[smt88]

Consider this:

No consumer wants these messages. I understand why restaurants need them and why they are profitable, but actually recipients will be irritated (even though they "opted in").

My concern is that these will turn SMS, one of the last (mostly) clean communication channels, into another cesspit like email and the web have become.

I'm not asking what you're doing to prevent that because you can't build this into a successful company without moving the needle in that direction.

I just want you to question why you're doing this and whether your business is creating a world you actually want to live in. To me and everyone who isn't profiting from it, it's pollution of our personal lives.

(Unrelated: I started a company years ago with restaurants as customers. They are by far the worst people I've ever had as clients, if you could even sell to them. It's basically impossible to build a profitable software business with restaurants as customers -- even "Big Delivery" is unprofitable).

[mikeylikey]

I appreciate the way you framed this.

> No consumer wants these messages.

While I personally resonate with this sentiment, it's not accurate in my (very skeptical) experience. "many" consumers? "most" consumers? maybe. but I'd be slow to underestimate the size of the market here.

> My concern is that these will turn SMS, one of the last (mostly) clean communication channels, into another cesspit like email and the web have become

Valid and well articulated. I don't have a great response on the broad concern (we've demonstrated as a society/culture why we can't always have nice things; e.g. robocalls) beyond knowing the degree to which this medium gets regulated by the big 4 utility companies (and government). They are quite sensitive to their customer's (and constituent's) preferences to not have this personal space invaded. As for boostly, I think it will only shoot ourselves in the foot to overstep (or even get close to) these important boundaries.

> They are by far the worst people I've ever had as clients, if you could even sell to them

Certainly not the easiest lot. We do view the ability to sell to them and meet needs as a competitive advantage of sorts.

Thanks for your informed feedback!

[smt88]

> While I personally resonate with this sentiment, it's not accurate in my (very skeptical) experience.

So you want these messages? You're happy to see them?

Even if there are a few people who want these messages, I'm going to wager that you'll only be profitable if you're messaging a lot of people who don't (and accidentally agreed to get them).

> "many" consumers? "most" consumers? maybe. but I'd be slow to underestimate the size of the market here.

Your market is restaurants, and the market is certainly huge.

> As for boostly, I think it will only shoot ourselves in the foot to overstep (or even get close to) these important boundaries.

Depending on how much VC money you've taken or will take in the future, you won't have this choice. Your investors will demand growth, and the only way to get it will be to creep further and further out of your comfort zone. Marketing automation is full of dark patterns. The only company I know of that never really implemented them was MailChimp, and MailChimp also uniquely never raised capital.

[mikeylikey]

I think there may be a false premise here. You seem to be framing this as medium objection: That "no consumer" wants text messages. Texting is really just an implementation detail here. Many people _want_ to save money and receive special deals for their favorite eating establishment. Many would prefer receiving these offers in the form of an ephemeral text message vs. downloading another app, for example.

In this context: yeah, I want these messages and am even sometimes happy to see them.

Ultimately (and this was my paradigm shift), it appears markets are far more diverse than I gave credit to and my personal preferences can't be applied as generally as I previously assumed.

> Your market is restaurants, and the market is certainly huge.

The market I was referring to, in this context, was people who would happily receive texts from restaurants if it meant they saved money.

> Depending on how much VC money you've taken or will take in the future, you won't have this choice. Your investors will demand growth

Valid point and concern(s). Can never really underestimate the power of these incentive dynamics and would be foolish to suggest we might be immune to them. FWIW we are bootstrapped outside YC participation to this point. Appreciate your reference to MailChimp. I'll look to take note on some of their practices.

[bombcar]

Special deals are the way to go and make them rare enough that they feel special.

Otherwise, the big old "stop texting me" button is going to come into play.

I like the local businesses that send coupons via email, those are nice.