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How We Bootstrapped a $20K Website into a $4M/year Business

myclean.com

31–40 of 171 posts

Re: How We Bootstrapped a $20K Website into a $4M/year Business

#31
post #7

Would love to hear more about the first part of the trip: how they got to $15k per month. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Hello ovi256, we received some excellent press early on (Thrillist was huge for us), ran a Gilt campaign, and listed ourselves on free directories. We did not spend any money (outside of the money we lost with Gilt) in customer acquisition to begin with.

Re: How We Bootstrapped a $20K Website into a $4M/year Business

#32
post #2

Great :) My house is kind of dirty, have any advice on how to find a good cleaner outside of the NYC area?

Usually you can find a cleaner on craigslist who will do so topless. Something none of these homecleaner connection services offer!

Re: How We Bootstrapped a $20K Website into a $4M/year Business

#35
post #13
post #8

Good read. I recently became a father and suddenly the need for hiring baby sitters,nannies, house cleaners is critical and like the blog says "it is not rocket science but not as easy as ordering book on amazon", I totally concur. My wife and I have been struggling to find "good" and "reliable" cleaners, or babysitter even though we have tried craigslist, care.come (for nannies) etc. Basic household needs have many…

Wow... so first you choose "the family life", then proceed to outsource every last tiny aspect of (used-to-be) "normal" day-to-day ops? You guys must be very, very busy indeed!

That's progress. Normal day-to-day ops used to include sewing clothes, churning butter, and building furniture.

Re: How We Bootstrapped a $20K Website into a $4M/year Business

#37
post #13
post #8

Good read. I recently became a father and suddenly the need for hiring baby sitters,nannies, house cleaners is critical and like the blog says "it is not rocket science but not as easy as ordering book on amazon", I totally concur. My wife and I have been struggling to find "good" and "reliable" cleaners, or babysitter even though we have tried craigslist, care.come (for nannies) etc. Basic household needs have many…

Wow... so first you choose "the family life", then proceed to outsource every last tiny aspect of (used-to-be) "normal" day-to-day ops? You guys must be very, very busy indeed!

I understand where you are coming from and I used to be in your shoes until recently. Lately, my time is a lot more valuable and even though I find time for HN :), every minute I spend must be chosen and spent wisely. So for things such as house cleaning (which could be a big deal if you have 3+ beds, 2+ baths and shit load of crap), I would rather outsource to a pro. Can I do it myself ? Hell yea. Would I be doing something else considering my time is critical ? Yep.

Re: How We Bootstrapped a $20K Website into a $4M/year Business

#38

And this is probably why I will never be rich. The idea of hiring somebody to clean your house(or watch your kids, or do the grocery shopping) is completely foreign to me.

You've got it backwards. It's only after you have money that you'd start thinking about hiring someone to clean your house.

If you're saying you can't empathize with people who are different from you ... well that's a different issue. Most people are not like you so you'll either have to learn how to empathize with them, or create businesses/products that directly address needs you understand (and have determined many other folks also have).

Re: How We Bootstrapped a $20K Website into a $4M/year Business

#39

This is a classic case of removing purchase friction. There is a market that wants to hire cleaners. There are cleaners who want to be hired. The traditional way of hiring a cleaner or finding a cleaning job requires a lot of effort on both parties. myclean.com goes ahead and reduces that friction with a website. They allow both parties to meet without issue. No wonder they are doing well. Now, can you do this too? Y…

seamless does this pretty well
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