it again now. Last time, I used it as follows: 1) Lunch for my cofounder and I at demo day since we had dietary restrictions. Worked perfectly. 2) went drinking with everyone after demo day, and we drove. Didn't plan out who was DD. Magic sent us a driver to drive us home in our car. Was one of the Magic founders' sister. 3) Had flowers sent to my wife, just to let her know I was thinking of her while I was away. Said they were the best flowers she had ever got, and got lots of compliments from family and friends. Yesterday, I was just thinking about using Magic to get a bunch of things done, housekeeping wise within the company. Really timely to see this. I'll be using them for everything from fixing my glasses, to cleaning up my books, and more. I'm hoping to have them take care of the mundane things so I can focus on more important tasks like coding and such.
• known 11y ago
  Sounds interesting.
• nlh 11y ago
  I'm trying to figure out why I (too) am having a strong negative reaction to this. Let me think out loud: I'm fortunate enough to have a real personal assistant. She's amazing, she knows me, she does fantastic work, and I pay her a fair and reasonable wage (including health care) that's far less than $100/hour. So let's put me in the category of "people who can afford a personal assistant" but not quite in the category of "people who demand to meet Tina Fey & Amy Poehler on demand." I would NEVER in a million years consider replacing my assistant with a faceless nameless AI-assisted service. I have a number of friends who are also fortunate enough to have assistants. They would NEVER consider replacing their assistants with a faceless nameless AI-assisted service (at least one friend has an assistant that's been with him for years and is basically part of the family). And with the examples they give, Magic+ is painting a picture of both a service and user that's highly specific -- wealthy enough to afford these luxuries, but not willing to make the investment of hiring a real person to build a real relationship with to perform these tasks. So the whole thing feels....dismissive. I guess that's the best word I can come up with. Dismissive of money ("Entertain me with Tina Fey - I will pay for her presence."), dismissive of human contact ("I don't want a real assistant - I just want to text a service to do my bidding.") Dismissive of warmth. It's sort of what I imagine a caricature of a dystopian tech billionaire would want -- all of the somethings with none of the someones. I dunno. It just feels ... off. Sorry I can't come up with something better. But as the target demographic (I think?), I'm feeling like the pitch is very off-target and off-putting.
  • jld89 11y ago
    Just curious, but what is your line of work and that of your friends with assistants?
    • siculars 11y ago
      uh... read his bio?
    • nlh 11y ago
      I work in tech (but started and sold several companies previously). Of the first three friends who have assistants that come to mind: two are CEOs and one runs a hedge fund. I guess no surprises :)
• BookmarkSaver 11y ago
  Ok. I must seriously be missing something here. I'm usually the last person to complain about shilling, because even on the very rare occasions that I am confident that some sort of "astroturf" operation is going on I usually find it to be a somewhat valid or at least entertaining form of promotion and don't care that it is clearly just advertising. But seriously, this thread is absurd. I truly do not understand how a significant portion of this site (even knowing that it is probably largely made up of affluent, educated people) consider this to be even a reasonable value proposition. I'm not incredibly affluent or anything, but by any standard short of the true "1%" I am extremely well off. However the level of wealth required that a blind commitment of $100/hr for trivial delagatable tasks is way beyond anything I would consider using, especially considering the significant upfront purchase that seems to be required. What ten hours of random bullshit that I not just need done, but would entrust to a stranger without known qualifications is worth $1k? Not much... But this comment section is filled with well crafted top level praise of the service with a staggering amount of popularity for what seems to be an extreme luxury service. Compounded by very "reasonable" objections with immediate and solicitous responses by accounts claiming to be representatives humbly begging for an opportunity to right their wrongs and improve the service. This whole thing looks like a finely tuned campaign to leverage highly-regarded social media in a wide scale blitz to make the absurd product seem reasonable. Seriously, I'm staggered at this comment section and the popularity here. And this "target market" excuse seems like crap. If the "target market" is extremely rich folk who would consider dropping $100/hr on miscellaneous unskilled labor with almost no real guarantee of reliability or quality, then they wouldn't be blitzing a random social media site to improve their image (which they explicitly are doing with mr. cmikec running around). They'd focus their efforts on true premium clients and demonstrate some sort of solid guarantee of their reliability that a suspicious rich person might actually accept. This whole thing looks like an attempt to make random $100/hr requests somehow seem reasonable to people who can technically afford it but typically wouldn't even consider it if they didn't see it as a "normalish" thing to do.
  • rand1012 11y ago
    A lot of VCs read HackerNews...
• negamax 11y ago
  If you can establish a business around this, that would be great. But personal assistants are more than just money and skills. There's lots of trust involved created over the years. I think people would be more comfortable if this was completely AIed (may be it can be promoted as that in a sly way) as compared to sending task requests to unknown (although trained) people. But that's just me. I really do think that this is bad example of technology. But looking at the examples, it may just be the thing nouveau riche are looking for.
• option_greek 11y ago
  There is so much on envy (masked as cynicism) in the comment section that we might as well paint the HN banner green today. PS: Before you downvote me to death, want to clarify that the envy is that someone can use this service paying 100/hr :)
• kriro 11y ago
  I'd be interested in seeing what failed requests look like. Can't really promise to solve everything so I'd like to know what mitigation strategies etc. are used when no acceptable solution can be found.
• cyrillevincey 11y ago
  We've been seeing personal concierge remote services pop up (and usually die) every year for the past 15y. What's new here?
