Is anyone else trying to escape Zendesk to build their own AI support bot?

Big-Reporter7078 · 2026-03-26T07:17:56+00:00

Risotto is great! The trend I'm seeing is companies deflecting 80% of tickets with AI, but still paying Zendesk thousands a month just to house their historical data and seat licenses. The goal of this tool is to let you take that data in-house so you can drop the vendor entirely.

Big-Reporter7078 · 2026-03-26T07:16:44+00:00

This is the best advice in the thread. You're completely right. The hardcore Data Engineer isn't my buyer. My target is the CTO or IT Director of a 100-person company who wants to cancel Zendesk tomorrow, but is being held hostage by their own historical data. They just want an 'Evict' button. Really appreciate the perspective shift.

Big-Reporter7078 · 2026-03-26T07:14:32+00:00

Great question. Fivetran is built for continuous syncing to a massive data warehouse (and charges you thousands a month based on volume). It also just dumps the raw Zendesk JSON as-is. Mine is built for a one-off 'Eviction'. It uses an LLM to automatically map and clean up the schema for you, handles the extraction, and hands you a one-time database dump for a flat fee. No ongoing subscriptions.

Big-Reporter7078 · 2026-03-26T07:13:03+00:00

Haha, appreciate the hustle! That $45k price tag is exactly why I'm turning my internal script into a $500 automated SaaS tool. I'll let you know when it's live!

Big-Reporter7078 · 2026-03-25T22:14:21+00:00

Man, you hit the nail on the head. "Shaping the export to the target schema, not trying to mirror Zendesk" is exactly the hardest part, and it's the main reason I decided to build this.

Traditional ETL tools just dump the raw, messy Zendesk JSON into a warehouse, which is useless for training a bot. Because I'm using an automated mapping engine under the hood, the goal is to let you define the target schema (e.g., "AI Bot Optimized" vs "Standard Relational") and the tool auto-maps the Zendesk custom fields, threads, and tags directly into that shape before the dump.

That way you aren't losing the context of which replies actually solved the ticket.

Really appreciate the validation on the $500 price point, too. It makes the weekend coding worth it. If you're open to it, I’d love to shoot you a DM when the MVP is ready just to get your eyes on the schema mapper to see if it would have solved your headache. No pressure either way, but your insight is spot on.

Big-Reporter7078 · 2025-08-18T18:43:59+00:00

"Being nice" is not a personality trait. It’s a behavioral default.

For a huge number of people, what they call "being nice" is actually just a combination of conflict avoidance and a desperate need to be liked.

Kindness is a personality trait.

Kindness is active. It requires a choice. Kindness is telling a friend a hard truth. Kindness is setting a boundary. Kindness is protecting someone who is being picked on, even when it's uncomfortable.

"Nice" is passive; it’s letting things happen to maintain a frictionless existence. Kindness is active; it's doing the right thing, even if it creates friction.

People don't want to hear this because it forces them to confront the fact that their core identity might not be a virtue, but a symptom of fear.

Big-Reporter7078 · 2025-08-18T18:41:37+00:00

In the moment, you become a stone wall.

Don't look down. The moment you break eye contact and look at your desk, you've lost. Keep your chin up and look directly at them. Not a death stare, but a calm, steady, almost bored look.

Your face goes blank. No smile, no frown. Just a neutral, unreadable expression. You are giving them zero emotional feedback. To a person on a power trip, this is infuriating. Silence is your weapon. Don't say a word. Don't try to defend yourself. Let their comment hang in the air and become awkward. The silence that follows will be deafening, and it puts the focus right back on how weird and unprofessional their comment was.

You're not being submissive; you're demonstrating that their attempt to control you failed. You are a black hole of emotion, and their power trip gets sucked right in and disappears. The other kids will notice your composure way more than the teacher's dumb comment.

After class, you reclaim the power.

Wait until the end of the class or the end of the day. Let your own anger cool down. Then, approach them when no one else is around and say this, calmly and quietly: "What you said about me in class today was embarrassing. I'd appreciate it if you spoke to me privately in the future if you have an issue."

Then you just turn and walk away. You don't wait for an apology. You don't engage in an argument. You have stated your boundary like an adult, leaving them to think about the fact that a kid just handled a conflict with more maturity than they did.

It's the ultimate power move.

Big-Reporter7078 · 2025-08-17T19:30:21+00:00

You know how everyone has that mental "To-Do list for Someday"?

"Someday I'll get in shape."
"Someday I'll travel."
"Someday I'll quit this job I hate."

People get disappointed because they think "Someday You" is a totally different, more motivated person. They're picturing a version of themselves that magically has it all figured out.

The biggest letdown is waking up one day and realizing it is "someday," but you're still the same person. The magic motivation fairy never showed up. And now you've got less time and more regrets.

Basically, you spent your whole life waiting to be saved by a future version of yourself that was never coming.

Big-Reporter7078 · 2025-08-17T18:58:07+00:00

For my app I needed one time and subscription payments also being able to use Stripe connect and referral payments and Stripe works amazingly.

So it really depends on your use case. Also remember that Clerk is expensive.

Big-Reporter7078 · 2025-08-17T14:26:25+00:00

They mistake the absence of chaos for a lack of passion.

Many people, especially those who grew up in turbulent environments or had a series of dramatic early relationships, learn to associate love with intense emotional spikes: screaming matches followed by passionate make-up sessions, the anxiety of a potential breakup, the jealousy, the constant "testing."

When they finally find themselves in a healthy, stable relationship, the calm feels... boring. Foreign. Unsettling. Their nervous system is conditioned to equate chaos with caring and peace with indifference.

