Homejoy says goodbye • Hacker News Board

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#11

Post by aestetix » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 5:32 PM UTC

If your company cannot afford to stay in the black with real employees (as opposed to contractors), you need to re-evaluate your business model.

Edit: and the downvotes are rolling in! Would anyone who has downvoted this comment care to share why?

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#12

Post by justinzollars » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 5:32 PM UTC

fraXis wrote: post #7

I used Homejoy and I liked it's ease of use. But after the cleaning lady they sent me was done, she offered me her direct phone # and told me I could contact her directly for any future cleaning needs. I always wondered how this business model was going to work if Homejoy's contractors could just give out their phone # at the end of their first service and the customer could just contact them directly for any future…

This is exactly their problem. I wonder if LawnLove will have the same problem?

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#13

Post by icelancer » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 5:32 PM UTC

The service was getting increasingly terrible in my market. I am not surprised at all to see it go the way of the dinosaur. Too bad, this type of service has a lot of value to busy professionals and people with families.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#14

Post by socalnate1 » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 5:33 PM UTC

aestetix wrote: post #11

If your company cannot afford to stay in the black with real employees (as opposed to contractors), you need to re-evaluate your business model. Edit: and the downvotes are rolling in! Would anyone who has downvoted this comment care to share why?

Err, they did. They is why they are shutting down.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#15

Post by icelancer » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 5:33 PM UTC

fraXis wrote: post #7

I used Homejoy and I liked it's ease of use. But after the cleaning lady they sent me was done, she offered me her direct phone # and told me I could contact her directly for any future cleaning needs. I always wondered how this business model was going to work if Homejoy's contractors could just give out their phone # at the end of their first service and the customer could just contact them directly for any future…

Going through Homejoy instead of direct offers you Homejoy's bonded protection and insurance, plus refund platform. This is worth something.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#16

Post by tptacek » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 5:34 PM UTC

I get the sense that many of the people involved in Homejoy are well-intentioned and hardworking. But I can't say that I think it's a bad thing that tech startups are finding it difficult to monetize unskilled labor.

The technology that most companies like these offer (with the possible exception of Uber) is a commodity. The real asset they have is the network effect. Which makes the balance of power between the tech company and the "1099 contractors" deeply suspicious. What are these companies doing for the laborers that makes them valuable enough to be skimming returns from the work?

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#17

Post by aestetix » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 5:34 PM UTC

socalnate1 wrote: post #14

aestetix wrote: post #11

If your company cannot afford to stay in the black with real employees (as opposed to contractors), you need to re-evaluate your business model. Edit: and the downvotes are rolling in! Would anyone who has downvoted this comment care to share why?

Err, they did. They is why they are shutting down.

I realize that. I'm simply pointing out that this is not the last time we'll see this kind of news.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#18

Post by sholanozie » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 5:34 PM UTC

fraXis wrote: post #7

I used Homejoy and I liked it's ease of use. But after the cleaning lady they sent me was done, she offered me her direct phone # and told me I could contact her directly for any future cleaning needs. I always wondered how this business model was going to work if Homejoy's contractors could just give out their phone # at the end of their first service and the customer could just contact them directly for any future…

I feel this way about AirBnB as well.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#19

Post by dragonwriter » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 5:35 PM UTC

acdha wrote: post #6

kevinkimball wrote: post #3

what happened?

I'm assuming it's related to the legal minefield of trying to avoid compensating their workers as employees: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/03/startup-workers-s...

That's probably part of it, but also, to the extent that they were bona fide contractors, the cost of actually policing them to prevent direct contracting with and referrals from the people they were matched with through Homejoy was probably a problem.

Contracts may theoretically restrict this behavior, but actually policing them is non-trivial.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#20

Post by jonlucc » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 5:35 PM UTC

fraXis wrote: post #7

I used Homejoy and I liked it's ease of use. But after the cleaning lady they sent me was done, she offered me her direct phone # and told me I could contact her directly for any future cleaning needs. I always wondered how this business model was going to work if Homejoy's contractors could just give out their phone # at the end of their first service and the customer could just contact them directly for any future…

I would wager that the answer is to provide some other value to the contractors, but I have no idea what that could be.