Hi Alyssa,

Thank you for reaching out. I have answered your questions below.

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1. When exactly is your app supposed to leave the beta stage?

We will be releasing our app to the general public later this month.

2. Is there any legal issue with profiting from a business’s dinner reservations without their consent?

This is a great question. In this specific case, what is being sold is the time and effort it takes to acquire the reservation, which can be considerable. It is akin to a personal assistant or a friend making a reservation on someone else’s behalf. For example, when creating an OpenTable account, they specifically ask whether the person making reservations will be doing so on someone else’s behalf. This is a very common way by which reservations are made.

In terms of the response from restaurants, some have been less than enthusiastic. However, others have been more positive because it reduces the likelihood of no-shows, which is a major problem they confront. Once a patron pays a defined amount to compensate someone for the time and effort it takes to make a reservation, it becomes less likely a reservation will go unused. Fortunately, we have an abundance of people with free time looking for different things to do to earn income. Allowing them to earn through their efforts is a benefit to them and to those who cannot constantly call a restaurant (sometimes at 12:01 AM) or refresh the page on OT.

In a more general sense, Shout would like to provide a mechanism for people in close proximity to exchange in a trusted environment. I have included a link to a blog post about our goals if you are bored on the subway ☺.

3. How does Shout make money? Are you guys getting a percentage of each transaction? Or are you simply building a platform you hope to eventually advertise on?

Shout does not make any money. Currently, we do not take a fee from processing a transaction. In fact, while we are in private beta, we do not even take a credit card processing fee (traditionally 2.9% + 30 cents).

As a side note, we are working hard to build a very strong community with a sense to “pay it forward” in the application. In the new version, as Wes mentioned it is quite the overhaul, Shouters will choose between having a price in their listing or offering it up for free! We have seen many instances in which someone has offered up a reservation to a restaurant or even tickets, either because their CC was on file, in the case of the former, or because they would prefer someone enjoyed the performance rather than no one, in the case of the latter. Those are the type of exchanges we hope to make commonplace.

Regarding advertising, I think it is something the team would prefer to avoid. Both a transaction fee or an advertisement based revenue model certainly have their pros and cons. A small fee will probably allow us more autonomy and to better serve our users in the long-run.

4. Do you have any regulations put in place to prevent someone from making reservation after reservation at exclusive restaurants just to sell them on your app?

We are currently working on various mechanisms to prevent the type of behavior to which you are referring. For example, should people be able to post two reservations on the same night? How many reservations should people be able to post in a week? What should be the maximum price of a reservation (we don’t want users to price gouge other users…that is not what Shout is for)?

We put a code on the application so that we could maintain a strong sense of trust, learn from our users, and build the right type of community.

We chose to start with “spots,” which is any place in which your position has value (e.g., ticket, spot in line) because they provided the perfect ecosystem in which to learn about relatively synchronous transactions. What type of mechanisms do people need in place when exchanging with strangers?

Spots are great because they are:
1) Time Sensitive
2) Fluctuate in value
3) Require trust to exchange.

We want to be able to facilitate any type of peer-to-peer transaction with no loss in quality, which is why we are more devoted the process than any specific vertical.

These will take time to perfect but your question is spot on. Intent is very important to our community and to us personally.
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Lastly, I wanted to thank you for your questions. You have touched on the things we think most about. Few users take the time to consider our platform in the way you have and it is for you we build.

We would love to keep this dialogue going so please reach out with any feedback, questions, or if we can help facilitate any transactions.

Best,

Zachariah

Every member of our team feels equally passionate about accomplishing our goal. We will work day and night so that Shout can help its community pool its resources and exchange with one another in a trusted environment.

We could not be more excited by the future and feel fortunate that we can be a part of yours.