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Homejoy says goodbye

blog.homejoy.com

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Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#281

Post by mbesto »

jclune wrote: post #268

I run a company similar to HomeJoy in Japan, and I disagree with most comments here. 1. Those who claim cleaning is not a "skilled job" should get off their keyboard, spend a day cleaning their moms house, and get back to me when they learn they are 3X slower than a pro and destroyed something with bleach-based spray. 2. It feels like nobody here actually read Adora Cheung's quotes about multiple lawsuits coinciding…

> Those who claim cleaning is not a "skilled job" should get off their keyboard

The term "unskilled", which is commonly used to reference these types of workers, is an economic term used to distinguished types of workers by characteristics like low education levels, minimum wages, and limited economic value. The skill you are talking about is called quality assurance and customer service, which as you rightfully point out is "skilled". Finding unskilled laborers who also possess those talents are incredibly difficult to not only find but also train.

> Those who claim flaws in matching business model are to blame are making non-quantitative assumptions

Here's a really easy quantitative assumption. Go on Craigslist and get quotes for similar services direct from the workers themselves, then compare it against Homejoy. That's called a gross margin and it's incredibly low. That's an inherent flaw.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#282

Post by mahyarm »

_ea1k wrote: post #209
austenallred wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disregarding the competitive aspect, it's absurd to me that people praise banning Uber and Tesla for the "consumer safety" of taxis and car dealerships.

There is a significant consumer safety element to the way Taxis are regulated. The fact that this is used to protect a monopoly is a separate issue and I agree that it is a real problem. The Tesla analogy is perfect, though. I've never felt like car dealerships being independently owned was a useful benefit. I don't see any reason why both models can't coexist.

I think taxi regulations are there to deal with a world way before mobile computing. The regulations addressed at it's heart an information asymmetry between taxi drivers and riders, especially with tourists.

With current ride sharing apps, a lot of that goes away. You don't worry about tampered meters and being driven the long way around, because the trip is GPS tracked on both sides for example. You don't have to worry about getting in a random car in a city with a complete stranger, because reputation systems have pre-vetted your drivers and your driver's cars. a If taxi drivers get angry at you for using credit cards or for short trips, you can complain to a central agency that will deal with it. In developing (and some developed) nations, these ride sharing apps have a better safety margin than the local regulations do. Inefficient systems like taxi lineups at airports are not necessary anymore.

The international nature of these ride sharing apps also give you a universal set of rules as you travel, and make it you can communicate your destination without being able to speak the language. The advantages go on and on. The companies making and creating these things don't really matter, but the general app really does and we shouldn't smother them with regulations.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#283

Post by pbreit »

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 agree that match-making is the more correct model for house cleaning. But there are certainly ways to minimize what you describe. The threat of dismissal, for one.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#284

Post by icelancer »

dragonwriter wrote: post #103
icelancer wrote: post #13

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.

> Too bad, this type of service has a lot of value to busy professionals and people with families. Housecleaning service has a lot of value to professionals and people with families, to be sure. But that service existed long before Homejoy, exists in more places than Homejoy ever served, and was served by plenty of providers not working through Homejoy even where Homejoy provided services. I'm less convinced that Hom…

I only started using housecleaning when Homejoy came around. The ease of use of the platform was a significant value-add. Also the price.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#285

Post by throwaway239842 »

jclune wrote: post #268

I run a company similar to HomeJoy in Japan, and I disagree with most comments here. 1. Those who claim cleaning is not a "skilled job" should get off their keyboard, spend a day cleaning their moms house, and get back to me when they learn they are 3X slower than a pro and destroyed something with bleach-based spray. 2. It feels like nobody here actually read Adora Cheung's quotes about multiple lawsuits coinciding…

>Just ask yourself, how high of a percentage of users sharing direct phone # would cause a growing company to collapse?

The problem isn't that going direct decimates your customer base, it's that it takes your absolute best cleaners out of your system, so that you're sending a lower-quality experience to your customers.

I'm not sure that Japan and the United States are comparable here... the pride taken in one's work, and the overall level of customer service, are astronomical in Japan, it nearly made me physically dizzy to see. Both your cleaners and your customers are hard to compare to their US equivalents.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#286

Post by orthoganol »

jclune wrote: post #268

I run a company similar to HomeJoy in Japan, and I disagree with most comments here. 1. Those who claim cleaning is not a "skilled job" should get off their keyboard, spend a day cleaning their moms house, and get back to me when they learn they are 3X slower than a pro and destroyed something with bleach-based spray. 2. It feels like nobody here actually read Adora Cheung's quotes about multiple lawsuits coinciding…

There is a skill to cleaning, but from my experience the Homejoy people were nothing special. Both times, they were basically kids, didn't do anything beyond what I would have done, one broke a plate, the other failed to clean my dirty hardwood floors (he just spread the dirt around). And it was expensive. I figured at that point Homejoy was probably limiting their market to oblivious wealthy people.

Seeing as Tokyo apartments are freakin' tiny, you could probably get the price down to make it more mainstream palatable.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#287

Post by thatusertwo »

mycroft-holmes wrote: post #191
seizethecheese wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely, however another "advantage" of many "sharing economy" companies is that they skirt regulations that incumbents must adhere to.

The real question to ask in this case is whether those regulations should be there in the first place.

Regulations exist for a reason, some maybe old or irrelevant but they all evolved in response to the industries they regulate.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#288

Post by pbreit »

brianmcconnell wrote: post #71
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…

A prediction about "sharing economy" companies. Almost all of them are tacking on a thin rind of web/mobile UI and smart dispatch technology to an existing service. The long-term winners will be companies like Flywheel that recognize this and focus on providing that service to existing operators, much like payment processors. This, of course, is perceived as a smaller market since they can't count revenue the same wa…

Nope. The Uber/Lyft experience is so far superior, for both drivers and riders, that it is the obvious eventual winner. How drivers are employed/compensated is a mere technicality. Uber could pay some drivers minimum wage + benefits and probably make even more money.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#289

Post by onewaystreet »

ceejayoz wrote: post #230
onewaystreet wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Uber "pops" it will be because the ride sharing industry died. There is no scenario where Uber becomes MySpace to a competitor.

> There is no scenario where Uber becomes MySpace to a competitor. Sure there is - the IRS says their drivers are employees and they need to provide multiple years worth of backpay/benefits. Any competitor that's been doing that already wins.

It's debatable whether the ride sharing industry can survive if drivers are classified as employees (which is why Uber and others are working on self-driving cars).

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#290

Post by pbreit »

brianmcconnell wrote: post #217
mycroft-holmes wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real question to ask in this case is whether those regulations should be there in the first place.

In the case of using the "independent contractor" loophole to avoid paying UI, social sec tax, minimum wage, etc, it's an issue of making sure everyone plays by the same rules. Operators who abide by these rules should not be punished for doing so.

I can't wait until Uber starts scheduling drivers at min wage plus bennies and makes even more money.
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