5 ms·

>Reducing the friction of finding a lawn care company to maintain your lawn for the customer and for the lawn care company What's the ongoing value? You find

>Reducing the friction of finding a lawn care company to maintain your lawn for the customer and for the lawn care company What's the ongoing value? You find a lawn-mower or dog-walker you like, and cut out the middleman by paying them directly. Everyone wins (except your startup).

vel0city 7y ago
What's the ongoing value of a site like Monster or Indeed? Or a cleaning service? There could be some amount of turn-over in these markets, or it could be something where almost all participants in the market only form long relationships. If there's high turnover, there's a decent market to be made being the matchmaker. Maybe not a >$300M market to be made, but there's probably some value in it.
- TeMPOraL 7y ago
  > What's the ongoing value of a site like Monster or Indeed? They facilitate one-off transactions. > Or a cleaning service? It's a B2B version of hiring a cleaner, that's less risky and that has a feature useful for the hiring company in that the transaction is legal. Neither of these are similar to recurring individual-to-individual services that may or may not be above board wrt. the IRS.
chii 7y ago
> You find a lawn-mower or dog-walker you like, and cut out the middleman by paying them directly and how do you know someone else is willing to walk/mow for cheaper once you start paying them directly? How do you solve disputes, like no-shows, and payment legislations (like GST/VAT etc)? The platform reduces friction - that's not false. Whether the platform is worth it to reduce that friction is another matter. Esp. for low cost things like dog walking. The value generated by reducing friction must be big enough, relative to the cost of the thing.
petra 7y ago
//What's the ongoing value? You find a lawn-mower or dog-walker you like, and cut out the middleman by paying them directly. There are contracts involved.More than 50% of people prefer not to mess with that stuff. That's a big market.
- catalogia 6y ago
  Contracts... for dog walking? Here is the contract: "I give you a $20 bill and you walk the dog, deal? Let's shake on it." That's how it worked for dog walking and lawn work when I was doing it as a teenager. No lawyers, no paperwork, no signatures, nothing needed to get notarized. No bullshit. KISS principle in action.
  - cruano 6y ago
    I think he means an "If you do a side-deal we kick you off our platform" type of thing, referring to cutting out the middle man

vel0city 7y ago

What's the ongoing value of a site like Monster or Indeed? Or a cleaning service? There could be some amount of turn-over in these markets, or it could be something where almost all participants in the market only form long relationships. If there's high turnover, there's a decent market to be made being the matchmaker. Maybe not a >$300M market to be made, but there's probably some value in it.

TeMPOraL 7y ago
> What's the ongoing value of a site like Monster or Indeed? They facilitate one-off transactions. > Or a cleaning service? It's a B2B version of hiring a cleaner, that's less risky and that has a feature useful for the hiring company in that the transaction is legal. Neither of these are similar to recurring individual-to-individual services that may or may not be above board wrt. the IRS.

chii 7y ago

> You find a lawn-mower or dog-walker you like, and cut out the middleman by paying them directly and how do you know someone else is willing to walk/mow for cheaper once you start paying them directly? How do you solve disputes, like no-shows, and payment legislations (like GST/VAT etc)? The platform reduces friction - that's not false. Whether the platform is worth it to reduce that friction is another matter. Esp. for low cost things like dog walking. The value generated by reducing friction must be big enough, relative to the cost of the thing.

petra 7y ago

//What's the ongoing value? You find a lawn-mower or dog-walker you like, and cut out the middleman by paying them directly. There are contracts involved.More than 50% of people prefer not to mess with that stuff. That's a big market.

catalogia 6y ago
Contracts... for dog walking? Here is the contract: "I give you a $20 bill and you walk the dog, deal? Let's shake on it." That's how it worked for dog walking and lawn work when I was doing it as a teenager. No lawyers, no paperwork, no signatures, nothing needed to get notarized. No bullshit. KISS principle in action.
- cruano 6y ago
  I think he means an "If you do a side-deal we kick you off our platform" type of thing, referring to cutting out the middle man