6 ms·

How Homejoy (YC S10) Launched in 30 Cities in 6 Months

39 points by zt 12y ago

primitivesuave 12y ago
The great thing about Homejoy's business model is that consumers who are happy with the service will provide a solid source of recurring revenue. Also, there is no need to maintain a physical presence in a city aside from the city operations manager, so overhead is remarkably low.
- 2pasc 12y ago
  On the other hand, once you have found somebody that you like there is very little incentive to stay in their system.
  - lxmorj 12y ago
    Insurance maybe? I pay DogVacay 15% because they cover the crazy shit that usually doesn't happen, and then I can relax. Dog sitter got in a car accident? DogVacay sends someone to pick up the dogs and bring them to another place. That sort of shit.
    - 2pasc 12y ago
      Good point. On the other hand, what do we know about the insurance that Homejoy provides its cleaners? There is a lot of grey areas for most of the collaborative consumption startups.
  - malandrew 12y ago
    There could be incentives from the other side. e.g. HomeJoy could serve as a bulk buyer of quality cleaning supplies to reduce the costs for the cleaners. Chemicals and cleaning supplies are not cheap, but drop in price quickly in bulk. If a cleaner has to handle any of those costs that can significantly impact profitability for them.
lawncheer 12y ago
I just launched https://www.lawncheer.com https://www.lawncheer.com, I'll be honest, I am modeling everything I do after homejoy. All of Adora's articles/interviews etc, have been super beneficial and insightful, along with bookmarked.
- wmblaettler 12y ago
  You probably already know this, but your site is down.
  - lawncheer 12y ago
    Odd; doesn't seem to be for me or http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/ http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/ what error are you getting?
  - rebel 12y ago
    Site loads for me. However I recall seeing your site many months ago, and I think it's a great idea, but misspelling "guarantee" on the homepage really gives it an illegitimate feel. Aside from that, best of luck. I think you've got a good idea.
- shawndrost 12y ago
  Heads up: "Lawncher offers a satisfaction guarantee"
mrpoptart 12y ago
Homejoy has been the worst experience for me. I got credit for their company as a perk from my job and I'm so happy we've moved on. I got 3 cleanings from them -- never again. Every single cleaning I got from them required 2 phone calls. Every phone call was 15 mins on hold. Every payment was wrong, every credit was wrong. Try Exec if you can. They seem to know what they're doing.
- mrharrison 12y ago
  Exec has closed shop.
- reagan83 12y ago
  I agree Exec used to know what they were doing, but since they've been merged with Handybook my experience is similar to everyone posting about HomeJoy. I actually have been considering giving HomeJoy a shot because Handybook has been so terrible and a waste of my time. But now reading the stories here I'm ready to go back to finding a local cleaner who I can rely on.
- pmann 12y ago
  Homejoy has been really flaky for me too. We've had problems with billing and inconsistent cleaning. I may try out Handybook now that Exec has folded into them.
vtbose 12y ago
Would be interesting to see how well they can scale. Have used them three times with quite a range of difference in the quality of cleanings. (A couple more times the cleaner just didn't show up) Judging by their recent hourly rate increase, they seem to be confident at where they are at...
LukeHoersten 12y ago
We've had terrible service with Homejoy. I gave it a few tries and I'm too nervous to try again. You can't see who will be cleaning your house until you're locked in. There's no quality control. It seems it may be a problem that's better distributed (ex: word of mouth in your local area).
- sutterbomb 12y ago
  Seconding this comment. Tried a few times, had different cleaners every time (even when we requested a past cleaner that did a good job) and the overall quality was wildly variable, but always converging toward some degree of "poor experience".
  - breakingcustom 12y ago
    Thirding this comment. I had my first experience last week and it was by far the absolute worst online experience I've ever had. Absolutely no automated processes outside of the scheduling, no quality control, and their 'solution specialists' not making things right in the end. I ended up having to file my first chargeback with my bank.
    - Homejoy_HQ 12y ago
      Hi Breakingcustom, Its regrettable to hear that you feel we were not able to resolve your concerns. Please accept our apologies as we truly want every client on our platform to be satisfied with their service. We'd like to be see if we can fix this, but are unable to locate an account with the information available here. If you would just send us a quick email - attention to Escalations - with your contact information, this would allow a member of our team to follow up with you. Best, Team Homejoy
      - wm3141 12y ago
        Agree, I also had the worst Homejoy experiences. Erroneous billing, people not showing up, them promising to take care of billing issues, but then not. Given Homejoy's service, their fast expansion is not something to be proud of.
bahman2000 12y ago
tl;dr: I asked homejoy to take my money and they couldn't. I first learned about Homejoy in October of 2013 and immediately signed up for a recurring cleaning, automatic billing. Almost every time Homejoy called me to reschedule. I only had the same cleaner twice, even though I picked 3 different "preferred" cleaners. Finally, after about 12 cleanings, they didn't show for cleaning 13. Turns out that since October their recurring billing system wasn't actually billing me. So they cancelled my appointment without any notice. I was never told of an accruing balance, even though I spoke to them frequently because they called to reschedule so many times.
- Homejoy_HQ 12y ago
  Hi Bahman 2000, We are so sorry to hear you were effected by our growing pains. We have improved the process regarding our billing and sincerely apologize for any inconveniences this issue caused for you and your family. If there is anything we could assist you with, please feel free to reach our support team 1-855-728-4569, 7 days a week, 5 am - 5 pm PST or support@homejoy.com. Best, Team Homejoy
ipedrazas 12y ago
being a 40% more expensive than others like hassle.com and with the comments I see below, I wonder "how well" the business is going. It's clear to me that the second point: "Reduce Friction At Every Turn" doesn't apply to customers.
brackin 12y ago
I've had a good experience with homejoy thus far, we usually get the same guy and he does a good job. It's not cheap but worked out well for us in SF.
zenbowman 12y ago
I've never used it, primarily because it is about twice the price of the local maids we get. Is there an advantage of using Homejoy over a local cleaner who you know and trust?
iblaine 12y ago
Pretty insightful article about growing fast. It's a shame that people are overlooking the content of this article and instead using hackernews as their personal version of Consumer Reports. Posting personal communications between yourself and Homejoy on hackernews is taking being an assh*le to a new level. It's also devaluing the purpose of 'hacker' news.

