4 ms·

Everyone is assuming that the founders sold the company data to Fly Maids, a brand-new company nobody has ever heard of before. It's also possible one of the f

Everyone is assuming that the founders sold the company data to Fly Maids, a brand-new company nobody has ever heard of before. It's also possible one of the founders just spun up the new service themselves and copied over all of the customer records. If so, they may want to prepare to be sued by their previous investors. It's one thing to fail after giving it the good ol' college try, but it's another entirely to strip the copper out of the walls on your way out. Speculation aside, they should put out a statement to clarify the relationship between the companies and what's going on with their customers' data.

kornish 11y ago
That was my first assumption as well - that one of the founders was continuing to work with the same idea under a different brand. Whoever it was, they clearly capitalized on the market opening left in Homejoy's wake. A quick whois flymaids.com yields Domain Name: flymaids.com Registry Domain ID: 1966895891_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.godaddy.com Registrar URL: http://www.godaddy.com Update Date: 2015-10-08T04:34:58Z Creation Date: 2015-10-08T04:34:58Z Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2016-10-08T04:34:58Z Registrar: GoDaddy.com, LLC Registrar IANA ID: 146 Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@godaddy.com ... Registrant Organization: Domains By Proxy, LLC ... The site was only created in the last 3 weeks, and it was registered by someone who wanted to stay anonymous (which is, in fairness, very reasonable - Homejoy cofounder or not. Certainly not enough to draw a conclusion).
- wlesieutre 11y ago
  Domain registrars often include a year of "whoisguard" (namecheap's brand for it) or similar with new domain registrations. I'm never too surprised by that until it's been over a year. Or is Domains By Proxy a more significant anonymity system?
  - bduerst 11y ago
    They're all pretty much the same - just who is controlling it. Domains by Proxy is GoDaddy's version.
mc32 11y ago
As part of winding down they could have sold off their data to an interested party, not different from a merger, and they further could have hired some of the old team. If someone just copied the db and then sold or gave it on the sly, investors of former unaware, then, yes, problematic. But if it was a transaction approved by the principals of the former, unfortunately, there aren't stipulations about commutability of customer data, are there?
- austenallred 11y ago
  They could have actually sold the entire company, so this is just a new skin on top of the old software.
JoblessWonder 11y ago
Well, according to their Privacy Policy you can just shoot them an e-mail: > You may contact us as follows: support@flymaids.com.com Oh wait.... [Bonus points for saying they are incorporated in Delaware who has no record of a business by that name.] *Edit- See below, I searched the company name on the Delaware website two different ways and they certainly do not have an active registration or even a name reservation.
- austenallred 11y ago
  Every startup is incorporated in Delaware, not always as the name they call themselves.
  - JoblessWonder 11y ago
    Except they gave me the name to look up[1]: "In the USA/rest of the world (excluding the European Union), we are Fly Maids, Inc. (doing business as Fly Maids), a Delaware corporation with our head office at 2711 Centerville Road, Suite 400, Wilmington, New Castle County, Delaware 19808." Trust me, it isn't there. I tried both the regular lookup and just a simple name reservation in case the paperwork hadn't gone through yet. No results for either. [1] http://www.flymaids.com/privacy http://www.flymaids.com/privacy
    - will_brown 11y ago
      Not incorporated in Delaware (as represented) nor are they qualified to do business in CA (where they are, presumably, physically located)...Probably not the company you want coordinating strangers into your home, though something tells me this is par for the SV course. You know move fast and break things, or beg forgiveness rather than ask permission. However, my advice owners/operators, they might wish to consult a lawyer to explain the basics of personal liability and benefits of corporate protections...
      - JoblessWonder 11y ago
        Oh yeah, totally forgot about the part that they were trying to do business in Los Angeles...
bby 11y ago
homejoy barely gave it a college try. more like high school try

kornish 11y ago

That was my first assumption as well - that one of the founders was continuing to work with the same idea under a different brand. Whoever it was, they clearly capitalized on the market opening left in Homejoy's wake. A quick whois flymaids.com yields Domain Name: flymaids.com Registry Domain ID: 1966895891_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.godaddy.com Registrar URL: http://www.godaddy.com Update Date: 2015-10-08T04:34:58Z Creation Date: 2015-10-08T04:34:58Z Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2016-10-08T04:34:58Z Registrar: GoDaddy.com, LLC Registrar IANA ID: 146 Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@godaddy.com ... Registrant Organization: Domains By Proxy, LLC ... The site was only created in the last 3 weeks, and it was registered by someone who wanted to stay anonymous (which is, in fairness, very reasonable - Homejoy cofounder or not. Certainly not enough to draw a conclusion).

wlesieutre 11y ago
Domain registrars often include a year of "whoisguard" (namecheap's brand for it) or similar with new domain registrations. I'm never too surprised by that until it's been over a year. Or is Domains By Proxy a more significant anonymity system?
- bduerst 11y ago
  They're all pretty much the same - just who is controlling it. Domains by Proxy is GoDaddy's version.

mc32 11y ago

As part of winding down they could have sold off their data to an interested party, not different from a merger, and they further could have hired some of the old team. If someone just copied the db and then sold or gave it on the sly, investors of former unaware, then, yes, problematic. But if it was a transaction approved by the principals of the former, unfortunately, there aren't stipulations about commutability of customer data, are there?

austenallred 11y ago
They could have actually sold the entire company, so this is just a new skin on top of the old software.

JoblessWonder 11y ago

Well, according to their Privacy Policy you can just shoot them an e-mail: > You may contact us as follows: support@flymaids.com.com Oh wait.... [Bonus points for saying they are incorporated in Delaware who has no record of a business by that name.] *Edit- See below, I searched the company name on the Delaware website two different ways and they certainly do not have an active registration or even a name reservation.

austenallred 11y ago
Every startup is incorporated in Delaware, not always as the name they call themselves.
- JoblessWonder 11y ago
  Except they gave me the name to look up[1]: "In the USA/rest of the world (excluding the European Union), we are Fly Maids, Inc. (doing business as Fly Maids), a Delaware corporation with our head office at 2711 Centerville Road, Suite 400, Wilmington, New Castle County, Delaware 19808." Trust me, it isn't there. I tried both the regular lookup and just a simple name reservation in case the paperwork hadn't gone through yet. No results for either. [1] http://www.flymaids.com/privacy http://www.flymaids.com/privacy
  - will_brown 11y ago
    Not incorporated in Delaware (as represented) nor are they qualified to do business in CA (where they are, presumably, physically located)...Probably not the company you want coordinating strangers into your home, though something tells me this is par for the SV course. You know move fast and break things, or beg forgiveness rather than ask permission. However, my advice owners/operators, they might wish to consult a lawyer to explain the basics of personal liability and benefits of corporate protections...
    - JoblessWonder 11y ago
      Oh yeah, totally forgot about the part that they were trying to do business in Los Angeles...

bby 11y ago

homejoy barely gave it a college try. more like high school try