Frequently asked questions
How alterego discovers conversations, drafts replies, keeps you safe on Reddit and what it costs. Something missing? Email alterego.intlabs@gmail.com.
Product
What is alterego?
alterego is an AI social discovery and response agent for founders and product teams. It watches Reddit, Hacker News and Bluesky for conversations where people ask for exactly what you build, researches your market in depth, drafts replies in your voice and leaves the final posting decision to you.
How does alterego find relevant conversations?
You create a brief describing your product and the communities to watch. alterego continuously polls those sources, scores every post against your product with alterego proprietary trained models and surfaces only the conversations worth entering, ranked by relevance, intent and urgency.
What is a brief?
A brief is a watching mandate: your product description, the subreddits and keywords to monitor, your voice profile and your guardrails (approved claims, banned claims, do-not-engage list). Each brief drives its own research, discovery and drafting.
What is deep research?
Beyond watching live conversations, alterego can run a multi-step research pass on your market: competitors, buyer language, recurring pain points and credible sources. The findings feed back into discovery and drafting, so the agent gets sharper about your space with every run.
How do AI drafts work and can I edit them?
When a conversation passes the relevance gate, alterego drafts a reply in your voice with a stated goal and risk flags. Every draft lands in your review inbox where you approve, edit or reject it. Nothing is ever published without your action.
Does alterego learn my voice?
Yes. Every edit you make to a draft is a signal. alterego keeps the original and your edited version and uses those pairs to make future drafts sound more like you and less like a template.
Which platforms does alterego support?
Discovery currently covers Reddit, Hacker News and Bluesky. Reddit support includes comment-level discovery, so a draft can target a specific comment thread, not just the top-level post.
Can I share what alterego finds with my team or investors?
Yes. Each brief can mint a public read-only share link. Anyone with the link sees the discovered conversations live, without an account. Your drafts, claims, voice settings and costs are never shown and you can revoke or rotate the link at any time.
Safety and compliance
Does alterego post on my behalf automatically?
No. alterego never auto-posts. You review each draft, then the app copies the approved text and opens the exact thread; you paste and submit under your own account. The human is the rate limiter and the off switch.
Will using alterego get me banned from Reddit?
alterego is built to be the safest way to engage: it never posts through the API, every reply is submitted by hand under your own account and drafts carry built-in compliance checks (self-promotion ratio, banned claims, AI-sounding phrasing). You stay in control of where and how often you post.
How does alterego handle FTC disclosure?
Disclosure is mandatory by design. Whenever a draft references your product in any way, it must include a first-person affiliation line such as "full disclosure, I work on X" (FTC 16 CFR 255). The disclosure travels inside the draft text, so it is present wherever you paste it.
Can I stop alterego from engaging certain communities or people?
Yes. Each brief has a do-not-engage list and a banned-claims list. Drafts that would violate them are flagged before they ever reach your review queue and you can pause any brief with one click.
Pricing
How much does alterego cost?
Flat monthly fee, no per-use charges. Starter is $49/month (1 brief, 10 research runs per month). Pro is $199/month (5 briefs, 50 research runs, deeper research, priority discovery polling and email support). Annual billing brings Starter to an effective $39/month and Pro to $159/month.
Is there a free trial?
Yes, 14 days, no credit card required. You get the full product during the trial; subscribe only if it earns its keep.
What is the difference between Starter and Pro?
Starter covers one product (1 brief, 10 research runs per month). Pro covers a portfolio (5 briefs, 50 runs), adds deep research, priority discovery polling and email support. Both are flat-fee with everything else included.
Do you offer an enterprise plan?
Yes: unlimited briefs and research runs, custom integrations and dedicated support with an SLA. Contact alterego.intlabs@gmail.com for enterprise inquiries.
How do I cancel?
From the billing page, managed through Stripe. Your access continues until the end of the period you have paid for; there are no cancellation fees.
Data and privacy
Is my data used to train models for other customers?
Your workspace data is isolated to your organization. Using anonymized prompts and responses to improve our models happens only with your separate opt-in consent, which you can withdraw at any time in account settings.
What does the public share link expose?
Only the brief name, product name, watched subreddits, counts and conversation snippets. It never shows your keywords, claims, voice settings, do-not-engage list, draft text, review history, costs or anything account-related. Share pages are also marked noindex so search engines do not list them.
How is my Reddit account connected and used?
Through standard OAuth, with read-oriented scopes used for discovery and for reading back the performance of replies you chose to post. alterego does not post through your account.
How do I contact support?
Email alterego.intlabs@gmail.com. Pro and Enterprise plans include prioritized support.