Look at how spoiled we’re getting by convenience. Zepto was one of the most funded startups in 2024 & seeing the success of Zepto, Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart, it seems like even established players, like Flipkart, Reliance Retail, Magicpin, Amazon and Ola, are jumping on the quick commerce bandwagon. Want a pineapple in 20 minutes? Done! Want a stapler in 15 minutes? Consider it done. Want a hot meal in 10 minutes? You got it, dude!
And now, can you get… humans delivered in 10 minutes? The premise of this already sounds ludicrous. Are they going to strap a person to the back of a delivery driver of an EV whizzing by in rush hour traffic? Not exactly. But, the idea may be to deliver human expertise in that amount of time.
There’s a startup called Topmate that seems to be looking to do this. Sure, you could use some search engine and get the answer in seconds, but would a human do a better job with expertise and backed by research? So, the idea may be to deliver instant, reliable and personalized guidance via a 10-minute session. A person would get to directly call industry experts between 6 pm and 10 pm to get answers to some questions. Maybe, you want guidance on how to be a consultant in The Big 4. You could figure out how to do that with Topmate.
To some extent, maybe customers are conditioned to get what they want as soon as possible, no matter what, so even something like 10 minutes vs 5 seconds could be a dealbreaker. But, Topmate’s said to already have 1 million users engaging with the platform, so, maybe, there’s a market here. At the same time, people may still use Quora or Reddit or other platforms to ask doubts, but this way, they may get answers a bit faster.
Maybe, for mentorship or professional guidance, the process might be protracted or cumbersome. You’d have to go to some academic counsellor, who might advise you based on academic rhetoric, which may be divorced from career realities. Or you’d have to search for the next networking event or try on LinkedIn or hire consultants, who are really expensive.
Perhaps, information seeking has become too online and this may be a way to curate information the old-school way: talking to people. Maybe, all your knowledge is being quenched by a search engine or an LLM, which might disconnect you a bit more from people. So, that might be a narrative that Topmate could build. Typically, to get the best expertise, you’d have to spend years creating the best relationships and getting to the top. Maybe, with something like this, the hierarchy might be flattened.
And since experts might have a day job, it might make sense why reaching out to them is only possible after 6 pm. Has the concept of a micro-consultation existed before? If someone’s primary source of income is selling courses, that might raise your eyebrow.
On the other hand, this is a bit more intangible, compared to what else is available on quick commerce. Want a pineapple? You get a pineapple. Want expertise? That might be subjective. Though, just like if a pineapple is rotten, if the advice isn’t all that solid, can you get a refund?
Maybe, just like how quick commerce platforms might endeavour to keep the best products in their dark stores, Topmate might have to work a little extra hard to ensure how credible their experts are. But, maybe human expertise is a bit more nuanced than that pack of spicy Korean noodles you buy on a quick commerce platform. Groceries and food may have standard quality benchmarks, but expertise may not. Say you have a DeepTech startup and have fundraising doubts. Maybe, an expert might have limited expertise about that burgeoning industry, but may not want to lose that consultation fee and might spout something generic and superficial or even wrong. There may not be a universal way to measure if advice is valuable or correct. Plus, 10 minutes might be too little time, but maybe Topmate might offer a chance to extend consultation time for an additional cost.
Would it be prudent to have outcome-based pricing? Where based on measurable outcomes, like landing a job interview, experts charge people? That would be cool, but, to some extent, unrealistic. A doctor probably wouldn’t offer to charge only if the patient were cured.
Another thing to consider is the monetization angle of it. To some extent, information and insights have become a lot more democratized ever since the Internet got a lot more traction. How much would people pay for the best insights in the next 10 minutes? Maybe, this best democratizes access to real human actionable intelligence.
The next time you have a question, how will you be finding out what the answer is?
