What does 10% off the top of the informal dog walking economy look like?
The idea is just to prove that latent demand for dog walking exists and what's holding it back is the fact that people who would pay for this service don't know how to find someone to do it. Not the craziest idea. There's plenty of stuff that I would gladly pay for if I had any idea how to find someone selling it.
Lawn mowing tech company's competitor is really other adverting platforms and mediums that lawn care companies use to acquire customers. Thats the pie they are eating. 1-800 dentists biggest competitor was the yellow pages in the phonebook.
What's the ongoing value? You find a lawn-mower or dog-walker you like, and cut out the middleman by paying them directly. Everyone wins (except your startup).
They facilitate one-off transactions.
> Or a cleaning service?
It's a B2B version of hiring a cleaner, that's less risky and that has a feature useful for the hiring company in that the transaction is legal.
Neither of these are similar to recurring individual-to-individual services that may or may not be above board wrt. the IRS.
and how do you know someone else is willing to walk/mow for cheaper once you start paying them directly? How do you solve disputes, like no-shows, and payment legislations (like GST/VAT etc)?
The platform reduces friction - that's not false. Whether the platform is worth it to reduce that friction is another matter. Esp. for low cost things like dog walking. The value generated by reducing friction must be big enough, relative to the cost of the thing.
There are contracts involved.More than 50% of people prefer not to mess with that stuff. That's a big market.
That's how it worked for dog walking and lawn work when I was doing it as a teenager. No lawyers, no paperwork, no signatures, nothing needed to get notarized. No bullshit. KISS principle in action.