6 ms·

Thumbtack, an Online Market for Services, Raises $100M

90 points by elsewhen 12y ago

iolothebard 12y ago
130m for what? Insanity.
- bitJericho 12y ago
  Have people not heard about craigslist?
  - clamprecht 12y ago
    People heard about craigslist, yes. Before AirBNB, before Indeed.com, before OkCupid. Very good reading: http://cdixon.org/2012/11/23/some-problems-are-so-hard-they-need-to-be-solved-piece-by-piece/ http://cdixon.org/2012/11/23/some-problems-are-so-hard-they-...
    - bitJericho 12y ago
      That's the thing, airbnb will probably be gone within 10 years but craigslist will be around for another 20!
- nedwin 12y ago
  They're generating $1.8bn in business a year for contractors around the US. I assume this will be spent on fuelling growth and building a moat.
zrail 12y ago
I have used both Thumbtack and AngiesList for finding contractors for our house. The quality and professionalism of the contractors from AngiesList is far and away better than those who submitted bids from my Thumbtack post. I imagine they think they're going to use the money to drive local contractor adoption, but that's a hell of a lot of money for that.
- pmorici 12y ago
  I had the same experience. I tried to hire a plumber to move a radiator and the one guy that contacted me came off as totally unprofessional and desperate. Not the kind of warm and fuzzy you want when having that kind of work done.
downandout 12y ago
I'm amazed at the number of companies that I have never heard of doing massive funding rounds. As for this one, it seems like a good idea (I tried something very similar and failed miserably with it) but they are obviously better at executing it than I was.... " It says it operates in all 50 states and sends roughly $1.8 billion of business annually to more than 75,000 professionals."
joshu 12y ago
Congrats to Marco and the Thumbtack team! (I invested in their original seed round.)
- fourstar 12y ago
  So I guess congrats to you too, then?
  - birken 12y ago
    Well when Thumbtack was raising the angel round things weren't as rosy as they are today, so I'd say it is well deserved.
jabrams2003 12y ago
I wonder if this investment by Google Capital signals upcoming legal/regulatory challenges for Google Corp. In theory Google Local should be able to upend the Thumbtack business model by driving significant organic search traffic directly to local businesses. Google bought Zagat to go head to head with Yelp and now gives Zagat reviewed restaurants premium search placement atop a ticker. Why not follow the same strategy for local services? I find it interesting that the one company that can do the most damage to Thumbtack puts ~$100m into the company.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- ajcarpy2005 12y ago
  Look at it as the funding of 3rd party R&D in a non-zero-sum-game.
saumil07 12y ago
Congrats to Marco and team - they busted their ass in a tough market, stuck with it for years when no one gave a rat's ass about them and are now flying high. Congrats!
- mladenkovacevic 12y ago
  I think they are far from putting the business on cruise-control just yet. Amazon is about to enter this space the $100m will make a good war chest but only time will tell if it's going to be enough.
jgalt212 12y ago
David Lawee, General Partner at Google Capital, says in the press release. "The bigger story, however, is the potential for small businesses: Thumbtack has a real opportunity to transform how local professionals find new customers." This sounds a lot like how Groupon was going to revolutionize advertising for local businesses.
ianstallings 12y ago
Some of these tech investments boggle my mind. Not because of the actual valuation but because of the responsibility of spending $100M wisely and getting at least a $300M return. It's an immense amount of pressure to put on an organization. I guess I can understand it in this case, where network effects will be the key to success and marketing can get them there. But wow, talk about a huge risk.
iamleppert 12y ago
I'm sorry, but I'm just not buying into this business model. Trying to do everything at once and doing nothing well at all. Just look at their services directory: http://www.thumbtack.com/more-services http://www.thumbtack.com/more-services My friends who are DJ's and hair stylists hate these kinds of services with a passion. People like to deal with people directly and operate on referrals in most of these industries.
- prawn 12y ago
  There are a bunch of them in Australia for tradespeople that are a bit iffy as well, though they can work. But think of it from the punters' perspective where you can visit one place, describe your task once and then hear back. Rather than Googling or calling around.
pptr1 12y ago
Thumbtack really saved my former Condo association. Last August, the condo association signed 1 year contract with a property management firm. 6 months into the contract they suddenly gave us their 3 month termination notice. Apparently due to the co-owners divorcing. As soon as we got the termination notice we started searching on Angies List and Google for other property management firms. The search was not that fruitful. Came across Thumbtack, entered in our data. Like magic we got 2 solid leads. Interviewed both companies, both were good, but we ended up choosing one of those companies. Both of the companies were better than the companies we interviewed last year; and we got leads for those through references and Google.
smegmalife 12y ago
Has anybody ever had a good experience with Thumbtack (or Homeadvisor)? Every time I've tried it, I've only gotten vague bids (since they can't see my house until I connect through the platform), and it seems all of their contractors are desperate for work. They seem to be the types of handymen that are doing this as a side gig.

