371–380 of 410 posts
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The real question to ask in this case is whether those regulations should be there in the first place.
If that was the question, then these companies would be lobbying to get rid of those regulations. Far too many of them see their ignoring of regulations to be a competitive edge.
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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've never felt like car dealerships being independently owned was a useful benefit Eh, it was useful for car manufacturers when they were first getting going: they didn't have to put up the capital to open shop. The regulation came in when a dealership showed that a given region had high demand for the company's cars, so the company would move in across the street and undercut the franchised dealer. Obviously the…
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> There is a significant consumer safety element to the way Taxis are regulated. Whatever those safety elements are, I've certainly never experienced them. Theoretically they're there, I guess, but my (admittedly anecdotal) experience has been that Uber is safer in every way than taxis are.
Well, I'd say they're twofold: * Obviously, whether the guy is going to try and kidnap you. Well, Uber has rating, but the background checks are pretty flimsy. Still, I'll concede that it may well be just as good. * The second thing affects non-customers and it's ensuring the roads aren't congesting with a glut of taxis driving around looking for fares all day (with all the attendant problems that causes). While the…
Ever hear of this thing called supply and demand?
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> 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 poin…
>>That's called a gross margin and it's incredibly low. I've wondered this about every single XX-as-a-service startup. I've heard Uber is 20%, but the overhead to manage a ride-sharing service that is doing tens of thousands of dollars a day in a medium-sized city is significantly less than what is required for other XX-as-a-service startups. The only other sector I can think of where the economics even come remotely…
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Do you schedule the customers close by to minimize travel time for your lawn care guys? I know cleaners that drive across town to jobs, effectively losing money while they're stuck in traffic. I don't know if Homejoy did that. To incentivize that, you could offer discounts for neighbors who use the service together. If Homejoy had a bunch of apartments in one location, then cleaners would make more money per day.
Yep, that's one of our primary value props. Once we reach critical mass in a market we're able to do job clustering and route optimization. More jobs per day + less time spent burning fuel sitting behind a steering wheel means much better economics for our lawn pros.
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Sorry, you can learn from other's failures just like you can their successes... and maybe their big success comes in a few years.
Of course! That's why I explicitly said everyone has their wisdom to share. Nevertheless, we all must pan our knowledge in some form or another.
http://recode.net/2015/07/17/google-hires-homejoys-technical...
Perhaps that success is coming sooner than even I had anticipated.
I had horrible experiences with their service, and I believe that multiple factors contributed to this shutdown, but I can't shake that quote from someone being paid a quarter million dollars a year by homejoy.
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I feel this way about AirBnB as well.
AirBnB goes to a lot of lengths to make sure you at least have to book through them the first time. They filter out phone numbers and email addresses in messaging, even if you try and get clever (like spelling out phone numbers).
555-123-1234 would become
"55512
part 2
31234"
I've done this to get around the issue when trying to get in touch with the property owner.
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…
Recurring business is really tough when you're effective just introducing customers to other businesses. Thumbtack handles this by not even addressing the recurring aspect, and focusing on getting good introductions. Recurring revenue is great, but how does a matchmaking service continue to provide value once a good fit had been found?