Show HN: Wise – Mechanical Turk-like service with a Stripe-like API

We are not actually built on MTurk. The tagline is there to allow people to quickly understand what type of tasks we can complete.

We bring on our own workers that have been vetted and tested by us - and are also open to working with workforce providers. In terms of scaling, we are not concerned about the supply (workers). There are a very large number of workers available - and quality can be moderated with the right onboarding and testing processes. The more difficult side of the equation is the demand side. By building a simple RESTful API - we hope to be able to generate consistent demand.

Looks really interesting.

How do you price transcripts? I see you've got a price per API call, but what if the video is 10 minutes long?

Also, I presume you can do audio only transcripts too? Just as a .mp3 rather than a .mp4?

Interesting idea. Sounds like you may hit scaling issues rapidly if this gains modest popularity though, since you're tied directly to a worker pool. I see there's about 300k HITs active on MTurk at any time, so even the startup pack at 1000 requests/mo would be a significant fraction of all MTurk activity.

Would you be expanding to other crowdsourcing providers as you grow?

Edit: Wasn't paying enough attention to the math. I guess without data like HITs resolved / second, it'd be hard to estimate just how many requests could be feasibly absorbed by the workforce. The rate limits look sane enough.

What does "Stripe-Like" mean in this case...? HTTP?

I'm building a microwork platform but so far the main focus has been on the worker side and not on the submission of jobs side. Are you set on just using MTurk as your backend for workers or would you be willing to work with other providers?

If you're willing to work with other providers, what kinds of requirements would you have to ensure that the workers were high-enough quality for your needs?

I love this, simply genius. I think it'll make sense to focus on a few select tasks and scale those with great partners, instead of spreading too wide at first.

The pricing doesn't make all that much sense to me. Why not a simple per-request pricing model with a monthly minimum (after a # of free trials)? Or the ability to simply purchase larger blocks for discount pricing?

pkfrank - thanks for the comment. we are still working through the pricing model. The current model is on a per-request basis but we are also exploring a monthly fee to keep the quality of the companies that request tasks high. What kind of tasks do you think we should focus on?

I see accuracy guarantees with each plan. How do you ensure any particular level of accuracy?