SMS Assist targets commercial and large residential (eg 5000+ single family homes). Their customers include Dollar Tree and the US Postal Service.
We offer similar services for mom and pop property managers.
106 karma · joined July 16, 2014
We offer similar services for mom and pop property managers.
We've taken out a large professional liability insurance to cover ourselves and our customers. We also document decision making process throughout the coordination process, which is helpful for determining what went wrong and why.
As far as the legality of taking calls, third party call centers that take calls and dispatch contractors are an extremely common service even offered by Appfolio and other providers.
Now regarding new contractors from our network, that is an opt-in service for customers. Many opt out entirely and we can turn that off for any customer. For instance, some customers require liability insurance policies much larger than we can guarantee with our network, so they opt-out of using Latchel contractors.
There are so many problems to solve with generalized property management that we feel it's much better to stay focused on what we know.
As far as vetting contractors, we ensure they have appropriate licensing, bonding and insurance per local requirements and also vet their existing social media reviews (looking for 4+ stars). Most of our clients provide us their rolodex of contractors to work with and we can vet their responsiveness and quality that way.
However, for many founders, myself included, there’s an aspect of “you don’t know what you don’t know” and in these cases I find the generalist books quite helpful. For these topics, it is extremely helpful to have a wide but shallow understanding of business, strategy, law, etc so if you encounter a problem you at least understand enough to know where you can dive deeper (or know you need to hire someone else). The advice in general business strategy books certainly lacks nuance. But for anyone who is not already enmeshed in the many many aspects of running a complete business themselves, they are great guides to gain a 10,000 foot view very quickly.
Latchel tracks and coordinates maintenance for property management companies. We use their existing vendors if they have them and find vendors if they do not. We see this marketplace differently than other companies in this field -- most companies focus on software-only solutions or purely manual coordination, which does not scale. At Latchel we use technology to make our internal operations much more efficient, but develop to the level our customers' users are comfortable with. After only a two months of operation, we're more than 3x more efficient than the industry standard for maintenance coordination. Join our small and growing team and bring technology to the technologically challenged property management space.
Our interview process has a small code review exercise followed by behavioral and culture fit interview and lunch or dinner. You can view the code review exercise here: https://github.com/latchel/code-challenge/pull/6
Languages: Angular.js (1.x), PHP (Laravel 5), PostgreSQL
Notes: We offer equity and medical, dental, vision and relocation to Seattle.
If you'd like to learn more about the opportunity, problem space, and the team, email me: will@latchel.com
Alternatively, you can complete the code review exercise to apply.
Latchel tracks and coordinates maintenance for property management companies. We use their existing vendors if they have them and find vendors if they do not. We see this marketplace differently than other companies in this field -- most companies focus on software-only solutions or purely manual coordination, which does not scale. At Latchel we use technology to make our internal operations much more efficient, but develop to the level our customers' users are comfortable with. After only a two months of operation, we're more than 3x more efficient than the industry standard for maintenance coordination. Join our small and growing team and bring technology to the technologically challenged property management space.
Our interview process has a small code review exercise followed by behavioral and culture fit first interview and dinner
Languages: Angular.js (1.x), PHP (Laravel 5), PostgreSQL
Notes: We offer equity and medical, dental, vision
If you'd like to learn more about the opportunity, problem space, and the team, email me: will@latchel.com
The biggest struggle was finding the candidates in the first place. LinkedIn limited the number of search results you can get for free and "premium" subscriptions didn't seem worthwhile.
Instead, I used Google-fu "site:linkedin.com/in" and some boolean search around the technology I was looking for and my location. The key that got female candidates was including "Grace Hopper" or "Anita Borg". Nearly 100% of the search results were experienced women.
I just posted to Women Who Code's job board. The listing will only allow you to put your company name, the title, technologies, 141 characters of job description, and yes/no on lots of different benefits. I'm hoping that will yield some more female candidates (although I'm a bit concerned that the only benefit I could list right now is paid vacation--equity and relocation weren't even options to select, but I do offer those!).
Good luck with your job search!
re: 1 -- I agree. I've found I won't have trouble sourcing entry level. The code schools and bootcamps seem to be making a lot of progress on gender diversity. I think in the long run when my company can afford to focus more on growth and leadership development I will pursue this route. Right now, however, I have a very solid pipeline of diverse and experienced engineers willing to join the team--just no experienced women.
I'm also working through my network for direct introductions (those work well). Those efforts just aren't scaling well and I need to get this role filled quickly.
Latchel tracks and coordinates maintenance for property management companies. We use their existing vendors if they have them and find vendors if they do not. We see this marketplace differently than other companies in this field -- most companies focus on software-only solutions or purely manual coordination, which does not scale. At Latchel we use technology to make our internal operations much more efficient, but develop to the level our customers' users are comfortable with. After only a two months of operation, we're more than 3x more efficient than the industry standard for maintenance coordination. Join our small and growing team and bring technology to the technologically challenged property management space.
Our interview process focuses on behavioral and culture fit first, followed by a paid project for a technical assessment (no whiteboarding or brain teasers).
Languages: Angular.js (1.x), PHP (Laravel 5), PostgreSQL
If you'd like to learn more about the opportunity, problem space, and the team, email me: will@latchel.com
Before starting my own company I was a bar raiser at Amazon. Interviews were not supposed to last weeks (though many did and there were internal metrics aimed at driving interview to offer cycle time down).
I'd much rather spend a few hours per interviewer per candidate getting a solid candidate than hiring, onboarding, training, learning the candidate is a poor fit, and ultimately going through the not-fun-for-anyone firing process.
High turnover isn't worth the lost productivity from other employees or the hit to morale. On top of that, while learning whether or not the candidate will make it through the trial, you're burning precious cash.
Learn how to interview and teach your people how to interview. It will save you heartache and money.
[1] http://www.radiolab.org/story/eye-sky/
Edit: Updated to only link to Radiolab. Note to Self's staff was just a guest. The Radiolab episode covers a lot more detail on the Juarez murder covered on the Bloomberg article.
I started using Uber and Lyft a few months after selling my car. Flywheel was a good enough and cheap enough alternative for my needs.
I highly doubt more people are calling cabs based on the technology, but I would definitely believe fewer people are buying cars (or people are selling cars) because alternatives are easy and plentiful.