90 points by elsewhen 12y ago

iolothebard 12y ago

130m for what? Insanity.

bitJericho 12y ago
Have people not heard about craigslist?
- clamprecht 12y ago
  People heard about craigslist, yes. Before AirBNB, before Indeed.com, before OkCupid. Very good reading: http://cdixon.org/2012/11/23/some-problems-are-so-hard-they-need-to-be-solved-piece-by-piece/ http://cdixon.org/2012/11/23/some-problems-are-so-hard-they-...
  - bitJericho 12y ago
    That's the thing, airbnb will probably be gone within 10 years but craigslist will be around for another 20!
nedwin 12y ago
They're generating $1.8bn in business a year for contractors around the US. I assume this will be spent on fuelling growth and building a moat.

zrail 12y ago

I have used both Thumbtack and AngiesList for finding contractors for our house. The quality and professionalism of the contractors from AngiesList is far and away better than those who submitted bids from my Thumbtack post. I imagine they think they're going to use the money to drive local contractor adoption, but that's a hell of a lot of money for that.

pmorici 12y ago
I had the same experience. I tried to hire a plumber to move a radiator and the one guy that contacted me came off as totally unprofessional and desperate. Not the kind of warm and fuzzy you want when having that kind of work done.

downandout 12y ago

I'm amazed at the number of companies that I have never heard of doing massive funding rounds. As for this one, it seems like a good idea (I tried something very similar and failed miserably with it) but they are obviously better at executing it than I was.... " It says it operates in all 50 states and sends roughly $1.8 billion of business annually to more than 75,000 professionals."

joshu 12y ago

Congrats to Marco and the Thumbtack team! (I invested in their original seed round.)

fourstar 12y ago
So I guess congrats to you too, then?
- birken 12y ago
  Well when Thumbtack was raising the angel round things weren't as rosy as they are today, so I'd say it is well deserved.

jabrams2003 12y ago

I wonder if this investment by Google Capital signals upcoming legal/regulatory challenges for Google Corp. In theory Google Local should be able to upend the Thumbtack business model by driving significant organic search traffic directly to local businesses. Google bought Zagat to go head to head with Yelp and now gives Zagat reviewed restaurants premium search placement atop a ticker. Why not follow the same strategy for local services? I find it interesting that the one company that can do the most damage to Thumbtack puts ~$100m into the company.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
ajcarpy2005 12y ago
Look at it as the funding of 3rd party R&D in a non-zero-sum-game.

saumil07 12y ago

Congrats to Marco and team - they busted their ass in a tough market, stuck with it for years when no one gave a rat's ass about them and are now flying high. Congrats!

mladenkovacevic 12y ago
I think they are far from putting the business on cruise-control just yet. Amazon is about to enter this space the $100m will make a good war chest but only time will tell if it's going to be enough.

jgalt212 12y ago

David Lawee, General Partner at Google Capital, says in the press release. "The bigger story, however, is the potential for small businesses: Thumbtack has a real opportunity to transform how local professionals find new customers." This sounds a lot like how Groupon was going to revolutionize advertising for local businesses.

ianstallings 12y ago

Some of these tech investments boggle my mind. Not because of the actual valuation but because of the responsibility of spending $100M wisely and getting at least a $300M return. It's an immense amount of pressure to put on an organization. I guess I can understand it in this case, where network effects will be the key to success and marketing can get them there. But wow, talk about a huge risk.

iamleppert 12y ago

I'm sorry, but I'm just not buying into this business model. Trying to do everything at once and doing nothing well at all. Just look at their services directory: http://www.thumbtack.com/more-services http://www.thumbtack.com/more-services My friends who are DJ's and hair stylists hate these kinds of services with a passion. People like to deal with people directly and operate on referrals in most of these industries.

prawn 12y ago
There are a bunch of them in Australia for tradespeople that are a bit iffy as well, though they can work. But think of it from the punters' perspective where you can visit one place, describe your task once and then hear back. Rather than Googling or calling around.

pptr1 12y ago

Thumbtack really saved my former Condo association. Last August, the condo association signed 1 year contract with a property management firm. 6 months into the contract they suddenly gave us their 3 month termination notice. Apparently due to the co-owners divorcing. As soon as we got the termination notice we started searching on Angies List and Google for other property management firms. The search was not that fruitful. Came across Thumbtack, entered in our data. Like magic we got 2 solid leads. Interviewed both companies, both were good, but we ended up choosing one of those companies. Both of the companies were better than the companies we interviewed last year; and we got leads for those through references and Google.

smegmalife 12y ago

Has anybody ever had a good experience with Thumbtack (or Homeadvisor)? Every time I've tried it, I've only gotten vague bids (since they can't see my house until I connect through the platform), and it seems all of their contractors are desperate for work. They seem to be the types of handymen that are doing this as a side gig.