39 points by zt 12y ago

The great thing about Homejoy's business model is that consumers who are happy with the service will provide a solid source of recurring revenue. Also, there is no need to maintain a physical presence in a city aside from the city operations manager, so overhead is remarkably low.

2pasc 12y ago
On the other hand, once you have found somebody that you like there is very little incentive to stay in their system.
- lxmorj 12y ago
  Insurance maybe? I pay DogVacay 15% because they cover the crazy shit that usually doesn't happen, and then I can relax. Dog sitter got in a car accident? DogVacay sends someone to pick up the dogs and bring them to another place. That sort of shit.
  - 2pasc 12y ago
    Good point. On the other hand, what do we know about the insurance that Homejoy provides its cleaners? There is a lot of grey areas for most of the collaborative consumption startups.
- malandrew 12y ago
  There could be incentives from the other side. e.g. HomeJoy could serve as a bulk buyer of quality cleaning supplies to reduce the costs for the cleaners. Chemicals and cleaning supplies are not cheap, but drop in price quickly in bulk. If a cleaner has to handle any of those costs that can significantly impact profitability for them.

lawncheer 12y ago

I just launched https://www.lawncheer.com https://www.lawncheer.com, I'll be honest, I am modeling everything I do after homejoy. All of Adora's articles/interviews etc, have been super beneficial and insightful, along with bookmarked.

wmblaettler 12y ago
You probably already know this, but your site is down.
- lawncheer 12y ago
  Odd; doesn't seem to be for me or http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/ http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/ what error are you getting?
- rebel 12y ago
  Site loads for me. However I recall seeing your site many months ago, and I think it's a great idea, but misspelling "guarantee" on the homepage really gives it an illegitimate feel. Aside from that, best of luck. I think you've got a good idea.
shawndrost 12y ago
Heads up: "Lawncher offers a satisfaction guarantee"

mrpoptart 12y ago

Homejoy has been the worst experience for me. I got credit for their company as a perk from my job and I'm so happy we've moved on. I got 3 cleanings from them -- never again. Every single cleaning I got from them required 2 phone calls. Every phone call was 15 mins on hold. Every payment was wrong, every credit was wrong. Try Exec if you can. They seem to know what they're doing.

