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Homejoy says goodbye

blog.homejoy.com

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Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#151

Post by Retra »

lesingerouge wrote: post #56
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"?

That's really just another way of advocating practice.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#152

Post by markonthewall »

jasonwilk wrote: post #129

I wanted HomeJoy to work and tried to use the service a few times. What the failure came down to: 1. The cleaners were not professionals. It felt like they were just recruiting anyone who wanted a job. You could really feel this with the lack of passion from the cleaners and the severe lack of quality cleaning. Most of the people complained and were quite rude sometimes. Cleaning is very much a skill as much as it is…

> the lack of passion from the cleaners

I doubt cleaning other people's shit is anyone's passion.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#153

Post by psadri »

austenallred wrote: post #143
brianmcconnell wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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. I don't think this creates a very big moat - that's essentially what Uber started out as (dispatch for private driving companies that already existed); they started letting anyone drive in order to meet demand. If all the services are interchangable (and…

Uber is different than Homejoy.

You would use the same house cleaning professional over and over again but you will likely never ride with the same Uber driver again. This means that the Homejoy house cleaner can bypass Homejoy but the Uber drivers/users can't do without it.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#154

Post by moommooo »

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?

The labor force participation rate is at its lowest level in 40 years. When companies like Homejoy come in and make it easy for people to pick up gig work, they are making real and substantial contributions to human welfare.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#155

Post by toomuchtodo »

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…

Hey Thomas!

While a bit off topic, I was really happy to see this sort of comment from you. I'd love to buy you a coffee or beer in Chicago sometime.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#156

Post by joslin01 »

mixmastamyk wrote: post #126
callmeed wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So we should watch a video about "how to go from zero users to many users" from someone who did it by selling services at a loss and then going out of business?

Failure is the path to success, no?

Yes, but that doesn't mean you should exactly seek out the advice of those who haven't conquered the failures and reached the end of the road of "success". Everyone has their own wisdom to offer, but I would agree with the parent, there's more notable persons to learn from and I personally feel most comfortable with someone who has BOTH failed & succeeded.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#157

Post by jaxomlotus »

lesingerouge wrote: post #56
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"?

Yes. Especially in a game where you are dependent on raising capital, you always need to have an air of confidence about you.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#158

Post by joslin01 »

markonthewall wrote: post #152
jasonwilk wrote: post #129

I wanted HomeJoy to work and tried to use the service a few times. What the failure came down to: 1. The cleaners were not professionals. It felt like they were just recruiting anyone who wanted a job. You could really feel this with the lack of passion from the cleaners and the severe lack of quality cleaning. Most of the people complained and were quite rude sometimes. Cleaning is very much a skill as much as it is…

> the lack of passion from the cleaners I doubt cleaning other people's shit is anyone's passion.

Just as much as I doubt checking me out in a check-out line is anyone's idea of "passion", but it's still rude and unprofessional to not show me courtesy. You don't get a moral blank-check just because you don't like your job.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#159

Post by jonknee »

markonthewall wrote: post #152
jasonwilk wrote: post #129

I wanted HomeJoy to work and tried to use the service a few times. What the failure came down to: 1. The cleaners were not professionals. It felt like they were just recruiting anyone who wanted a job. You could really feel this with the lack of passion from the cleaners and the severe lack of quality cleaning. Most of the people complained and were quite rude sometimes. Cleaning is very much a skill as much as it is…

> the lack of passion from the cleaners I doubt cleaning other people's shit is anyone's passion.

People can take pride in all sorts of work.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#160

Post by seizethecheese »

frandroid wrote: post #140
seizethecheese wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't argue that driving is unskilled, but cleaning is certainly a skill. I've gone through several services for house cleaning in the last few years and the quality of service varies dramatically. > The only skill required is attention to detail and caring enough to do a good job. Thought experiment: imagine yourself cleaning 100 houses professionally for two hours. My bet is that the last house would be 2X - 3X m…

There is no house-cleaning college. This is what "skilled labour" refers to. Driving and house-cleaning is not skilled labour.

The poster I am responding to is clearly referring to "skilled labor" in the colloquial sense, as in a worker for whom adequate performance requires more skill than a lay-person.
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