(Originally published April 2, 2023 on LinkedIn

It’s been exactly one year since we first shared our ambitious vision for Symphony42, a groundbreaking Lead Generation platform that marries the power of Tap-to-Text ads with Conversational AI to create seamless, consumer-friendly, and TCPA compliant experiences. Today, we’re excited to report on the tremendous progress we’ve made and the impressive milestones we’ve achieved over the past year. We have genuinely begun revolutionizing the B2C Lead Generation ecosystem by solving all the performance and compliance issues that has the current Lead Generation ecosystem in crisis.

In the Summer of 2022, we successfully launched an MVP and began generating revenue. With this achievement, Symphony42 transformed from a pre-revenue startup to a disruptive player in the Lead Generation ecosystem. We initially focused on the Mass Tort vertical, as it represented the highest average revenue per call when compared to other major call-buying lead generation verticals, such as Insurance, Home Services, Mortgage, and Education. However, we encountered countless technical obstacles and compliance concerns with some of our product partners, which ultimately led us to pause the MVP and consider alternative solutions.

Undeterred, our team worked tirelessly to overcome these challenges. On the Supply Side, we identified Traffic Supply Partners and Publishers that would accept Tap-to-Text ad units. This was no easy task, as it required a special URL to function correctly. For instance, Google does not accept Tap-to-Text links as the Destination URL in their paid search ads. We had to experiment with several methods to create Destination URLs that would work seamlessly across all traffic channels and on all mobile devices, including web and email apps — on iOS and Android phones.

In addition to addressing Supply Side issues, we turned our attention to the “Magic in the Middle” — i.e., finding partners that met our technical requirements and performance expectations for SMS and Conversational AI functions. For SMS, we decided to go with industry leader Twilio. I have a long-standing relationship with Twilio and its Founder/CEO, Jeff Lawson. My previous business, DoublePositive, was among Twilio’s first customers back in 2009 :-O

With Twilio’s robust solution, we were able to handle incoming SMS messages effortlessly. Twilio is amazing.

With Twilio’s robust solution, we were able to handle incoming SMS messages effortlessly. Twilio is amazing.

When it came to Conversational AI, we explored countless options before discovering ChatGPT, a game-changing solution that exceeded all our expectations. Released on November 30, 2022, and followed by the ChatGPT API on March 1, 2023, it outperformed all other platforms we had considered by 10X, AND at a fraction of the cost. However, we had to wait for the ChatGPT API to be released before we could officially incorporate ChatGPT as our Conversational AI platform for qualifying consumers via SMS in our lead generation marketing campaigns.

[Sidenote: I have become a HUGE OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman fan since the launch of ChatGPT. I sometimes spend 12-hours a day using it :-O I have been archiving many of my ChatGPT experiments on the ChatGPT ABOVO Group: https://chatgpt.abovo.co/ — please feel free to contribute your own to the groups by simply sending your contributions to ChatGPT@abovo.co ]

The Chatbot prototype we built using the ChatGPT API was up and running within hours of the public API release by OpenAI on March 1st. I know I’m biased, but this incredible feat has to be some kind of record, as we launched a potential billion-dollar product in such a short timeframe :-O

[I want to give a massive shout out to the Symphony42 team member who made this possible, but I promised not to reveal their identity in public just yet.]

You can try our prototype for yourself by texting any mortgage or refinance inquiry to 443-323-1776.

You can try our prototype for yourself by texting any mortgage or refinance inquiry to 443-323-1776

Our strategy involves training our base Conversational AI model using “Widgets” as a placeholder for all verticals and categories. This innovative approach allows us to create a new Chatbot in mere minutes by simply replacing the word “Widgets” with vertical-specific terms like “Mortgage,” “Auto Insurance,” or “Home Security Systems,” before conducting vertical-specific training on the models for an optimal/helpful experience for each individual consumer in each vertical :-)

The Symphony42 consumer experience begins when a user taps one of our vertical-specific Tap-to-Text ads on their mobile device. The tap launches their default SMS app (e.g., “Messages” on iPhones) with a pre-populated recipient phone number and a pre-populated message tailored to a specific vertical. The consumer simply clicks “Send” to initiate the SMS inquiry, a process that is vastly superior to filling out a form with their thumbs, as is the case with conventional form-fill lead generation models IMHO.

Our ChatGPT API-driven Chatbots are programmed to instantly respond to the consumer’s initial SMS inquiry, providing helpful information and offering to connect the consumer to our call-buying customers (i.e., “an Expert”) by guiding them to tap the phone number provided by the Chatbot (which is the same phone number the Chatbot is texting the consumer from). This entire process is not only consumer-friendly, but also ensures 100% TCPA compliance with zero TCPA consent violation concerns.

When a consumer is ready to speak with a representative, they tap the phone number within the same text thread, and then the call is tracked, managed, and delivered to the call buyer’s DID by Ringba.

[Another Sidenote/Shout-out – I have come to deeply admire Ringba, its founders (Adam Young, CEO, and Harrison Gevirtz, CSO), their business, and the Ringba product. When DoublePositive was founded in 2004, we had to build call tracking, call recording, call delivery, and call auction functionality from scratch, costing millions of dollars in venture capital. Now in the 2020s, Ringba customers have access best-of-breed SaaS with all of DoublePositive’s 2000s and 2010s capabilities and MORE, along with world-class customer support. There are no long-term contracts or commitments, and customers pay for services based on usage. Please note that I am simply a happy customer, and I have no financial incentive to endorse Ringba.]

Our call-buying customers can name their own Pay-per-Call price in each vertical by entering their bid and their preferred day and time windows for accepting calls. They can also change these parameters at any time.

When a consumer taps the phone number provided by the ChatGPT Chatbot, the call is forwarded to Ringba (forwarded from the Twilio phone number we use for the ChatGPT Chatbot), Ringba runs the call auction, and Ringba subsequently forwards the call to the call buyer with the winning bid.

We are also working on delivering the text transcript of the Chatbot conversation with the consumer simultaneously with the call delivery (and to the same representative receiving the call, so that they can seamlessly pick up the “Conversation” with the consumer via reviewing the transcript). Additionally, we plan to append data about the consumer that corresponds to the consumer’s Caller ID and deliver parts of that data to the call buyer as well.

Our MVP is set to relaunch in April 2023, this time utilizing Twilio and the ChatGPT API as our “Magic in the Middle” solution. We’re confident that our revamped process, which is 100% consumer-initiated and TCPA compliant, will yield the highest converting calls in each lead gen call vertical.

We have established Symphony42 Corporation as our B2B brand for call and lead buyers, brands, and advertisers, with Consumer Information Networks as a wholly-owned subsidiary housing several consumer-facing brands for consumer marketing and lead gen campaigns, dba trade names, such as:

• The Insurance Information Network
• The Legal Information Network
• The Home Security Information Network
• The Mortgage Information Network
• The Education Information Network
• Etc.

So, what’s next?

As we look to the future in 2023, our plans include:

• Relaunching our MVP in April 2023 using Twilio and the ChatGPT API
• Scaling up daily production with live traffic to the MVP across multiple verticals (Mass Torts, Insurance, Home Security Systems, etc.)
• Attending high-profile AI events at MIT to drive awareness of Symphony42 among AI elites and seed-stage VC investors in AI
• Closing a full Seed round, bringing on the Founding Team as FTEs, and growing rapidly by leveraging executed business development deals on both the Supply and Demand sides.

If you’re interested in Symphony42 as a potential Traffic Supply Partner, Call-buying Customer, or Investor, please contact me directly at: sean@symphony42.com

To everyone else reading — buckle in… This rocket ship is launching :-)