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Website Find: 7CupsOfTea.com

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40hz:
Not trying to be cynical, but what are they selling? Or what do they plan on selling? Who is the paying customer and what is the product?

This is a for profit company, with investors. People don't invest unless they think they are going to make a profit. And profit doesn't come from pouring in investment cash and having no plan for generating income from something else.

So, they must plan on selling something, whether it's


* ad space
* user info
* additional services
* offline therapist referrals
* something else
I am just curious how they plan to do it. And I saw nothing on the site that hints at the answer.
-app103 (December 13, 2014, 01:13 PM)
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From a write-up on Y Combinator:

7 Cups of Tea’s team is still working on monetization strategies. Listeners can currently elect to charge a fee and if they do, the site takes a commission. Moriarty says the site’s current focus, however, is recruiting listeners to ensure users get their calls answered as soon as possible.
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Apparently they haven't quite decided yet and are more interested in getting their infrastructure in place before they decide to reveal it. That's a standard start-up strategy to prevent copying before you're set to do your big roll out. And from the sound of it, it's nowhere near as altruistic as it would at first appear - or as Brunner's Hearing Aid was.

Capitalism. It's a grand thing! So long as you don't get sick, old, or die. ;)

They are oddly secretive about their funding sources to date. Possible reason why below.

They will definitely need to be very careful how they set things up since non-pastoral and/or paid counselling (and related mental health services) are strictly regulated (and require a license) in many places. I don't see state regulatory agencies that license clinical psychologists and licensed social workers giving 7CoT carte blanche to just start offering services online. (And despite what some 'free market' warrior types may think, those regulations are in place for very good reasons.)

app103:
They are oddly secretive about their funding sources to date. Possible reason why below.

They will definitely need to be very careful how they set things up since non-pastoral and/or paid counselling (and related mental health services) are strictly regulated (and require a license) in many places. I don't see state regulatory agencies that license clinical psychologists and licensed social workers giving 7CoT carte blanche to just start offering services online. (And despite what some 'free market' warrior types may think, those regulations are in place for very good reasons.)
-40hz (December 13, 2014, 01:22 PM)
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That was why I was wondering if they were going to do paid referrals, sort of like a more social 1-800-dentist, but with therapist referrals.

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