Let’s say you’re a lawyer. You have the day off. And you’re headed to do something fun, like golf or croquet. Then, you get a phone call. You look at the caller ID. It’s your client — Steve. And you know that any call with Steve will take a while, so what do you do?
A–Take the call
B–Ignore the call
C–Respond with an automatic text saying “I can’t come to the phone right now. I’m playing golf or croquet”.
D–Take the call and charge Steve for your time.
If you chose D, then congratulations. You are on the fast track to maximizing your time! And it’s all made possible by Billseye, an Atlanta-based app startup from Alcide Honore.
A private practice lawyer for thirteen years, Alcide said the genesis of Billseye came from “numerous conversations about the pain and agony of trudging through weeks-old call logs to bill for time.”
Partnering with his brother Armond, a twenty-year software developer, Alcide set out in 2017 to simplify it all with a tap on a phone. Billseye automates the processes of not only billing, but also tracking and documenting incoming and outgoing client calls. In addition to its patented “client button.” Billseye includes voice/text memos, contact importing, call data exporting, and integration.
Within the app, users set a rate and push the blue client button to start recording.
Once the call is done, users can also make any text or audio notes, as well as export your call log as a spreadsheet.
Honore sees more than lawyers ultimately using Billseye. “We have always thought that there are a number of professions and industries that could benefit from Billseye,” he told Hypepotamus. “Anyone that is currently investing money or time to bill for phone calls is a target user. This includes accountants, consultants, therapists, and anyone else with established clientele that they bill for calls.”
Billseye has gained momentum over the last year. It was the winner of the American Bar Association Techshow 2020 Startup Competition, and one of eight finalists selected from a group of over 500 startups to pitch in the ATL Startup Battle in October. Most recently, Billseye was among the select few high-potential startups promoted by Google for Startups Black Founders Fund.
While the potential for features of the app is seemingly endless (with text and email billing, for example), Billseye is opting to keep things simple for now. “Right now we have figured out how to do something better than anyone else – capturing every billable minute of every client call with 100% accuracy,” Honore added. “We are leveraging all of our resources to push this feature and as we gain more traction we will expand our product features from there.”
Honore is also looking ahead towards the bigger picture of the app’s influence. “Billseye will continue to push forward the evolution of the workplace,” he said. “We have been carrying mobile phones for decades now, but there has been no innovation when it comes to the range of options users have with a call. Answer and ignore will no longer be the only options. Social engagement has changed the world immeasurably. An important component of the future of work is the ability to get paid for direct engagements with people that are otherwise strangers. Billseye’s payments platform will provide influencers with a powerful new tool for monetizing their engagements with followers.”
And the Billseye team is looking towards the future, seeing an opportunity to “unify the experience” for service providers and their clients on each phone call.
“We have plans to leverage blockchain technology and digital currency to create a platform where users can connect across cultures and borders and receive fair value for their engagements.”
Billseye is currently available on the Google Play Store, for Android only, with plans to roll out to iOS soon.
