TrueUp: Turning Expert Knowledge Into a Paid Product

trueup.pro

The Challenge

Skilled tradespeople—mechanics, HVAC technicians, contractors, field specialists—give away their expertise for free every day. A homeowner calls, describes a problem badly, and the expert spends 20 minutes diagnosing it over the phone with nothing to show for it. No record of what was said, no protection if the advice is misapplied, no payment for the time.

The problem wasn’t demand. People clearly want expert help. The problem was infrastructure: there was no professional-grade way to conduct and monetize a remote consultation in the trades.

The Approach

The product needed to do three things well: make the remote call feel as useful as being on-site, create a defensible record of what was done, and make it simple for experts to charge for their time.

We built a video platform specifically designed for the moment when a skilled professional is guiding someone through a real-world problem. The core features aren’t cosmetic — they solve real friction points in the expert-to-customer interaction:

  • Freeze frame lets the expert pause the customer’s camera to study a problem without asking them to hold still
  • On-screen annotations let the expert draw directly on the video — “this fitting right here” instead of “a little to the left”
  • Remote flashlight turns on the customer’s phone light so the expert can see into dark spaces without negotiating it verbally
  • Automatic recording and AI summaries mean every call produces documentation — what was diagnosed, what was advised, step by step — that both parties can reference later

Payment is handled per session via Stripe. The invite flow is designed to be one tap: sign in once, start a call, paste a link.

The Outcome

TrueUp is live on Android. Experts can now run professional remote consultations, get paid for their time, and hand customers a documented summary of every session. What had been an informal, unprotected, unpaid interaction is now a product.

What this demonstrates

A 0→1 product built on a tight problem-solution fit: AI tooling integrated into a real-world service workflow, not as a feature, but as the mechanism that makes the business model work. This type of engagement — identifying a clear pain, building an opinionated product around it, and launching — is the core of how Ministry of Product operates.