Sorry to hear this happen to Homejoy. We almost did a startup like this when we were in YC and looking for new opportunities after we closed our previous start

Sorry to hear this happen to Homejoy. We almost did a startup like this when we were in YC and looking for new opportunities after we closed our previous startup. However we did some real-world experiments and ran the calculations and could see no way it could work. Here in London we have a lot of recent migrants meaning it's a race to the bottom in terms of hourly rate. You can't make a margin on that... The math just doesn't work. At the time I felt a bit stupid when, months later, Homejoy and several other startups entered the scene. However, I'm very glad we stuck to our guns. The only companies making real money in this market are large established agencies with cleaners on the payroll. And where's the fun/disruption in that? ;)