Do you care about what platform the solution is on? I.e Linux/Windows desktop application, Chrome extension, mobile app, website in a separate tab, etc.?
Out of curiosity, what do you then do with the transcriptions? You said you typically talk out loud while working, but do you continue working like normal after the transcription is recorded for later use, or do you interrupt your workflow to do something specific with the transcription immediately after?
For sure, but when you say "works well" what would that look like to you? There might be some sacrifices on the video-chat side (this app wouldn't compete with Zoom, for example, on video quality or latency), but the focus would be on audio, translation, and transcription quality.
From chatting with friends, it works well even for long sentences, but the latency can vary between 3 - 7 seconds. So I wanted to understand how much delay would be tolerated by most people who would be interested in using this.
It's not so much it isn't your job, but wouldn't you want to help someone in desperate need for a job, especially if you would benefit (in some form of incentive) from it too?
Doesn't success in the stock market or scaling a startup require access to capital or debt as well? Sure you can bootstrap the latter, or play the long game by gradually investing in index funds for the former...but do you see the real estate as orthogonal? I got started with little capital and grew over time, as is common for most ventures.
I agree with you regarding investors with deep pockets buying up so much of the already low supply of SFHs across the country. And I also imagine HN wouldn't take much issue with small mom & pop investors who only own a few properties at most. Their involvement in the LTR market likely has a net positive impact on the macro economy and are too small to shift the market supply of homes to purchase enough to cause the issues we see in society today (which have more to do with home builders having not built enough homes and government regulations regarding zoning and such).
Accounting for the 50% increase, it sounds like you walked away with a profit then. If you invested a small fraction of your monthly cash flow into a good property manager, it sounds like RE would be a good fit for you. You know the game (having had direct experience), you're aware of the financial returns on your initial capital (as well as tax benefits), and a PM would save you from the headaches you went through in the past. Is that a fair conclusion on my part?
Would you be more interested in RE then if you were exposed primarily to properties in your geographic market with a strategy that is specific to the macro-economy at that time / effective across different economic conditions?
Did you try using a property manager? For me, it's mostly been hands-off relying on my PMs to manage all my rentals. Every now and then I will have to step in regarding an issue with a tenant though, for sure. But it seldom occurs, so hasn't been much of a headache for me.
I also got that impression, but was curious to know why. PE firms like Blackstone or large corps exclusively buying up 1000s of SFHs I understand. But why would HN take issue with small mom & pop investors?
How much does it currently cost you (per session) to book someone on iTalki?
And which would you prefer: a cheaper, on-demand version of iTalki (you get matched with someone already online versus booking in advance), or an AI-based app/service that you can chat back-and-forth with whenever you want?
Where did you find these German native speakers to practice with? And you said "such an app already exists", but not for German and Japanese. Do you know the name? I have a lot of experience building language learning services so am very curious to hear what you feel is currently missing in your current tools to learn German/Japanese.
Great job building this! I can tell it took a lot of time and work. How long, from idea conception to this Show HN, did it take you?
And how did you determine whether there would be a market for this? Was it more something you built for yourself, or did you have some feeling there would be an audience for this on HN (or elsewhere)?
The Ex-Twitter employee sent it :) I think they're hoping to get support through referrals with things being slow over the holidays (and also why they blurred everything).
I've found this channel, which seems to have a mix of companies asking leetcode questions and those asking more real-world questions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpMFCHOxK6A
Coqui (https://github.com/coqui-ai) is a great open-source STT resource you could start with. They have a lot of docs explaining how everything works and has a low barrier to entry.