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Didn’t Homejoy Shut Down?

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Re: Didn’t Homejoy Shut Down?

#151

Post by pavornyoh »

aarontcheung wrote: post #125

I'm one of the founders of Homejoy. I'm still very passionate about the home service space. After leaving Homejoy, I started FlyMaids, where we're exploring a few different angles on the space. We recently acquired the customer and service provider data from Homejoy. We're a small team that has been focused on moving quickly while bootstraping. We tried to quickly test different approaches, but we realize now that we…

>We're a small team that has been focused on moving quickly while bootstraping. We tried to quickly test different approaches, but we realize now that we did so in an unclear manner.

Sometimes moving quickly isn't the best although most people say launch fast. Being that homejoy didn't do well,why didn't you take time to research well what you want to do next instead of copying a competitors site word for word?

Also, in the email to the person who wrote the article, you referred to flymaids as a "partner". Why not just come out and say it is your company?

Re: Didn’t Homejoy Shut Down?

#152

Post by jasonlaramburu »

aarontcheung wrote: post #125

I'm one of the founders of Homejoy. I'm still very passionate about the home service space. After leaving Homejoy, I started FlyMaids, where we're exploring a few different angles on the space. We recently acquired the customer and service provider data from Homejoy. We're a small team that has been focused on moving quickly while bootstraping. We tried to quickly test different approaches, but we realize now that we…

Aaron, I was a homejoy customer. I am frustrated and concerned that my credit card # was sold to another company without my consent. How can users opt-out of having their data sold to flymaids (or any future ventures)? The fact that flymaids' site is a poorly-built clone of a competitor's site also makes me scared that my data is not being protected.

Re: Didn’t Homejoy Shut Down?

#153

Post by johncolanduoni »

iamcurious wrote: post #140
aarontcheung wrote: post #125

I'm one of the founders of Homejoy. I'm still very passionate about the home service space. After leaving Homejoy, I started FlyMaids, where we're exploring a few different angles on the space. We recently acquired the customer and service provider data from Homejoy. We're a small team that has been focused on moving quickly while bootstraping. We tried to quickly test different approaches, but we realize now that we…

I'm starting to read "passionate about" as "wanting to make money of". I have to make an effort to read it in the classical sense. I fear the same will happen with "share". And when my kids talk about sharing at school I will only think of flooding with memes or of selling things. Now, I'm not a native english speaker, so I can't say if aarontcheung is misusing the term or not. Is this change happening to the english…

It is most definitely the latter, although SV isn't the only place this happens.

Re: Didn’t Homejoy Shut Down?

#154

Post by andy_ppp »

aarontcheung wrote: post #125

I'm one of the founders of Homejoy. I'm still very passionate about the home service space. After leaving Homejoy, I started FlyMaids, where we're exploring a few different angles on the space. We recently acquired the customer and service provider data from Homejoy. We're a small team that has been focused on moving quickly while bootstraping. We tried to quickly test different approaches, but we realize now that we…

I'm actually tempted to write a response so harsh I'd probably be banned from hacker news.

Instead I genuinely hope that YC will force companies taking the 7% into a no selling on data policy; I'm not saying that is easy to write but I am saying this situation without response smears YC, something I'm sure could be avoided in future.

Re: Didn’t Homejoy Shut Down?

#155

Post by codezero »

chris_wot wrote: post #150
aarontcheung wrote: post #125

I'm one of the founders of Homejoy. I'm still very passionate about the home service space. After leaving Homejoy, I started FlyMaids, where we're exploring a few different angles on the space. We recently acquired the customer and service provider data from Homejoy. We're a small team that has been focused on moving quickly while bootstraping. We tried to quickly test different approaches, but we realize now that we…

It is completely unacceptable that you have kept your customer's credit card details. You are completely violating Requirement 3.1 of the latest PCI-DSS (which has been the same since I looked at v2.x of the standard, incidentally): 3.1 Keep cardholder data storage to a minimum by implementing data retention and disposal policies, procedures and processes that include at least the following for all cardholder data (C…

I am going to sound contrarian, but I don't mean to be.

How does this violate PCI-DSS? The data itself is likely stored somewhere secure (who knows) – what's being displayed in the web app is the last four digits of the card and expiration date, this isn't where it's stored.

There is obviously a question of what the retention should be, but it's definitely the case that payment information can be transferred between companies.

The whole situation exudes a lack of trust, but it's not clear to me that PCI compliance is a problem here.

Re: Didn’t Homejoy Shut Down?

#156

Post by crabasa »

I think it goes without saying that there is nothing remotely legitimate happening here. The fact that Aaron posted this comment and expected anybody to believe it is remarkable.

