Local services are the penny auctions of the VC industry. Since your margins are so dependent on achieving scale, there's a strong push to win customers at any

Local services are the penny auctions of the VC industry. Since your margins are so dependent on achieving scale, there's a strong push to win customers at any possible cost. Each VC is forced to dump in increasing amounts of money due to sunk cost fallacy for a fixed prize at the end of the rainbow. At the end of the day, the prize won isn't worth the collective investment and the entire industry represents a net subsidy to the consumer in the form of discounted services and referral bonuses. It's one of the few things that make living in San Francisco bearable as it tends to be ground zero for these kind of gigantic customer acquisition battles.