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Comment by product50 | Hacker News Reader

I think you have it wrong here. The fact that HomeJoy was actually playing in a market which required skill labor was responsible for their downfall. Think about it - if there is an HomeJoy operator who's actually good and did her job very well (and thus is skilled), next time I will want to deal with her directly (to save on cost) and not deal with HomeJoy at all. I certainly did this. In fact, many HomeJoy operators proactively offered to do this.

However, for unskilled labor, like Uber, I care a lot about needing a car right now - and dealing with drivers directly is not efficient at all. As such, Uber is doing so well in this market.

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I see this a bit differently.

Uber and AirBnB caters to immediate needs for a short term engagement, so the dispatching capabilities are the real value (find me someone who can do X right now).

Homejoy is dispatching for a long term relationship, so it has a hard time staying engaged in the relationship as it progresses.

I think the skill is less important than the duration of the engagement for a dispatching service like this.

Upwork/oDesk connects people with long-term providers and are more or less able to avoid disintermediation by providing services that the providers want to take advantage of, like time tracking, payment processing, and tax documents. Companies like HomeJoy need to figure out what services their providers really crave and make those contingent upon using their platform. Maybe there isn't anything lacking like that in the home cleaning business.

Agreed! My point was not against the home cleaning industry, as it was the "dispatch-as-value-add" model. Tax and liability are probably the biggest "headaches" that could be managed by homejoy and ensure they retain their position in the relationship.

Anecdotally I pay Molly Maid to clean my apartment, because i don't want to deal with liability, legality or tax complications.

You think cleaning is skilled labor and driving isn't? Uber drivers better not be unskilled. You're putting your life in someone's hands every time you ride in an Uber (as with any car). There's almost no skill to scrubbing toilets and vacuuming rugs, and if you mess it up you get fired but no one dies. The only skill required is attention to detail and caring enough to do a good job.

I can't argue that driving is unskilled, but cleaning is certainly a skill. I've gone through several services for house cleaning in the last few years and the quality of service varies dramatically.

> The only skill required is attention to detail and caring enough to do a good job.

Thought experiment: imagine yourself cleaning 100 houses professionally for two hours. My bet is that the last house would be 2X - 3X more clean than the first.

There is no house-cleaning college. This is what "skilled labour" refers to. Driving and house-cleaning is not skilled labour.

The poster I am responding to is clearly referring to "skilled labor" in the colloquial sense, as in a worker for whom adequate performance requires more skill than a lay-person.

I agree that it is not a very skilled job. But attention to detail (i.e. caring to clean the house) is a more rare skill than you think. I have so many operators who have to come to clean our space and have done a messy job. The difference between good and bad operators is very stark - and it is the good ones you want to deal with.

With driving, nothing of that is required. Many people are in auto mode when they are driving. Think about it - is it easier to drive vs. cleaning your place? Of course you want basic driving skills to be there - but I think the DMV licensing process and Uber ratings generally takes care of that. You are going extreme by talking about death etc. - but how many Uber journeys have resulted in that. There are millions of Uber being driven every day - and I haven't read about a single death (of the passenger).

Driving is a common skill. Most people with a license can drive a car safely. This isn't heavy equipment.

Cleaning, being good at cleaning, is an uncommon skill. I've gone through my fair share of housekeepers. When you find a good one that you trust with the keys to your home, you want to hold on to them.

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