This is a very neat idea and I hope it works out for you. :)
That said, helpful.io is priced high relative to its competition and I worry that this business model really will only work for advertising/etc supported products rather than SaaS.
(Disclosure: Helpful Core Team) Pricing is always difficult and has been a long ongoing discussion for us: https://assemblymade.com/helpful/search?q=pricing. It's always up for debate and if you have a strong opinion you should jump in and start a discussion :) I'd love to hear more about why you think it wouldn't be good for SaaS.
I'm not a developer working on Helpful [I also don't plan to start since I'm focused on other things] so I don't really feel comfortable debating it and trying to lobby for change.
I mainly look at Assembly as a nice idea I hope works out well for everyone involved.
Since you asked:
You are basically charging $200/month per agent [assuming 160 hrs/month and 1 conversation completed per hour of agent-time].
Realistically, someone would probably only pay for the $25/agent/month plan.
It seems you've gone the "Well, metered pricing is good for developers" route without considering the competition is priced cheaper and has a real marketing budget. While competing on price is generally what you don't want to do, charging almost 300% to 800% more for a similar product isn't something I see as financially viable as a business model.
That's really interesting, you make a great point. I hope you don't mind, but I started a discussion for this: https://assemblymade.com/helpful/688. Really appreciate the feedback!
That said, helpful.io is priced high relative to its competition and I worry that this business model really will only work for advertising/etc supported products rather than SaaS.