Backend dev lands first $6k/month client with sub-200ms voice agent for collections
retarded_raj · reddit · 2026-10-17
A backend developer at a fintech built a voice agent after hours and signed his first client—a collections call center—at $6k/month. The agent dials via SIP, streams audio to STT over WebSocket, classifies responses, and warm-transfers interested leads; p95 latency is under 200ms. Key lessons: self-hosted Whisper hit 30% WER on phone audio (vs 8% on test recordings), so he switched to Gnani's telephony-trained STT; he raised the silence threshold from 1.2s to 3.5s and added a VAD check after cutting off a caller mid-sentence. Stack: Gnani STT/TTS with 100ms chunks, pipecat for turn-taking. He priced against the cost of two human agents.
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