> ...and the steady leak of its best workers to direct employment arrangements with its own (now former) clients.
Services such as Homejoy create value by providing a market for the discovery of those seeking work with those seeking workers.
For any regular type work the incentive for the employer and the employee (if you can call them that) is to cut out the middleman. Why this comes as a surprise to anyone is a mystery.
In attempting to take a commission off future earnings companies like Homejoy just don't understand their value proposition and are simply rent-seekers. But hey, X% of future earnings from a given job into perpetuity sure makes for one hell of a revenue projection slide in an investor deck.
Look at the case where "intermediation" works and why. Airbnb and Uber spring to mind. In both cases usage is likely to be unpredictable so a direct relationship doesn't really work.
3 hours of cleaning a week on a somewhat flexible schedule? That works really well with a direct relationship.