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

http://firstround.com/article/This-Startup-Launched-in-30-Cities-in-6-Months-Heres-How-They-Did-It#ixzz31nnQX8Q7

by zt • 12 years ago

39 32 12 years 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.

2pasc2• 12 years ago

On the other hand, once you have found somebody that you like there is very little incentive to stay in their system.

lxmorj• 12 years 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.

malandrew• 12 years 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.

lawncheer2• 12 years ago

I just launched 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• 12 years ago

You probably already know this, but your site is down.

lawncheer2• 12 years ago

Odd; doesn't seem to be for me or http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/ what error are you getting?

rebel• 12 years 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• 12 years ago

Heads up: "Lawncher offers a satisfaction guarantee"

mrpoptart• 12 years 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• 12 years ago

Exec has closed shop.

reagan83• 12 years 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• 12 years 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• 12 years 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...

LukeHoersten2• 12 years 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• 12 years 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• 12 years 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.

otisfunkmeyer• 12 years ago

I've had the worst service with Homejoy of any startup/tech-related company in the history of my life, and lord knows as an "early adopter" I tend to try them all.

I super, duper, ooper, do NOT recommend Homejoy. It is WELL worth your time--at least at this point--to find a cleaning person on Craigslist or something like that and have a short talk with them to determine competence.

Homejoy is sending out anyone with two legs to "clean" your place.

Homejoy_HQ5• 12 years ago

Hi Otis,

We are so sorry to hear you had such a poor experience using our platform and we would really like the opportunity to turn that around.

Please look forward to an email from us soon.

Best, Team Homejoy

Homejoy_HQ5• 12 years ago

Hi Luke,

We are so sorry to hear about your experience. We really do not want any of our clients to be unhappy, so look forward to an email from one of our Solutions Specialists very soon.

Best, Team Homejoy

LukeHoersten2• 12 years ago

My response to the email I received after this comment:

===

The last house keeper did a terrible job and had a bad attitude. The house keeper we had before that left your company. We have to keep getting new maids. Each new one is an investment in a trust relationship. Having to go through that repetitively is a failure of your service.

By the looks of the comments on HN, a place where people are usually very supportive of services like homejoy, it's clear you have a systemic issue. Not to mention it costs more than a local maid. Why would I pay more to get a worse service?

===

On Thu, May 15, 2014 at 4:59 PM, The Homejoy Solutions Team (Homejoy) <support@homejoy.com> wrote:

- Everyone Deserves a Happy Home - The Homejoy Solutions Team (HOMEJOY) May 15 14:58

Hi Luke,

My name is Kimberly and I am one of the Solutions Specialists of our client services team here at Homejoy. I saw your comment on Hacker News this afternoon and I wanted to follow up with you. On behalf of the entire team, I would like to apologize that your experience with us has been less-than-great and I wanted to get in touch with you to see how I can possibly remedy your concerns.

When I looked into your account, I was not able to find any mention of dissatisfaction. So, I would like to see if you would be able to provide me with you concerns, so that I may do my best to fix them.

I look forward to hearing from you and please let me know if there is anything else I can do to remedy this experience for you.

Best,

Kimberly E. Solution Specialist

===

bahman2000• 12 years 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_HQ5• 12 years 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• 12 years 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• 12 years 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• 12 years 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• 12 years 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.

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

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