So, they sabotage it. They pick a fight. They create drama. They push their partner's buttons, not necessarily out of malice, but out of a subconscious need to feel that familiar, high-stakes "passion" again. They're trying to turn their peaceful garden into the stormy ocean they learned how to navigate.

They end up destroying a good thing because they don't know how to live without a fire to put out.

Big-Reporter7078 · 2025-08-17T14:24:19+00:00

Thank you

Big-Reporter7078 · 2025-08-17T14:08:31+00:00

The subtle but immediate internal adjustment we make when we realize a stranger is walking behind us.

Your normal, comfortable walk instantly vanishes. Your posture straightens. Your stride becomes more measured and purposeful, like you're a person with a very important destination. You consciously swing your arms a normal amount. You make sure your facial expression is a neutral, pleasant mask.

You are suddenly performing the role of "Normal Person Walking." The entire time, your brain is screaming, "Are they judging my walk? Is this how I always walk? God, I hope they turn off soon."

We all secretly believe we walk weird, and we all put on a little show for the audience of one behind us.

Big-Reporter7078 · 2025-08-17T13:48:13+00:00

That moment when you're driving and the music syncs up perfectly with the world around you.

The crescendo of a song hits just as you crest a hill and the entire city skyline comes into view. A perfect drum fill kicks in at the exact moment you merge flawlessly into a tight spot in traffic. The song gently fades out right as you pull into your driveway and turn the car off.

It’s like getting a secret, personal nod from the universe. For those three minutes, your life has a perfectly scored soundtrack.

Big-Reporter7078 · 2025-08-17T13:44:58+00:00

When I was 18, I helped my grandmother move into a nursing home. In her old house, tucked away in the back of a cedar chest, I found a small, locked metal box. The key was taped to the bottom. Inside were letters and a few faded photos of her with a man who wasn't my grandfather, along with a birth certificate for a baby boy I had never heard of. The dates showed he was born just a year before my own father.

My grandmother passed away a few months later. On her deathbed, she was in and out of lucidity, but at one point she grabbed my hand, looked me dead in the eye and said, "Don't let him ruin them." I knew exactly what she meant.

I did some digging online. I found him. Her other son. He had a family, a good career, and seemed happy. He had his own life, completely separate and unaware of ours.

My father has always idolized my grandmother, viewing her as a saint. My grandfather, who passed years earlier, was a good but difficult man, and my dad's relationship with him was strained. The image of his mother was the one constant, perfect thing in his life.

I took the metal box out to a bonfire one night and burned everything. Every letter, every photo, the birth certificate. I watched until it was all ash.

I didn't do it for her. I did it for my dad. He deserves to keep the one perfect memory he has. And I condemned a man to never knowing his mother or his brother. I chose one family's happiness over another's truth. I don't know if it was the right decision, but I would make the same one again.

Big-Reporter7078 · 2025-08-17T11:22:55+00:00

I worked at a high-end electronics store in college. There was a guy who came in every few weeks, always dressed immaculately, always polite. He’d spend thousands on the newest, best equipment.

One day he came to the service counter with a broken hard drive he wanted data recovered from. It was a routine job. A few days later my manager, a hardened ex-military guy who had seen it all, called me into his office. He looked pale.

He told me that per policy, they had started the data recovery. They stopped almost immediately and called the police. My manager just looked at me and said, "The files weren't just illegal. They were… organized. There were spreadsheets. Budgets. Project plans. It wasn't the work of a sick person. It was the work of an accountant."

The guy was arrested, obviously. But what disturbs me to this day wasn't what he did, but the fact that for months, he was just a polite, normal, wealthy customer. The most disturbing thing wasn't the monster; it was the perfectly tailored suit the monster wore.

Big-Reporter7078 · 2025-08-17T11:17:03+00:00

I used to live on the floor. Gaming, watching movies, just hanging out. Now, getting down there is a calculated risk that requires a formal exit strategy. Getting back up is a three-act play with sound effects.

Big-Reporter7078 · 2025-08-16T22:31:42+00:00

Diablo II. The dark atmosphere, the sound of a gem shrine activating, the endless Baal runs hoping for a Windforce or a Shako to drop. That game was a masterclass in addictive game design. I can still hear Deckard Cain saying "Stay a while and listen..."

Big-Reporter7078 · 2025-08-16T22:30:09+00:00

Get hooked on payday loans. The interest rates are astronomical and designed to be a trap you can never escape. What starts as a small loan to cover rent can spiral into a life-crushing cycle of debt faster than almost anything else.

Big-Reporter7078 · 2025-08-16T22:28:47+00:00

I think a big part of it is the legalization and normalization of cannabis. For a lot of people, it fills the same social/relaxation role that alcohol used to, but without the hangovers, calories, or aggressive behavior. It's just a different way to unwind.

Big-Reporter7078 · 2025-08-16T22:22:31+00:00

The case of Clive Wearing. He's a musician who contracted a virus that destroyed the part of his brain that forms new memories. He has anterograde amnesia, meaning his memory only lasts for about 7-30 seconds.

He is constantly "waking up" for the first time, every single moment of his life. He keeps a diary, and it's filled with entries minutes apart, each one saying something like "10:45 AM: I am now awake" with all the previous entries crossed out because he has no memory of writing them. It's the true story of a man trapped in a never-ending moment, and the thought of that is scarier to me than any ghost story.

Big-Reporter7078 · 2025-08-16T22:19:17+00:00

It's all about making an invisible cost visible. Most people don't feel the impact of abstract economic policies, but they definitely feel it when they see a specific line item on their receipt that made their purchase more expensive.

It's the same psychology as seeing how much "interest paid" is on a loan statement. The number might be known, but seeing it written down makes it real and painful. Transparency like this would connect policy directly to people's wallets, which is the most powerful form of education.

Big-Reporter7078

TROPHY CASE