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Didn’t Homejoy Shut Down?

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Re: Didn’t Homejoy Shut Down?

#301

What's the big deal? Homejoy is just hacking startup downfunding... (/s) I'd like to see some kind of stronger YC influence on ethics in the companies they fund. I realize that YC doesn't have any direct control over the companies, but it could be as simple as including good ethics in the traits they look for in startup founders. A while back I started compiling a list of YC companies that spammed or otherwise behave…

YC makes it very clear they will disavow any company or founder that acts unethically. YC is strict about very few things, but this was made clear in no uncertain terms (especially by Jessica). When things go bad, YC always gets involved – even if you don't read about it online. Don't blame YC just yet. We don't know what happened here. Maybe Homejoy went into debt, had their assets seized, and lost control (like wit…

What happened with gigaOM?

Re: Didn’t Homejoy Shut Down?

#302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

True, they probably don't have the full card numbers. But if the new business can charge my card, then I don't think my card info is "safe".

Re: Didn’t Homejoy Shut Down?

#303

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 wanted to follow up and address some concerns mentioned in this thread, and acknowledge that I definitely made mistakes. How did you get my information? We acquired Homejoy’s domain and customer information through an ABC process. Our intention is to improve and then relaunch Homejoy’s cleaning service. We were testing a new model using Fly Maids, one of our testing brands. As evidenced today, we made some mistakes…

Since you're fielding questions now; why did you copy Handy's website (including testimonials)?

You can't write that off as simply being an honest mistake or testing new ideas.

You went to college. That's plagiarism.

Re: Didn’t Homejoy Shut Down?

#304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to Stripe, they require evidence you comply with PCI-DSS. I'm interested, did they ask you for this?

As long as you're using their JS solutions so credit card data never ever goes through your servers (even temporarily), PCI-DSS compliance on Stripe just means serving the payment page over SSL. https://support.stripe.com/questions/do-i-need-to-be-pci-com...

Except this article says it is not served over SSL. There's even a huge graphic with an arrow pointing it out.

https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*dLlQGvWTeMTB7PT_n...

Re: Didn’t Homejoy Shut Down?

#305

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 wanted to follow up and address some concerns mentioned in this thread, and acknowledge that I definitely made mistakes. How did you get my information? We acquired Homejoy’s domain and customer information through an ABC process. Our intention is to improve and then relaunch Homejoy’s cleaning service. We were testing a new model using Fly Maids, one of our testing brands. As evidenced today, we made some mistakes…

Regarding the last point on continued access to account information: opting-out from this is much worse than opting-in. Think of all the people who used homejoy and don't read HN - wouldn't they want the same?

Re: Didn’t Homejoy Shut Down?

#306

I'm pretty sure I know what's going on. In order to pay off their debts, Homejoy must have sold user account information, including credit cards, to a bunch of local home cleaning businesses. A shit ton of them have been popping around over the past couple of years, modeled after the advice given in this subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/entrepreneurridealong The difference with these local cleaning businesses is t…

It seems to be a rather incestuous industry when it comes to original content: https://www.reddit.com/r/EntrepreneurRideAlong/comments/2zez...

Re: Didn’t Homejoy Shut Down?

#307

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 wanted to follow up and address some concerns mentioned in this thread, and acknowledge that I definitely made mistakes. How did you get my information? We acquired Homejoy’s domain and customer information through an ABC process. Our intention is to improve and then relaunch Homejoy’s cleaning service. We were testing a new model using Fly Maids, one of our testing brands. As evidenced today, we made some mistakes…

I was not a Homejoy customer but from a general point of view I reckon you need to communicate to all the customers in your file and clearly let them know the truth about everything. That is the only way that you can redeem yourself from this.

Good luck.

Re: Didn’t Homejoy Shut Down?

#308
post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how are you finding these related domains?

Oh just looked at the cached version of the Flymaids website on google and searched for some of the text they had on google. Such as 'Add your specific cleaning instructions and pay securely online by debit or credit card. No cash, no fuss.' Which prompted https://mopp.com this time, but also willowmaids and urbahome. This is getting beyond ridiculous haha. I'm starting to wonder if this isn't just the lorum ipsum of…

How seriously weird. I do notice that mopp.com, unlike the rest, says "Powered by Handy".

Re: Didn’t Homejoy Shut Down?

#309

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 wanted to follow up and address some concerns mentioned in this thread, and acknowledge that I definitely made mistakes. How did you get my information? We acquired Homejoy’s domain and customer information through an ABC process. Our intention is to improve and then relaunch Homejoy’s cleaning service. We were testing a new model using Fly Maids, one of our testing brands. As evidenced today, we made some mistakes…

If I was party to a lawsuit in which a company like Homejoy was the defendant, and a similar situation happened, I'd definitely be interested in finding out how one of it's co-founders "acquired" the customer database / IP, for how much, if it went to public tender, and if not, why not -- and I'd certainly be asking a judge to join whatever the new entity is called to the case as a co-defendant with shared liability.

It's at the very least dishonest if not of questionable legality to shut down your old company to try to avoid lawsuits and / or debts, start a new company and sell yourself your old assets. I really hope that isn't what you're doing / did. Because that would be pretty low-brow kind of stuff.

Re: Didn’t Homejoy Shut Down?

#310
post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as you're using their JS solutions so credit card data never ever goes through your servers (even temporarily), PCI-DSS compliance on Stripe just means serving the payment page over SSL. https://support.stripe.com/questions/do-i-need-to-be-pci-com...

Except this article says it is not served over SSL. There's even a huge graphic with an arrow pointing it out. https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*dLlQGvWTeMTB7PT_n...

That could just be the last four digits. When you create a token with Stripe, you do still get those back. Conceivably, they're showing 12 asterisks and the naked last four, while retaining the token Homejoy used with you so they can recharge -- although in order to do that, they would need Homejoy's Stripe API secret.
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