Sage is a new startup with the simple concept of providing advice to people who need it. Objective questions are easily answered with simple Google searches. But when the question is more complex or requires opinion or experience, or an amalgamation of knowledge, Google fails miserably. Then we head to other sites like Quora, Reddit, LegalZoom, Stackoverflow.com, etc. But too many problems exist with each of those options and others of similar ilk.
Quora fails to meet the timely response and 1 on 1 experience many questions require. Legalzoom only answers legal questions. Stackoverflow.com requires you to already be a talented programmer before they will “allow” you to ask anything at all in the forums.
Sage seeks to be a transactional experience. Do you have a question? We can get you an answer. Timely, on-demand, and from merit-based experts. We don’t “verify” Sages (experts). We allow the system we’ve created and put in place to verify them based on their own merit. If someone says they are a Sage in gardening, but they can’t answer a simple question about sunflowers, it’s likely their reputation score will take such a hit that other Seekers (users with questions) will turn to a different person to get their next gardening question answered. And that’s how we thrive and deliver a service others need.
Our initial goal will be to reach a critical mass of Sages and Seekers to where 50% of our questions are answered to a competent level. As we grow our participation, that number should rise to closer to 80%, while delighting our users. Quora can’t touch that!
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