8 ms·

Exec (YC W12) launches cleaning service in 4 new markets around the U.S.

30 points by justin 14y ago

timjahn 14y ago
Says they include Chicago but apparently that means downtown only, as they claim they have nothing for my zip and I'm on the northwest side.
- danielkan 14y ago
  What zipcode? I can check and see if we have included it.
  - timjahn 14y ago
    60656.
    - danielkan 14y ago
      Hey Tim, sorry about that. You're right, unfortunately we don't have teams out that far yet. Will definitely let you know when we do though. Sorry again for the trouble here.
      - timjahn 14y ago
        "that far yet" This is exactly what I mean. "Chicago" can mean very different things to people who live in Chicago and Chicagoland. Chicago to me means 1) the city of Chicago (which I live in) and 2) Chicagoland (which actually encompasses about a 60 mile radius of downtown Chicago, including suburbs all the way up to the Wisconsin border, down to the Indiana border, and far west of the city proper). Telling me you launched in "Chicago" and then telling me that you don't have anybody a mere 12 miles from the proper center point of downtown Chicago is a bit misleading in my eyes.
- loganfrederick 14y ago
  To provide anecdotal support, I live on the northwest side of Chicago (Zip: 60647) and they did have results. Not a lot, but some opening dates for the next few weeks.
  - timjahn 14y ago
    Ah, that's comforting. So many times these types of services launch in X city and really, they mean just the 10 square blocks of downtown in X city.
bradleyjg 14y ago
They say NYC, but they don't cover my zip code in Queens. Manhattan south of 96th street + trendy Brooklyn != New York City
- timjahn 14y ago
  Same with Chicago. I live a whopping 12 miles from the center of downtown, IN the city of Chicago, and they told me they don't have people out "that far" yet.
alttab 14y ago
I fail to see the draw here, maybe someone can explain it to me. Generally, Exec is building a match making and scheduling service. They are taking cleaners/maids (which it sounds like they dont employ directly?) and matching them up with people who want to clean your house. Its like craigslist personals for maid services, with a fee off the top to wet Exec's beak. First off, a clean apartment at the end of the day is a clean apartment. Meaning, they can't really charge more than the rest of the maid industry. So that sets an upper bound on price. Then, maids aren't going to work for dogshit simply because the appointment was made online - so theres a lower bound to what you can pay a good maid. The software supposedly automates the match making, scheduling, and coordinating (billing, etc), which really just helps increase the margins on what is otherwise a national cleaning service. Now, it seems like the Exec execs and investors believe that "once they have it figured out" they can essentially add a city for free with minimal additional capital expense and almost no operational expense. Yay! Sounds like we have a national brand with crazy margins! If we just get 1% of the maid industry we will be set! Problem is, those "margins" only pay off if you get the business. Unless the maids do a better job, or dance for you, there's a good chance if you have a maid service already scheduled there's little incentive to take the risk to try a new service. For Exec, if the cleaning service is the same (the innovation doesn't seem to be advertised as the cleaning aspect of the service) the only other value proposition for the business is ease of scheduling a cleaning visit (anyone can build a "reserve now!" function on their maid service company website), or price. Considering the first anyone can do, the second starts to eat into those investor-attracting margins. The only way to not budge on the margins is to build a brand, which takes a lot of money. Who cares if your margins are 20% higher than industry average when you are burning all that money into acquiring customers? Unless the business has a clear acquisition strategy, I can't see this business being competitive in enough ways that matter to the customer for their "technology" to be worth the headlines. Right now, it looks like their value prop is the automation of making a cleaning appointment. Unless that appointment can be made 10 minutes in advance and done perfectly by robots I don't see the competitive advantage. Maybe they have IP that is worth licensing to any maid service that would want to lower the operational expenses of managing a fleet of cleaning teams and inbound requests. That said, I can't envision a novel solution to this "problem" that is worth protecting with IP that another team couldn't solve differently. To me, Exec seems like a fancy cleaning service that touts online reservations in a market already defined by what people are willing to pay for service and what price maids are willing to accept for their work. Since they don't control their margins, any race to the bottom on price better be made up with Amazon-scale sales volume. Which gets us to the crux of the point - I'm not sure that maid service logistics is the same type of problem as ordering goods ala Amazon. You can't build a business by pretending you can order maids online like you can a DVD.
superchink 14y ago
In Los Angeles, their rate is right about 200% of what I pay today to clean a 2 bed/2 bath. I'd really want to try this, but it's tough to justify THAT much of an increase. Edit: Maybe that's why there is a 200% guarantee? Oh, and I notice there are two people, not one, but ultimately if the end product is the same…?

