Hot Seat

Hot Seat lets small business owners rehearse a hard press interview, out loud, before the real one. Big companies pay for media training. A café owner, a club chairman or a plumber meets the press once, on their worst day, with no practice. Hot Seat gives them that practice. You describe your business and your situation in two lines. Hot Seat writes a full scenario: a reporter with a temperament and an agenda, the public facts, and the landmines the reporter will find later. Then you answer by voice. The reporter follows a structured interview plan: it pushes when you dodge, moves on when you answer, cuts in when you ramble, and calls back a contradiction once. It does not go in circles. Afterwards you get a debrief grounded in crisis communication research: scores, your best and worst moments with a better line you could have said, and an interview map of what you answered, dodged or never reached. Then the consequences: tomorrow's front page built from your own words, and an evening news clip with an anchor who reads your best and worst quote. There is also a profile mode: a friendly feature interview for good news, with the same structure and feedback. Live demo: https://hot-seat-95gr.onrender.com/?code=hotseat2026 (access code hotseat2026; free hosting, so the first load can take about 30 seconds while the server wakes up; use Chrome with a microphone).