Homejoy says goodbye • Hacker News Board

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#31

Post by tortilla » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 5:37 PM UTC

ivankirigin wrote: post #25

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…

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.

Yes, more customers, but I don't know if the end result was more money?

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#32

Post by blake8086 » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 5:38 PM UTC

I actually just had my home cleaned yesterday through this service. I'll be sad to see it go =(

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#33

Post by blake8086 » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 5:38 PM UTC

I just had my home cleaned yesterday through this service. I'll be sad to see it go.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#34

Post by jjarmoc » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 5:38 PM UTC

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.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#35

Post by jwise0 » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 5:38 PM UTC

It looks like they have taken the Steve Miller Band approach [1] to users who are also creditors: http://blog.homejoy.com/faqs/ . Hope you didn't have a gift card!

[1] i.e., hoo hoo hoo, go on, take the money and run

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#36

Post by davemel37 » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 5:38 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…

There are ways to solve this, like stored value. http://platformed.info/network-effects/

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#37

Post by reagency » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 5:38 PM UTC

ivankirigin wrote: post #25

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…

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.

Only if the customer base is growing. Otherwise, it is just taking revenue from another provider.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#38

Post by acabrahams » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 5:38 PM UTC

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 it after all those years of grinding work.

Its hard not to be disheartened when a pair who seem to have worked as hard as they have still don't make it with an idea. I just hope they keep going.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#39

Post by devy » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 5:39 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...

If Uber have had defend their case and employee classification, perhaps HomeJoy may get their next round of funding and not have to close...but year, the timing sucks.

Re: Homejoy says goodbye

#40

Post by tptacek » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 5:39 PM UTC

ivankirigin wrote: post #25

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…

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!