That being said, I spent 5 minutes researching Aaron Cheung and I was astonished by what I found. He has a Twitter account, but has posted exactly 0 times [1]. He has an HN account, but has posted exactly 0 times [2], and only commented twice (including today). He graduated from MIT in 2009 and this has seemingly been the only real job he's had for the past 5 years [3].

I think, from this perspective, I understand why Aaron is doing what he's doing. It doesn't make it right, not even close, but this person has lived and breathed the home cleaning space for his entire professional career. He may not have the slightest idea what else he could possibly do instead.

    [1]: https://twitter.com/aarontcheung
    [2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=aarontcheung
    [3]: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aarontcheung
Edit: I'm certainly not claiming that people who are inactive on social media are bad people. But given the complete picture of what has been reported in the media, what was revealed today and the tone-deafness of his comment, I personally think this lack of engagement is part of the explanation.

Re: Didn’t Homejoy Shut Down?

#157

Post by chris_wot »

codezero wrote: post #155
chris_wot wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is completely unacceptable that you have kept your customer's credit card details. You are completely violating Requirement 3.1 of the latest PCI-DSS (which has been the same since I looked at v2.x of the standard, incidentally): 3.1 Keep cardholder data storage to a minimum by implementing data retention and disposal policies, procedures and processes that include at least the following for all cardholder data (C…

I am going to sound contrarian, but I don't mean to be. How does this violate PCI-DSS? The data itself is likely stored somewhere secure (who knows) – what's being displayed in the web app is the last four digits of the card and expiration date, this isn't where it's stored. There is obviously a question of what the retention should be, but it's definitely the case that payment information can be transferred between…

I thought it was pretty clear, but I'm willing to elaborate.

The requirement is that card data is securely removed when it is no longer required. They are no longer billing customers at HomeJoy as the business has been wound up, so the credit card data should have been deleted.

Also: no customer has given them any right to have their credit card billed to an entirely new entity. Credit card information should not be transferred due to sale of customer data to an entirely separate legal business entity because no contract of sale has been established between the customer and that new entity.

Re: Didn’t Homejoy Shut Down?

#158

Post by nostromo »

jasonlaramburu wrote: post #152
aarontcheung wrote: post #125

I'm one of the founders of Homejoy. I'm still very passionate about the home service space. After leaving Homejoy, I started FlyMaids, where we're exploring a few different angles on the space. We recently acquired the customer and service provider data from Homejoy. We're a small team that has been focused on moving quickly while bootstraping. We tried to quickly test different approaches, but we realize now that we…

Aaron, I was a homejoy customer. I am frustrated and concerned that my credit card # was sold to another company without my consent. How can users opt-out of having their data sold to flymaids (or any future ventures)? The fact that flymaids' site is a poorly-built clone of a competitor's site also makes me scared that my data is not being protected.

Your CC is probably safe on Stripe's servers.

Which makes me wonder -- does Stripe allow entire accounts to change hands willy-nilly like this?

Re: Didn’t Homejoy Shut Down?

#159

Post by roymurdock »

birken wrote: post #142
aarontcheung wrote: post #125

I'm one of the founders of Homejoy. I'm still very passionate about the home service space. After leaving Homejoy, I started FlyMaids, where we're exploring a few different angles on the space. We recently acquired the customer and service provider data from Homejoy. We're a small team that has been focused on moving quickly while bootstraping. We tried to quickly test different approaches, but we realize now that we…

In my experience, life is easier when you admit your mistakes without business speak, and just take the blame (for example: "I" instead of "We"). I've written a lot of mea culpas for mistakes which impacted customers, and the more direct and transparent I was, the better responses I always got. You made a mistake, you know you made a mistake. Admit it, apologize, and move on. Your excuses or context probably aren't g…

When that mistake might be very costly litigation-wise, and anything you say/do might be brought up in court, it's time to break out the business speak and obfuscate like there is no tomorrow.

Re: Didn’t Homejoy Shut Down?

#160

Post by pavornyoh »

dsr_ wrote: post #126
aarontcheung wrote: post #125

I'm one of the founders of Homejoy. I'm still very passionate about the home service space. After leaving Homejoy, I started FlyMaids, where we're exploring a few different angles on the space. We recently acquired the customer and service provider data from Homejoy. We're a small team that has been focused on moving quickly while bootstraping. We tried to quickly test different approaches, but we realize now that we…

I'm upvoting you to get your response attention. Don't mistake that for approval of what you did.

>Don't mistake that for approval of what you did.

If Aaron can answer though, I am curious if he was planning to get back into YC with flymaids?

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