@datarade Yes we are using Twilio for message delivery. If you want to build something similar using a developer API you should also check out Plivo and Nexmo, which offer substantially the same functionality.

@_mattjoseph Check out @infobip. Way cheaper on all fronts.

@_mattjoseph how'd you decide on a pricing model that focuses on subscriber vs. number of messages?

@trgorczynski Great question! Here's how I touched on that earlier: '...it's so important to our long-term success that people like our messages that we baked subscriber satisfaction into our business model. We charge primarily based on active (opted-in) subscribers as opposed to messages (which is industry standard). If messages sent through our system cause people to churn, it hurts our business. So we have a very strong incentive to make sure that businesses using our service send the kinds of messages that keep people engaged. And we have lots of features coming that will make the experience even more personal.' To summarize, it's better for everyone (businesses, their subscribers, and us) when we have skin in the game about the outcome of messages that run in our system. We're building long term relationships with our customers and their subscribers, and we want everyone to see how committed we are to long-term subscriber satisfaction.

@allantear please do, and have them email me at matt@locent.com if they want any additional guidance or support

@jasonlbaptiste Great to hear that and thanks for checking us out! Both are on our roadmap - vanity long/short codes and images really enhance the subscriber experience. Look out for them in the next ~2-3 months.

@_mattjoseph Awesome. also is there the ability to add a subscriber manually without the need for them to confirm? Looking to potentially use this for a few thousand subscribers.

@deambulando Thanks for checking us out! We're only in the US for now, but plan to quickly add support for more countries. Create an account and we'll let you know when we get to Spain :)

@_mattjoseph Means we can use this marketing channel only for US numbers ?

@austingrandt Great question! We haven't added grouping functionality yet but it's close to the top of our roadmap. Expect to see it in the next couple of weeks.

@rezakhadjavi Happy to discuss. Particularly early on, every business is - to some degree - a series of experiments designed to test certain assumptions about what people want. We made several critically false assumptions about what people wanted and our experiments bore it out: (1) we thought that payments alone were a compelling hook for a text messaging business (2) we thought that people would make the effort to learn a relatively complicated system so they could use our channel (3) we thought it didn't matter that we weren't a 10x solution on other payments platforms (4) we thought we could build a thriving business on individual text campaigns Each one of those assumptions was proven false. Being wrong hurt, but building a technology business requires commitment to improving, even when faced with evidence that runs counter to your assumptions. We still had runway, so we talked to a lot of target customers and created better experiments. Y-Combinator has been incredibly supportive, as have our other investors and advisors, and they gave us the confidence to keep experimenting. Whatever traction we're seeing now is the result of daily effort applied across thousands of mini-experiments. And we have many more to run.

@baybayin Announcements you can easily do today so please check us out. Our next major release includes chatbots, which allow you to create conversational auto-responses and delight subscribers in a way that we haven't seen this side of Slackbot.

@nscmnto Thanks for giving us a look! We plan to add support for more countries in the coming months - definitely create an account and we'll let you know as we expand.

@as_austin Glad you like it! Custom campaigns are any additional documents that you may want to send independently of our default options. We've seen everything from flu season messages to new service announcements. If you sign up for a free or starter account we'll let you know when you can use Chatbots - we're testing their interactivity now and will phase them in over the coming months. PS love the gif!

@_mattjoseph Awesome answer Matt! I'm a huge fan of Chatbots and extremely excited for this!

@samir_doshi just speaking from my own personal experience, many of the marketing strategies that I thought would annoy people ended up having some of the best ROI

@samir_doshi People generally prefer marketing experiences tailored to their wants and needs. If you get a random message that has nothing to do with your interests, you'll likely opt-out. But if it's relevant for you, you'll likely read it and engage it. So our challenge is making sure that subscribers to businesses in our system get messages they want to read and engage on an ongoing basis. One way we solve that challenge is with personalization - making messages that feel personal and that include personal identifiers. But we don't stop there - it's so important to our long-term success that people like our messages that we baked subscriber satisfaction into our business model. We charge primarily based on active (opted-in) subscribers as opposed to messages (which is industry standard). If messages sent through our system cause people to churn, it hurts our business. So we have a very strong incentive to make sure that businesses using our service send the kinds of messages that keep people engaged. And we have lots of features coming that will make the experience even more personal.

@everette +1 this. It would be fantastic if you can share some experience for that :) I mean doing something which I feel will annoy users resulting into highest ROI looks awesome. I think that was one time ROI ruining long term user relations (including ROI).

@_mattjoseph Awesome strategy! Like unsubscribe links in Mailchimp's email, will you provide opt out link in SMS text? Like in the case of MailChimp, will I be able to track which user clicked on the links? I saw that you've some logic behind the naming decision, decision + logical reason = awesomeness! Also the design of your logo is awesome, can you share some advice please?

@xameeramir Great questions and commentary! When subscribers opt-in we tell them how to opt-out, as required by law. They can simply text 'done' at any time to opt-out. We haven't released a link-generator yet, but we'll likely partner with a link-shortening service to display analytics on clicks. We can also display read receipts, but many people have them disabled so the statistics can be misleading. Our logo is intentionally dynamic, which we felt was important entering an aging industry - we wanted it to symbolize that we're a friendly, rapidly improving channel. The positive space is a send button of sorts while the negative space is a sun (or alternatively a flower depending on your POV). Generally I think it's important to use your logo to express your brand identity because its one of the first touchpoints people have with you - why not use the opportunity to impress a sentiment?

@leventask Coming soon :) We're not bound by the SMS channel. We believe SMS is the strongest channel on smartphones, which is why we started there. But our service runs through chat, meaning we can recreate it anywhere we have a chat experience and platform permission.