• bambax 11y ago
  > Get you reservations at places that nobody else can How is this possible? If it were true then anyone wanting a reservation at "places that nobody else can" would go through Magic+, and then what? There are more rich people than available seats at hot restaurants...?
• bambax 11y ago
  > Where is Magic+ available? Anywhere you need it. Magic+ is there to make your every desire and need happen, wherever you are. Can I use it from a non-US phone carrier? How do I pay? Would be really interested in testing it. Is there a direct/non-short number?
• pavanlimo 11y ago
  The fact that "tech" behind this is totally transparent is its strength and not a weakness.
• ommunist 11y ago
  Isn't it dangerous to entrust the whole pattern of your habits and spending to anonymous organisation?
• gowthamgts12 11y ago
  I'm having a negative feeling about HackerNews now.
• aestetix 11y ago
  "Magic, here is a list of social security numbers for people I do not like. Can you share them with scam artists?" "Magic, can you get me HIV test results for my wife?" "Magic, what is my boss's salary?" Yeah, no issues coming up with this...
  • fastball 11y ago
    First one sounds vaguely illegal. Second one sounds illegal without wife's permission, otherwise I'm sure they would do it. Last one I'm sure someone could figure out.
• arihant 11y ago
  The $100/hr price point would make if and only if they are able to accomplish tasks that cannot be accomplished by a single hired assistant. "Personally email all my 1,200 new customers today, get me feedback in 2 hours." "Make sure this story hits top page on Reddit/HN." These are probably weird examples. But the expectation here would be to get a superhuman, who does task a random human simply cannot do. Group work is what I expect I'm paying for. Otherwise, I can hire a freelancer online for $1000 a month.
  • Joe8Bit 11y ago
    I somewhat agree. But more than that I don't this service is really comparable to a single dedicated EA. It feels more like TaskRabbit++. The most valuable thing about having good EA is the relationship e.g. you often don't need to ask them to do things as they know you well enough to preempt the requests, they take initiative, which is always going to be lacking in a service like Magic+.
  • davecraige 11y ago
    This is exactly the same question I asked them yesterday: https://twitter.com/davecraige/status/684429034676092928 https://twitter.com/davecraige/status/684429034676092928 They haven't responded yet.
• verytrivial 11y ago
  [ Hi, Magic+. I need a bunch of highly rated comments on a Hacker News story. ] [ No problem. ]
• Pitarou 11y ago
  If I understand correctly, all it takes is a few text messages from your client for you to incur huge bills on their behalf. I presume you're aware that text messages are easy to fake. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_spoofing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_spoofing) What controls do you have in place to prevent fraud?
• gbersac 11y ago
  What if I ask magic+ to find me a competitor as effective as magic+ but for free (or lower price) ? Or to offer me free services ? Haha, I caught you !!!
  • tempestn 11y ago
    They said they'll do anything if it's "legal and possible".
• Aoyagi 11y ago
  >SHARING OF YOUR INFORMATION >We may share your personal information with: >Third-party vendors and other service providers that perform services on our behalf, as needed to carry out their work for us, which may include identifying and serving targeted advertisements(...) >Other companies whose products or services may be of interest to you ... That sounds pretty bad even if it wasn't so vague. This is a bloody premium service...
  • pjc50 11y ago
    If they log in as you to a third-party website (e.g. so they can change your calendar as in one of the examples), that information could be used by the third party to serve you targeted ads. For example, if you ask them to get your Macbook fixed, and put a reminder in your calendar for when it's ready, that may result in you being served Apple ads.
    • Aoyagi 11y ago
      That's one way to interpret it, no doubt. But as I said, the vagueness is a part of the problem (as I see it anyway).
• rodionos 11y ago
  Some of the comments posted here make me wonder about how broad and diverse the HN reader base is. The demographics are just unbelievable, if not surprising.
• morgangiraud 11y ago
  What if i ask magic+ to ask magic+ for a time consuming task. Since i'm not asking magic+ myself anymore, should i pay anything apart the 2 minutes it took to ask magic+ from the inside?
• OliverJones 11y ago
  Sorry for the snark, but... How about a service that answers texts like, "where can I find a warm place to stay tonight?" or "please get the welfare department to correct their mistake and reactivate my food stamps."
• kdamken 11y ago
  The service is $100 an hour, which is bananas, but I guess that's not too surprising when their target customer is someone who casually buys two iPad pros like a normal person buys packs of gum.
• patkai 11y ago
  Interesting discussion, but I would postulate that people on HN are typically the ones who wouldn't appreciate - or even understand - such a service. Also, if you are fixated on the details, e.g. "do I need this to reserve a flight today" then you will certainly not get it. You could alternatively think about the big picture, i.e. removing all the limitations and bottlenecks of a personal assistant, and also scaling it up.
• eka808 11y ago
  And how can we guarantee that people behind magic+ don't get any conflict of interest ? Let say, for example, that i need a cab to move me from airport to the hotel with a bike to make the thing more complicated for a lambda traveler. How can I know in advance how much I will have to pay ? that the deal is decent ? that the guy will actually come ? I understand that they target rich people but I imagine one does not simply want to pay 200% more than usually a helicopter ride...
  • mbroshi 11y ago
    Presumably they make their money from repeat customers, in which case ripping off their customers is probably not an optimal strategy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repeated_game https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repeated_game
• mbparsa 11y ago
  Can magic get me a permit to stay in the state? a green card?