30 points by justin 14y ago

Says they include Chicago but apparently that means downtown only, as they claim they have nothing for my zip and I'm on the northwest side.

danielkan 14y ago
What zipcode? I can check and see if we have included it.
- timjahn 14y ago
  60656.
  - danielkan 14y ago
    Hey Tim, sorry about that. You're right, unfortunately we don't have teams out that far yet. Will definitely let you know when we do though. Sorry again for the trouble here.
    - timjahn 14y ago
      "that far yet" This is exactly what I mean. "Chicago" can mean very different things to people who live in Chicago and Chicagoland. Chicago to me means 1) the city of Chicago (which I live in) and 2) Chicagoland (which actually encompasses about a 60 mile radius of downtown Chicago, including suburbs all the way up to the Wisconsin border, down to the Indiana border, and far west of the city proper). Telling me you launched in "Chicago" and then telling me that you don't have anybody a mere 12 miles from the proper center point of downtown Chicago is a bit misleading in my eyes.
loganfrederick 14y ago
To provide anecdotal support, I live on the northwest side of Chicago (Zip: 60647) and they did have results. Not a lot, but some opening dates for the next few weeks.
- timjahn 14y ago
  Ah, that's comforting. So many times these types of services launch in X city and really, they mean just the 10 square blocks of downtown in X city.

bradleyjg 14y ago

They say NYC, but they don't cover my zip code in Queens. Manhattan south of 96th street + trendy Brooklyn != New York City

timjahn 14y ago
Same with Chicago. I live a whopping 12 miles from the center of downtown, IN the city of Chicago, and they told me they don't have people out "that far" yet.

alttab 14y ago

I fail to see the draw here, maybe someone can explain it to me. Generally, Exec is building a match making and scheduling service. They are taking cleaners/maids (which it sounds like they dont employ directly?) and matching them up with people who want to clean your house. Its like craigslist personals for maid services, with a fee off the top to wet Exec's beak. First off, a clean apartment at the end of the day is a clean apartment. Meaning, they can't really charge more than the rest of the maid industry. So that sets an upper bound on price. Then, maids aren't going to work for dogshit simply because the appointment was made online - so theres a lower bound to what you can pay a good maid. The software supposedly automates the match making, scheduling, and coordinating (billing, etc), which really just helps increase the margins on what is otherwise a national cleaning service. Now, it seems like the Exec execs and investors believe that "once they have it figured out" they can essentially add a city for free with minimal additional capital expense and almost no operational expense. Yay! Sounds like we have a national brand with crazy margins! If we just get 1% of the maid industry we will be set! Problem is, those "margins" only pay off if you get the business. Unless the maids do a better job, or dance for you, there's a good chance if you have a maid service already scheduled there's little incentive to take the risk to try a new service. For Exec, if the cleaning service is the same (the innovation doesn't seem to be advertised as the cleaning aspect of the service) the only other value proposition for the business is ease of scheduling a cleaning visit (anyone can build a "reserve now!" function on their maid service company website), or price. Considering the first anyone can do, the second starts to eat into those investor-attracting margins. The only way to not budge on the margins is to build a brand, which takes a lot of money. Who cares if your margins are 20% higher than industry average when you are burning all that money into acquiring customers? Unless the business has a clear acquisition strategy, I can't see this business being competitive in enough ways that matter to the customer for their "technology" to be worth the headlines. Right now, it looks like their value prop is the automation of making a cleaning appointment. Unless that appointment can be made 10 minutes in advance and done perfectly by robots I don't see the competitive advantage. Maybe they have IP that is worth licensing to any maid service that would want to lower the operational expenses of managing a fleet of cleaning teams and inbound requests. That said, I can't envision a novel solution to this "problem" that is worth protecting with IP that another team couldn't solve differently. To me, Exec seems like a fancy cleaning service that touts online reservations in a market already defined by what people are willing to pay for service and what price maids are willing to accept for their work. Since they don't control their margins, any race to the bottom on price better be made up with Amazon-scale sales volume. Which gets us to the crux of the point - I'm not sure that maid service logistics is the same type of problem as ordering goods ala Amazon. You can't build a business by pretending you can order maids online like you can a DVD.

superchink 14y ago

In Los Angeles, their rate is right about 200% of what I pay today to clean a 2 bed/2 bath. I'd really want to try this, but it's tough to justify THAT much of an increase. Edit: Maybe that's why there is a 200% guarantee? Oh, and I notice there are two people, not one, but ultimately if the end product is the same…?