{"slug": "show-hn-placecall-yc-w26-agentic-api-to-call-businesses-and-get-things-done", "title": "Show HN: PlaceCall (YC W26) – agentic API to call businesses and get things done", "summary": "VOYGR, a Y Combinator W26 company founded by former Google Maps and Search engineers Yarik and Vlad, launched PlaceCall, an agentic API that places phone calls to US businesses on a user's behalf, navigating phone menus and hold times and returning a structured response with outcome, recording and transcript. The API, usable through Claude Code and Codex, offers the first 250 calls free, and was tested at the founders' hackathon on use cases including checking whether a doctor accepts new patients, getting car service quotes and running quick surveys.", "body_md": "Hi HN, this is Yarik and Vlad from VOYGR - we are building the tools for agents and apps to engage with local businesses.\n\nIt all started with our own pain point at VOYGR: calling businesses to verify if they are open. We are both from Google (Maps and Search) and even there, the merchants and venues don’t keep this info updated. So we built an API and started using it in-house.\n\nOn July 4th, we were driving through Portland looking for a place to eat. Google Maps was saying “Holiday hours may vary”. We tried some AI assistant apps (Poke was trending back then), and they couldn’t help. Our API found 15 Thai and sushi places and called it in parallel. A few confirmed that they are open today and are taking walk-ins. One was marked closed on Google. The app can find the restaurant, but someone has to answer the phone.\n\nThis is the problem we kept seeing. Assistants can’t do much in the real world where the phone number is still a major communication interface. Muse added calls in beta mode, but it’s still calling only one place at a time. There are a bunch of tools to create your own voice agents, but nothing that can work simply out of the box. We’ve built PlaceCall to fit all your agentic needs. Give it a task in plain English and a US phone number (or a list of numbers) - it navigates phone menus, waits for you on hold, and returns a structured response with outcome, recording and transcript. If you don’t have a phone number, just describe what you need and PlaceCall comes up with the recommendations. Here is the demo: [https://youtu.be/7ZbVCPv8Wq0?si=LoLxxx1M7nhS7_j-](https://youtu.be/7ZbVCPv8Wq0?si=LoLxxx1M7nhS7_j-)\n\nWhen PlaceCall API was tested in our hackathon, we had the following use cases implemented by the developers: checking if a doctor accepts new patients, getting quotes for car service, and running quick surveys. The API can be used through Claude Code and Codex; examples and setup are listed in the repo: [https://github.com/voygr-tech/placecall](https://github.com/voygr-tech/placecall) We give the first 250 calls free. Product page is here: [https://voygr.tech/placecall/](https://voygr.tech/placecall/)\n\nTry it and let us know how it goes. We are interested in learning what you would use it for and what is missing. We are here all day and happy to answer any questions. Our email: founders@voygr.tech\n\nComments URL: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49831231](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49831231)\n\nPoints: 4\n\n# Comments: 0", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-placecall-yc-w26-agentic-api-to-call-businesses-and-get-things-done", "canonical_source": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49831231", "published_at": "2026-09-24 14:36:03+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-09-24 14:59:53.386520+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-agents", "ai-products", "ai-tools", "developer-tools", "artificial-intelligence"], "entities": ["VOYGR", "PlaceCall", "Y Combinator", "Yarik", "Vlad", "Google Maps", "Google Search", "Claude Code"], "also_reported_by": [], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-placecall-yc-w26-agentic-api-to-call-businesses-and-get-things-done", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-placecall-yc-w26-agentic-api-to-call-businesses-and-get-things-done.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-placecall-yc-w26-agentic-api-to-call-businesses-and-get-things-done.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-placecall-yc-w26-agentic-api-to-call-businesses-and-get-things-done.jsonld"}}