I built PassItOn.To in a week. One person. Here's the idea:
You book a video session with someone who's navigated what you're going through. Eldercare. Adoption. Career pivots. Teaching. Whatever. They set their rate ($50 to $250). 100% of that fee goes to a nonprofit they choose.
Not 10%. Not 50%. All of it. The expert never earns a dime.
The math on a $100 session:
- Stripe: $3.20
- Daily.co (video): $0.50
- You pay a $5 booking fee
- $100 goes to charity
That $5 barely covers infrastructure. On higher sessions, we lose money. We're not optimizing for profit.
Why build this?
60% of young adults feel "seriously lonely." Our solution as a society? Chatbot companions. Sycophantic AI masquerading as relationships.
Meanwhile, real knowledge is locked away. People who've figured things out want to help others. They just don't want to become "coaches" or build personal brands.
This gives them a way to share what they know, fund a cause, and move on.
Tech stack: Next.js 15, Supabase, Stripe, Daily.co for video. Deployed on a shared OCI instance. The whole thing is embarrassingly simple because there are no retention hooks, upsell funnels, or subscription traps to build.
Cameo had 400 employees at its peak. Intro.co raised $25M. When you're not optimizing for extraction, the platform is simple.
Happy to answer questions about the build, the model, or why I think chatbots are a terrible solution to loneliness.
gus_massa•2mo ago
> The expert never earns a dime.
Humanware is hard, super hard. I'm not sure if this idea is brilliant or not. Do you have a few experts to seed the pool?
Perhaps the experts can get a discount if they want to talk to an expert in another area. But it must be written very carefully so people don't think you pocket all the unclaimed discounts.
How do you filter scammers and idiots?
arashvakil•2mo ago
All fair. Thanks for engaging seriously.
Seeding supply is the cold start problem that kills 90% of marketplaces. I'm not solving it with growth hacks. I'm solving it with my phone. People I know who've navigated hard things and want to give back. People who have gone through the rigors of private adoptions, experts in technology for the elderly, NYC teachers, etc.
Filtering scammers: the 100% nonprofit model is hopefully the filter. Grifters don't show up to platforms where they can't grift. It's like putting a salad bar in a casino, haha.
Expert-to-expert swaps? Love the idea. Hopefully I can build up to that once there's some activity here.
I'm building small, curated, and slow on purpose. Will it work? No idea. But the downside of trying is near zero.
arashvakil•2mo ago
You book a video session with someone who's navigated what you're going through. Eldercare. Adoption. Career pivots. Teaching. Whatever. They set their rate ($50 to $250). 100% of that fee goes to a nonprofit they choose.
Not 10%. Not 50%. All of it. The expert never earns a dime.
The math on a $100 session:
- Stripe: $3.20 - Daily.co (video): $0.50 - You pay a $5 booking fee - $100 goes to charity
That $5 barely covers infrastructure. On higher sessions, we lose money. We're not optimizing for profit.
Why build this?
60% of young adults feel "seriously lonely." Our solution as a society? Chatbot companions. Sycophantic AI masquerading as relationships.
Meanwhile, real knowledge is locked away. People who've figured things out want to help others. They just don't want to become "coaches" or build personal brands.
This gives them a way to share what they know, fund a cause, and move on.
Tech stack: Next.js 15, Supabase, Stripe, Daily.co for video. Deployed on a shared OCI instance. The whole thing is embarrassingly simple because there are no retention hooks, upsell funnels, or subscription traps to build.
Cameo had 400 employees at its peak. Intro.co raised $25M. When you're not optimizing for extraction, the platform is simple.
Happy to answer questions about the build, the model, or why I think chatbots are a terrible solution to loneliness.
gus_massa•2mo ago
Humanware is hard, super hard. I'm not sure if this idea is brilliant or not. Do you have a few experts to seed the pool?
Perhaps the experts can get a discount if they want to talk to an expert in another area. But it must be written very carefully so people don't think you pocket all the unclaimed discounts.
How do you filter scammers and idiots?
arashvakil•2mo ago
Seeding supply is the cold start problem that kills 90% of marketplaces. I'm not solving it with growth hacks. I'm solving it with my phone. People I know who've navigated hard things and want to give back. People who have gone through the rigors of private adoptions, experts in technology for the elderly, NYC teachers, etc.
Filtering scammers: the 100% nonprofit model is hopefully the filter. Grifters don't show up to platforms where they can't grift. It's like putting a salad bar in a casino, haha.
Expert-to-expert swaps? Love the idea. Hopefully I can build up to that once there's some activity here.
I'm building small, curated, and slow on purpose. Will it work? No idea. But the downside of trying is near zero.
Really appreciate the comment!