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Show HN: Get paid to have engaging conversations with old people

by Sawpaw19 on 7/12/21, 4:34 AM with 74 comments

• by ctur on 7/12/21, 5:31 AM

  Yikes, the sign up page asks for the phone number of the recipient. Basically amassing a database of emails, phones, names, and a loved one's name for people who never used the site. That is really valuable information for a social engineering attack, particularly against someone who may have a caring, affluent relative in a tech field.

  This almost seems like some kind of parody or phishing attempt or something. This does not seem reputable.

• by plushpuffin on 7/12/21, 5:35 AM

  If you've got old people who want to talk, can't you connect them with each other and not have to pay people to talk to them? Then you can charge a lower price since it's merely a matchmaking service.

  Or is the payment an incentive for someone to be a willing audience to be talked at? I think that paying people is an implicit admission that the benefit of the conversation is pretty one-sided.

  Others have noted that the pay/hour is actually pretty reasonable, but unless it's a video call I can see the "volunteers" just going "mm hmm, wow, that's interesting" at every break in the conversation and not actually engaging in the conversation. The more sophisticated volunteers might even set up a soundboard to do this. I have a hard time believing that you'll get a lot of quality conversationalists to sign up.

• by Pamar on 7/12/21, 5:19 AM

  I am actually doing this. For free, to provide some company to my mother.

  It started during the first lockdown (I am an expat, so I am already living far away from home but when she was actually locked up at home I wanted to make an extra effort).

  The way it worked best for me was to use Skype(1) so that I could share the screen with her and show pictures - initially from my own trips and vacations, later from Instagram(2) - and provide audio commentary.

  1) Yes, I know, there are 4 billions alternatives: Skype was for me the best because I could configure it on a spare tablet and make it automatically answer my calls with basically no effort required on her part. She is not really good with technology. 2) I am writing this because I hope it helps other people to do the same, no matter if it is for relatives or for this company: almost by definition older people will mostly talk about their own past and this can become repetitive quite fast, while also make somehow difficult to engage for the person talking with them. For me the trick to show and comment pictures together worked very well. YMMV, of course, but I am quite proud of my "discovery".

• by MattGaiser on 7/12/21, 5:06 AM

  Psychologically, how do people take this? Is it real enough for the payment not to contaminate the experience?

  Also, SilverDial appears to take over half the money for themselves. You pay $100 for 4 30 minute calls but SilverDial pays $12 for each call. Seems steep.

• by tjpnz on 7/12/21, 5:12 AM

  I like the idea but what steps are being taken to combat fraud? One of my elderly relatives is frequently a target of scam calls for instance.

• by freemint on 7/12/21, 5:43 AM

  At least on mobile there is no information on timezones on the elder side form.

  The form for the getting paid side doesn't seem to ask for international telephone prefix. This makes me wonder whether Germans (or Indians where $12 per hour would go far) who speak English fluently would be welcome through the website.

  Does silver dial serve as a middle man for the calls, so it can record them for quality control purposes or with an automatic transcript that is screened for keywords that indicate abuse of the elders such as scams?

• by ashishbharadwaj on 7/12/21, 5:31 AM

  This is the saddest thing I saw today :(

• by fermentation on 7/12/21, 5:08 AM

  This is an interesting idea!

  Took a quick look at pricing, looks to be about 100/mo for a weekly call (so about $25/call).

  Yet the person making the call gets paid $12. That seems like quite a markup (and is easily seen by users).

  A portion of this is probably taken up by the humans doing the matching. Folks will probably tell you to better hide this cost, but maybe you could just be transparent and tell the users?

• by stevage on 7/12/21, 12:35 PM

  Interesting concept. If I was in the market, I'd be looking for a way to find people based on specific topics that were relevant, or even just shared cultural background. And maybe more than just "conversation" but maybe someone who had stories to tell (or a listening ear for stories), or could teach something etc

• by azinman2 on 7/12/21, 5:27 AM

  I’m totally not getting this. You pay money to make sure someone talks to your family members? Or lonely elderly people pay to talk to stranger that they have no connection with?

  I find the “old people” in the link title quote condescending.

• by nobodyandproud on 7/12/21, 5:16 PM

  Regular conversations are important in staving off dementia.

  I also want to plug https://www.truelinkfinancial.com/card/

  I arranged a live-in helper for my parent, during their final years because it was the only possible solution.

  The card cut down the obvious petty theft of cash and helped track spending by the helper.

  If your parents are mostly fit, then the debit card can instead be used to create an allowance.

  Lots of regrets in what I couldn’t do (like actually have them live with me) but at least there are tools to help.

• by Clewza313 on 7/12/21, 5:40 AM

  I know this is veering into Black Mirror territory, but we're not too far off from being able to automate this with a chatbot. Particularly with dementia patients, it would be a kindness to have a patient, listening voice that plays along with their delusions and never gets tired of hearing the same stories or answering the same questions.

• by manigandham on 7/12/21, 5:29 AM

  I used to do this when younger (in person volunteering in a hospital). There were many older people who were alone, often getting a visitor maybe every few days if they're lucky. They had some amazing stories and it seemed like I gained more than they did from the conversation.

  Good luck with this, I wish you the best

• by BrandoElFollito on 7/12/21, 9:22 AM

  I would gladly do that for free, I wonder if a matchmaking service as such exists.

  You could provide your languages,interests, education, expectations (like blablacar: bla means you are a listener, blabla intermediate, and blablabla a talker)

  Hmmm, maybe I could write something like this if it does not exist...

• by nickphx on 7/12/21, 5:44 AM

  Interesting idea. What about a system where the callers are volunteers? And as far as vetting the volunteers, you could utilize the vast and willing pool of high school students involved in community outreach organizations like National Honor Society, etc.

• by ibdf on 7/12/21, 7:06 PM

  $100 to receive 4 calls (1 call per week) $48 to make 4 calls (as many you wish, I guess)

  That's a nice profit.

  Do you use a system to make the calls? Do you use your own phone? Is there some sort of admin to manage calls? What about privacy? Are calls recorded?

  This landing page has so little information, I would never consider signing up for nor would I ever give a loved one's number to them.

• by _virtu on 7/12/21, 5:11 AM

  There’s a bug on the signup page for silver dial employees. You ask for the name twice, instead of name then email.

• by michael_vo on 7/14/21, 1:37 AM

  This is a good idea. I see a lot of concerns about potential abuse.

  There are ways to mitigate this. You could use twilio to route numbers into a multi way conversation that is recorded.

  There's probably a feature such that the numbers stay private on both sides.

• by oefrha on 7/12/21, 5:36 AM

  Question: it seems you help find a caller, then the same caller calls every week, and instead of a one time commission, you keep charging 60% afterwards for no obvious value-add. So what stops people from cutting you out of the loop after a successful match?

• by antisthenes on 7/12/21, 5:35 AM

  I don't need to get paid.

  I have great elderly neighbors, with whom we've shared many life experiences via conversation. I consider it a privilege.

  But if you're willing to pay me money for it retroactively, I can DM you my Venmo account.

• by wwweston on 7/12/21, 5:32 AM

  > We will match you with one of our qualified callers and introduce you to them... You decide if they are a fit

  Are you doing anything systematic to try and improve probabilities of a good match?

  (And if not, do you want help trying on some ideas?)

• by artur_makly on 7/13/21, 2:34 AM

  Clubhouse has already solved this for free. But it does require some initial effort for the older user to find an appropriate room to speak in.. and use the hand-wave + mic button.

• by bemmu on 7/12/21, 5:03 PM

  There's a good chance this will take off, because it's controversial enough to gain free press.