mrharrison 12y ago
Exec has closed shop.
reagan83 12y ago
I agree Exec used to know what they were doing, but since they've been merged with Handybook my experience is similar to everyone posting about HomeJoy. I actually have been considering giving HomeJoy a shot because Handybook has been so terrible and a waste of my time. But now reading the stories here I'm ready to go back to finding a local cleaner who I can rely on.
pmann 12y ago
Homejoy has been really flaky for me too. We've had problems with billing and inconsistent cleaning. I may try out Handybook now that Exec has folded into them.

vtbose 12y ago

Would be interesting to see how well they can scale. Have used them three times with quite a range of difference in the quality of cleanings. (A couple more times the cleaner just didn't show up) Judging by their recent hourly rate increase, they seem to be confident at where they are at...

LukeHoersten 12y ago

We've had terrible service with Homejoy. I gave it a few tries and I'm too nervous to try again. You can't see who will be cleaning your house until you're locked in. There's no quality control. It seems it may be a problem that's better distributed (ex: word of mouth in your local area).

sutterbomb 12y ago
Seconding this comment. Tried a few times, had different cleaners every time (even when we requested a past cleaner that did a good job) and the overall quality was wildly variable, but always converging toward some degree of "poor experience".
- breakingcustom 12y ago
  Thirding this comment. I had my first experience last week and it was by far the absolute worst online experience I've ever had. Absolutely no automated processes outside of the scheduling, no quality control, and their 'solution specialists' not making things right in the end. I ended up having to file my first chargeback with my bank.
  - Homejoy_HQ 12y ago
    Hi Breakingcustom, Its regrettable to hear that you feel we were not able to resolve your concerns. Please accept our apologies as we truly want every client on our platform to be satisfied with their service. We'd like to be see if we can fix this, but are unable to locate an account with the information available here. If you would just send us a quick email - attention to Escalations - with your contact information, this would allow a member of our team to follow up with you. Best, Team Homejoy
    - wm3141 12y ago
      Agree, I also had the worst Homejoy experiences. Erroneous billing, people not showing up, them promising to take care of billing issues, but then not. Given Homejoy's service, their fast expansion is not something to be proud of.

bahman2000 12y ago

tl;dr: I asked homejoy to take my money and they couldn't. I first learned about Homejoy in October of 2013 and immediately signed up for a recurring cleaning, automatic billing. Almost every time Homejoy called me to reschedule. I only had the same cleaner twice, even though I picked 3 different "preferred" cleaners. Finally, after about 12 cleanings, they didn't show for cleaning 13. Turns out that since October their recurring billing system wasn't actually billing me. So they cancelled my appointment without any notice. I was never told of an accruing balance, even though I spoke to them frequently because they called to reschedule so many times.

Homejoy_HQ 12y ago
Hi Bahman 2000, We are so sorry to hear you were effected by our growing pains. We have improved the process regarding our billing and sincerely apologize for any inconveniences this issue caused for you and your family. If there is anything we could assist you with, please feel free to reach our support team 1-855-728-4569, 7 days a week, 5 am - 5 pm PST or support@homejoy.com. Best, Team Homejoy

ipedrazas 12y ago

being a 40% more expensive than others like hassle.com and with the comments I see below, I wonder "how well" the business is going. It's clear to me that the second point: "Reduce Friction At Every Turn" doesn't apply to customers.

brackin 12y ago

I've had a good experience with homejoy thus far, we usually get the same guy and he does a good job. It's not cheap but worked out well for us in SF.

zenbowman 12y ago

I've never used it, primarily because it is about twice the price of the local maids we get. Is there an advantage of using Homejoy over a local cleaner who you know and trust?

iblaine 12y ago

Pretty insightful article about growing fast. It's a shame that people are overlooking the content of this article and instead using hackernews as their personal version of Consumer Reports. Posting personal communications between yourself and Homejoy on hackernews is taking being an assh*le to a new level. It's also devaluing the purpose of 'hacker' news.