Why Many On-Demand Platforms Fail – AMA with Sam Madden of PocketSuite

Hi everyone - Sam here (co-founder of PocketSuite). Happy to answer any questions around the On Demand / SMB / future of work market if you've got them!

We tried not to call out any one co specifically :)

HomeJoy was ideal for the first-time client -- cheap clean, convenient booking/payment experience.

However trust & quality of the work wasn't there. The platform economics for cleaners was pretty unfavorable which caused low quality workers to be part of the network. For high quality cleaners, it was increasingly common to take clients "off platform" so that they wouldn't have to pay the platform fee.

Plus as a homeowner, once I find the cleaner I like and trust, I want to keep using them and give them business directly (without the middleman).

We dove more into a detailed HomeJoy case study on TC last year: https://techcrunch.com/2015/07/31/why-homejoy-failed-and-the...

Thumbtack has had a lot of success with its pay-for-lead model. Reminds me of ServiceMagic before it transitioned to HomeAdvisor with an updated business model. (More detail in the pay-per-lead space: http://pocketsuite.io/leads-online)

Thumbtack does a great job matching up the first time client with a business in a concierge-type way -- I (the homeowner) say what services I need, then a few pros can reach out with quotes and pitch themselves. I get my choice of the litter!

Some clients like that way of discovering new pros. Other clients like to browse reviews in a Yelp type structure. Other clients like the On Demand type of convenience. Other clients like to search for discounts and deals similar to Groupon.

Thumbtack has made the lead model cool again - kudos to them.

What do you mean when you say that empowering the ongoing direct relationship between professional and client is going to be the next huge wave in platform creation?

My interpretation was that he meant most of the businesses nowadays does very similar things, so relationship between professionals and clients is what's going to separate them.

And that the next wave of innovation will be platforms that supports this.