Didn’t Homejoy Shut Down? • Hacker News Board

Re: Didn’t Homejoy Shut Down?

#251

Post by danhak » Thu, Oct 29, 2015, 1:55 AM UTC

SomeCallMeTim wrote: post #248

bigtones wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And when I say "testing different approaches" I mean: * completely ripping off competitor business websites * throwing PCI compliance and SSL encryption out the window * generally treating our VC money purchased customers from our old firm like commodity dirt. This one is gonna be a winner for sure.

>throwing PCI compliance and SSL encryption out the window If they were using Stripe or similar, then they don't have access to your credit cards. Only the last four digits and expiration.

How bout the part where they're sending expiration date and last 4 digits over http?

Re: Didn’t Homejoy Shut Down?

#252

Post by taneq » Thu, Oct 29, 2015, 2:00 AM UTC

icey wrote: post #194

crabasa wrote: post #156

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 twic…

Something that smells bad to me: Homejoy was facing multiple lawsuits at the time they shut down ( http://www.forbes.com/sites/ellenhuet/2015/07/17/cleaning-st... ). Is this some kind of end-run around that?

That was my first thought. Company facing impending doom? Do a runner with the assets, wait for the dust to settle, and try again with a different name and logo.

Re: Didn’t Homejoy Shut Down?

#253

Post by someear » Thu, Oct 29, 2015, 2:02 AM UTC

crabasa wrote: post #246

mjmsmith wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you explain what exactly "astonished" you about the results of your 5 minute research project?

Sure. He created a Twitter account in 2009 and hasn't tweeted once in 6 years. He was the founder of a YC company and never posted a single submission to Hacker News. He was the founder of of a company that raised $38M+ in venture capital and never once used these two massive audiences to let the world know about his product or his team. That is, to me, astonishing.

But that's something the CEO did instead. In many ways, Adora represented the Homejoy brand, and if people saw other founders they wouldn't get as much attention. It made sense for them to have one person be the voice.

Not everyone that's a founder has to be in front of people (literally or virtually).

Re: Didn’t Homejoy Shut Down?

#254

Post by jfoster » Thu, Oct 29, 2015, 2:03 AM UTC

crabasa wrote: post #156

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 twic…

I don't think his comment was "tone deaf" as much as it was trying to change the tone of the conversation.

It looks to me as though Homejoy & Fly Maids have done a terrible job of communicating this, but it seems legitimate to me. When companies get acquired, customers have always come along for the ride. In fact, that's often the main thing that companies get acquired for. Facebook could've built a Whatsapp clone, but the billions of dollars of value was the user base. In this case, it's a bit less usual since just the customer data has been acquired.

Re: Didn’t Homejoy Shut Down?

#255

Post by IkmoIkmo » Thu, Oct 29, 2015, 2:08 AM UTC

webo wrote: post #146

shashashasha wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the differences between Homejoy, FlyMaids, and Homeaglow? Are they all incorporated as the same entity, or are they all separate? Are different founders of Homejoy working on different angles?

and cleanerconnect.com

and dazzlingcleaning.com, exact copy of Flymaids (i.e. the cached version, Flymaids was taken down just now it seems).

Re: Didn’t Homejoy Shut Down?

#256

Post by user_0001 » Thu, Oct 29, 2015, 2:08 AM UTC

throwaway2048 wrote: post #219

iamcurious wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

nah there is certainly a cheapening of the language when such bullshit is thrown around so freely.

just another bullshit marketing term. I cannot believe these type of people really think that those reading it will go "wow this guy really cares about some low paid worker cleaning my house well, I will go with them".

Just seems so contrived and fake to me :-\

Re: Didn’t Homejoy Shut Down?

#257

Post by bksenior » Thu, Oct 29, 2015, 2:09 AM UTC

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…

Dude, you weren't unclear. You literally lied by copying customer testimony to mislead. At least apologize or take some responsibility. Id honestly rather you not say anything than this extremely weak response.

Re: Didn’t Homejoy Shut Down?

#258

Post by rjf90 » Thu, Oct 29, 2015, 2:14 AM UTC

Am I the only one that doesn't see any archive on https://archive.org/web/?

Re: Didn’t Homejoy Shut Down?

#259

Post by llamataboot » Thu, Oct 29, 2015, 2:15 AM UTC

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…

Why did you copy Handy's site verbatim? Why did you not give customers the option to opt-in to your new venture? Why did you post the logos of news organizations that had never written you up?

Re: Didn’t Homejoy Shut Down?

#260

Post by seancoleman » Thu, Oct 29, 2015, 2:23 AM UTC

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…

Typically investment contracts employ non-competes to prevent founders from starting new businesses in similar spaces. Clearly this person's previous actions aren't the most ethical but I'm curious what his strategy is around this.