Homejoy says goodbye • Hacker News Board

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#51

Post by kayoone » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 5:41 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #16

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…

What does Apple or steam offer developers for their 30% cut ? customers and ultimately revenue to sustain themselves. An open marketplace has incredible value if its popular. Tech is the easy part of most startups.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#52

Post by arihant » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 5:41 PM UTC

Could they operate as small business and/or flip the company as a running small business? I imagine home cleaning is sort of loyalty space, where they must have a good number of regulars?

It's also interesting that they are managing a workforce of around a 1000 cleaners, and they burnt through $40 MM. That's the amount of seed Elon Musk needed for SpaceX.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#53

Post by dfar1 » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 5:42 PM UTC

jjarmoc wrote: post #34

When I hear about companies like this going under, I always think how odd it is that I've never previously heard about them. Then I realize, that may have been part of the problem.

I never heard of them either, but then again I never needed those kind of services.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#54

Post by reagency » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 5:42 PM UTC

pyrrhotech wrote: post #8

I really loved the idea, and maybe I'm just being cheap, but no way I was going to pay $250+ a month to have my 1296 sq ft house cleaned. That's a $150/month value at market rates in my area. $100/month for a bit of convenience was not worth it at all to me.

Is your market rate using legal taxpaying workers?

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#55

Post by anseljh » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 5:42 PM UTC

smt88 wrote: post #5

kevinkimball wrote: post #3

what happened?

Many stories about their problems, but here's one: http://fusion.net/story/142578/homejoy-uber-for-x-startups-m... And maybe the main one: http://recode.net/2015/07/17/cleaning-services-startup-homej...

Wow. Lots of doublespeak from the founder in the Re/code piece. While it's true that "The [California Labor Commission’s] Uber decision...was only a single claim", I'm not so sure it was "blown out of proportion." You could also see it as the tip of a big iceberg. Presumably, that's what the investors they were courting thought.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#56

Post by lesingerouge » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 5:42 PM UTC

acabrahams wrote: post #38

I never used the Homejoy service, but I was in the audience for the Startup School Europe talks last year where Adora gave a fantastic speech (Notes: http://theinflexion.com/blog/2014/07/26/notes-from-startup-s... ) about going through so many ideas and working so hard to get to Homejoy. The talk's ending had a 'And look, we made it, so you can too' feel, and I had no idea that they were doing anything but crushing i…

The question that comes to my mind is: should an entrepreneur really "fake it till you make it"?

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#57

Post by ivankirigin » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 5:42 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #40

ivankirigin wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting them more customers is incredibly valuable! I've heard this as a need from literally every service provider I've ever used. They relish referrals.

That depends. It's incredibly valuable if the provider retains those customers . But if the service is set up to fence off the customer relationship from the provider, that's a much harder argument to make!

It's complicated. If dealing with the service makes buying easier, it can grow the market.

I driver Uber more because it is easier to get a cab. They alone are already making more than the entire taxi industry in SF.

If anything, it seems Homejoy's problem is in making it too easy for their cleaners to find retained customers.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#58

Post by jimjamjim » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 5:43 PM UTC

ggreer wrote: post #42

jimjamjim wrote: post #27

As a former customer (have not used in years), I actually felt uncomfortable with the cleaners. Not because of anything they did, but because you could just tell they were low income and being paid very little by Homejoy (I think less than $15/hr). It didn't feel right, and I stopped using them in part because of that.

So then they didn't get paid and you didn't get a clean home? That seems like a loss for both parties. Also, Homejoy let you tip, with 100% of that money going to the cleaner(s). I usually gave the cleaners a 20% tip.

I would pay more for a professional cleaner. I have no idea what the experience level of the average Homejoy cleaner is but I had very mixed experiences when I used them.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#59

Post by ryandrake » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 5:43 PM UTC

jimjamjim wrote: post #27

As a former customer (have not used in years), I actually felt uncomfortable with the cleaners. Not because of anything they did, but because you could just tell they were low income and being paid very little by Homejoy (I think less than $15/hr). It didn't feel right, and I stopped using them in part because of that.

You felt uncomfortable that they made less than $15/hr and solved that by making sure they never got any business from you again?

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#60

Post by rorykoehler » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 5:43 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 ran the same business as Homejoy but on a smaller scale in Germany before stopping last year (for a variety of reasons that I won't go into here). What you mentioned is the main reason we focused on holiday lettings and B2B cleanings.