Behind The Scenes At Homejoy, A Cleaning Startup That's Really A Tech Company | Hacker News Reader

Behind The Scenes At Homejoy, A Cleaning Startup That's Really A Tech Company

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46 pointsmlinsey30 comments

The potential for client->platform->service provider disintermediation here seems high. If I use the service and find a cleaner that I like, why wouldn't I just establish a direct relationship and pay them more money, as I become comfortable with them?

People already do this with repeat tenants on Airbnb, usually business travelers who visit the same locations constantly for extended stays. These types make up a small % of Airbnb's market so it doesn't threaten the model as much.

This type of direct relationship isn't really possible with Uber and on-demand transportation services because you need someone to respond within a very short time frame (minutes) which means their physical location matters.

Pretty close copy of the highrise landing page: https://www.homejoy.com/ (screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/OqCgfFT.png) vs https://highrisehq.com/

Don't forget about Curebit getting called out for copying it as well (but they brazenly used the same assets): http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/28/curebit-apologizes-for-copy...

I'm not trying to call them out on it, just pointing out the shit storm that happened last time.

Hmm, have they changed their landing page since you posted this, or are either of the sites A/B testing? Because I don't see any similarities.

Highrise: http://i.imgur.com/wbqjkUP.jpg Homejoy: http://i.imgur.com/DfW1CKQ.jpg

Homejoy's front page from the Wayback Machine a couple months ago:

http://web.archive.org/web/20130423144751/https://www.homejo...

Yea, looks like an active A/B test, here's the SS: http://i.imgur.com/OqCgfFT.png

Looks quite different to me. Only rough similarities are having a smiling person on the left and text on the right. And if that's going to be an issue, lock up swathes of the web's designers.

Non-issue, IMO.

I know people in the industry. They have a terrible reputation and treat their maids horribly. They were also caught buying fake yelp reviews.

Here's a more convincing copy of theirs from EXEC: http://iamexec.com/house-cleaning/san-francisco vs https://www.homejoy.com/house-cleaning-san-francisco

mirror: http://i.imgur.com/OAH1tg2.jpg

Yelp permanently banned them from advertising for buying reviews, and one of the major deal sites is considering it. And they just continue to be stupid. A fancy, potentially sustainable version of your typical daily deal scam.

I really wanted to like Homejoy, as they're much more affordable than Exec cleaning. I used them once and had a good experience. However, my wife booked w/ them three times, and each time Homejoy was a no-show.

Hopefully they work out the kinks.

Similar experience here. Initial schedule was a no-show, and further, nobody picked up the phone at Homejoy, and there was no way to contact the cleaner. It took them several hours to follow up on the voicemail that nobody made it.

However they did schedule a follow-up and the cleaner did a reasonable job a week later.

I've used them 3 times and so far, they've all been on-time, so my experience has been good.

From what I can tell, you cannot have an appointment less than 2.5 hours, which with the service fee works out to $55. While this is still cheaper than Exec, I do not think that 2.5 hours of cleaning is necessary every other week for a <500 square foot studio.

The price isn't bad, but I would be more comfortable if they didn't stick to "$20/hour" and instead did something along the lines of "$50 for a basic hour-long cleaning, including travel and cleaning fees, and only $20/hour for every additional hour."

I don't see the problem. You're just asking to pay more? If they're done in two hours, they'll either charge you less or leave, so you pay $55. In your example, that two hour cleaning is now $70. Additionally, I think you're underestimating the amount of time a good cleaning can take, even of a smaller apartment / studio.

Anthony Ha's written quite a bit about Homejoy:

http://www.crunchbase.com/company/homejoy/posts

It seems that every new company is so reliant on technology it could be considered a tech startup. Where does one draw the line?

One does not. Software will eat the world.

Anyone know if this company is still classifying all of its cleaners as "contractors" to avoid paying taxes?

edit: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3846208 it was a huge topic of conversation when they got mentioned here about a year ago.

They are classifying their cleaners as contractors to avoid paying payroll taxes and benefits. It's not a completely shady practice on its own, but in combination with everything else that these guys have done (stealing website designs, fake yelp reviews, repeatedly missing scheduled appointments, allegedly not paying their contractors), it definitely suggests that these guys are more Groupon that Google.

Having aging parents who need multiple service providers, I feel like I understand this a bit from the service end.

While service are is probably big factor, compatibility is probably a bigger one. "Cleaning" involves many degrees of, well, cleanliness as well as requiring a lot or very little customer contact/presentation/compatibility.

And there's the question of what people think they want versus what people are eager to pay for. I suspect a lot of package deals are appealing to people because they don't like having spell out (to themselves) that 75% of the cost is pleasant conversation with a person sharing their culture and values.

A friend of mine is considering starting a cleaning company and I engaged in some out-of-the-box thinking, I'd be interested to hear HNs views on the idea:

Cleaners that CCTV themselves.

It could be done with something as simple as a low-cost smartphone worn around the neck, or in the future something more sophisticated like Google Glass.

Lots of potential issues (would the cleaners accept this condition? would clients be happy to have a video of their house sat on a server?) but it's a potential solution to the trust issues inherent in the business - two main ones being 'is my cleaner dipping into petty cash' and 'is my cleaner actually cleaning'.

My $0.02 - this might be the wrong way to address the 2 biggest risks (cleaners stealing, cleaners not working). For me, by drawing so much attention to these items you're basically saying "we don't really trust the cleaners, and neither should you, so let's monitor them".

And then there's the question of who actually watches the video? The customer = more work for them. You guys = not super scalable.

What about privacy? What if the smartphone captures something super sensitive out on someone's desk (e.g. a major contract)?

The final point is that your competitors could just say "Ya, we actually just hire good, trustworthy cleaners so we don't have to bother with spying on them (and neither do you). Here are 10 customer testimonials that proves this. Those spying guys probably just hire really shady people and need the spying to keep them in line."

All just my $0.02 - take what you want! :)

> low-cost smartphone worn around the neck, or in the future something more sophisticated like Google Glass

Go-Pro chest mount would be comfortable, and I believe you can stream with the black model.

Doesn't sound hard to steal, even if they're broadcasting themselves.

You're addressing a problem that largely doesn't exist at scale.

If this is the direction we are heading in, I despair.

Interesting how many startups are appearing in this space. I was an avid follower of the "localcasestudy" reddit which followed a cleaning company from $0 to $120k a month in fantastic detail - http://www.maidsinblack.com . Has worked out a lot of the problems these guys mention without being so heavy on the employee side, and has (IMO) a smarter approach to pricing which has been mentioned above.

Homejoy also got a writeup at AZ Tech Beat when they "launched" in Phoenix last month http://aztechbeat.com/2013/07/homejoy-an-online-booking-home....

I live in Korea and house cleaning is a really common service. Around $40 for 4 hours and $70 for 8 hours.

Perhaps there would be a great opportunity for someone in Korea to start an Uber for house cleaning since all you have to do is create an app and send additional business to the existing cleaning services.

Their prices seem reasonable. Over here in Australia similar home cleaning agencies typically charge AUD $30 (~USD 27) an hour with the cleaner getting around AUD $25 (~USD 23).

I had suspected that Homejoy wasn't taking a cut, and that $20/hr was just "initial" pricing and they would raise it later like Exec did.

They haven't raised the rate, but my cleaner said she gets $13/hr so it appears that Homejoy does take a cut.

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