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Houzz raising $400M at $4B valuation
71–80 of 80 posts
Re: Houzz raising $400M at $4B valuation
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Imagine if users were frustrated that after listening to the music clips, it was not easy to "source the brand of guitars or drums". Well, most soundcloud music is uploaded by musicians and not music gear manufacturers. This analogy does not hold because nearly any musician will jump to the opportunity of sharing their gear and setup. It was pieced together passionately over a decade, after all; the proud basis of…
>This analogy does not hold because nearly any musician will jump to the opportunity of sharing their gear and setup. They'll share info on music gear forums[1] but not on Soundcloud. One could visit 10 rappers' soundcloud page and leave a comment asking "what microphone did you use for your rap vocals?" and you usually won't get a reply. That's normal. A lot of musicians upload their music but don't engage with the…
This is a decent analogy, but maybe the difference is that someone in the market for music gear doesn't expect SoundCloud to help them buy it (they know they need a music shop instead); someone in the market for house stuff does expect Houzz to help them buy it (it's not obvious what the deal is).
Or simply that many SoundCloud listeners aren't themselves looking to buy gear / make music; many Houzz users are indeed looking to DIY.
Re: Houzz raising $400M at $4B valuation
#73I've always thought of Houzz as the perfect example of a site that would be ten times better with my startup's technology -- as an example, here's a comparison of Houzz's UX vs. my UX on the same image: https://youtu.be/6kOCIkJ-5vY
As a text description of what it does, PLEENQ[1] allows individual objects within images to highlight when you hover them, and directly link to the object (in this case, kithen products). Here's a much better demo version of PLEENQ's technology: https://youtu.be/tf4pE0xtYTo
Before these white rectangles over the images, they used to have "price tags" that you could hover over, but the UX was all wonky, since the price tag triggered a popup which prevented you from seeing/hovering over other price tags.
I'll probably add a feature for my users like the product options they have below the images, though -- I like that a lot!
Re: Houzz raising $400M at $4B valuation
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
>This analogy does not hold because nearly any musician will jump to the opportunity of sharing their gear and setup. They'll share info on music gear forums[1] but not on Soundcloud. One could visit 10 rappers' soundcloud page and leave a comment asking "what microphone did you use for your rap vocals?" and you usually won't get a reply. That's normal. A lot of musicians upload their music but don't engage with the…
This is a decent analogy, but maybe the difference is that someone in the market for music gear doesn't expect SoundCloud to help them buy it (they know they need a music shop instead); someone in the market for house stuff does expect Houzz to help them buy it (it's not obvious what the deal is). Or simply that many SoundCloud listeners aren't themselves looking to buy gear / make music; many Houzz users are indeed…
>; someone in the market for house stuff does expect Houzz to help them buy it (it's not obvious what the deal is). [...] ; many Houzz users are indeed looking to DIY.
Yes, you're right. The user-interface to Houzz website does not make the "professional marketplace" distinction obvious.
Houzz does get revenue from both product companies like IKEA furniture, and Viking and LG appliances, etc. They also get revenue from professional contractors to show up in listings when people search photos for "ideas".
Yes, it's not obvious that 99% of the idea photos that people bookmark into their ideabooks come from professionals to advertise their "services" and not product manufacturers to sell "stuff".
Re: Houzz raising $400M at $4B valuation
#75I've always thought of Houzz as the perfect example of a site that would be ten times better with my startup's technology -- as an example, here's a comparison of Houzz's UX vs. my UX on the same image: https://youtu.be/6kOCIkJ-5vY As a text description of what it does, PLEENQ[1] allows individual objects within images to highlight when you hover them, and directly link to the object (in this case, kithen products).…
Client-side image maps have been around since HMTL 3.2 (~20 years). What's special about your tech?
Re: Houzz raising $400M at $4B valuation
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wow I'm sorry to hear this. I am not applying anymore thanks for saving me time.
A testimony from some random internet stranger tilts your judgement of such a huge life decision as a career change? How can you be sure my story is accurate? For all you know I might have given them the wrong number or some other error on my part.
Originally I was being sarcastic, but aren't you also a stranger? We are all strangers. The fact that his response was gray doesn't make him more of a stranger than you not being gray. Perhaps they made an account to voice his opinion?
Re: Houzz raising $400M at $4B valuation
#77Houzz is one of a few bigger unicorns that I actually believe has a chance in the long run. First of all, it doesn't depend on being sexy or trendy like a social network, so there's no reason why the business will fail eventually. People almost certainly won't be using Snapchat in 50 years, but they will be buying houses. Additionally, houses are an absolutely massive market. Housing is the largest expense of most pe…
Holy shit, this. If I could get a contractor or a remodeling project like I would an Uber, with a reputation and history system, I'd choose it in a heartbeat, even at a premium. I wonder how they deal with people bypassing the system to avoid their fees (e.g. AirBnb).
Try thumbtack.com or Home Advisor.
Re: Houzz raising $400M at $4B valuation
#78Houzz is interesting because all the photos are of homes with limitless budgets. So you have to set your expectations of your remodel, or just enjoy dreaming big if that's your cup of tea. They're all gorgeous though and they do an amazing job of classifying them. A+ Filters! Still, I find their professional market section to be a extremely frustrating and they will need to figure out how to scale that down market if…
>Houzz is interesting because all the photos are of homes with limitless budgets. I don't think this is true. There are tons of Ikea kitchens in Houzz. We got a lot of inspiration from Houzz when renovating our apartment. I really like that it has a mix of high-end and Ikea, because many times those high-end ideas can be implemented with cheaper alternatives.
I don't really think IKEA cabinets are that much cheaper if you factor in all the other costs.
Re: Houzz raising $400M at $4B valuation
#79Houzz is one of a few bigger unicorns that I actually believe has a chance in the long run. First of all, it doesn't depend on being sexy or trendy like a social network, so there's no reason why the business will fail eventually. People almost certainly won't be using Snapchat in 50 years, but they will be buying houses. Additionally, houses are an absolutely massive market. Housing is the largest expense of most pe…
Holy shit, this. If I could get a contractor or a remodeling project like I would an Uber, with a reputation and history system, I'd choose it in a heartbeat, even at a premium. I wonder how they deal with people bypassing the system to avoid their fees (e.g. AirBnb).
You've just described buildzoom.com exactly. Check them out.
Re: Houzz raising $400M at $4B valuation
#80Huh. I just realized I didn't really know what Houzz was. Not even sure if I still do. As an interior design enthusiast, I come across Houzz all the time. It's one of my least favourite sites in that regard, after Pinterest. The problem for me is that it mostly serves to obscure. It's full of pictures of furniture and other design objects that are usually impossible to source -- just like Pinterest, which itself is o…
>It's full of pictures of furniture and other design objects that are usually impossible to source -- just like Pinterest, [...] It's so hard to source design. I get your frustration but keep in mind that you're running up against the intended ethos of the Houzz website. - Pinterest photos are mostly about "things" and a social network of sharing "collections". - Houzz design photos are about "professionals" -- even…
Houzz from the start was a photo tagging platform. People upload photos and then presumably other people around the world help source the products in the photos. It was always meant to be that from day 1 as it's even in their company about page.
The fact that professionals also use it in new and different ways, to showcase their work, doesn't hold to your Soundcloud analogy.