Why Homejoy Failed
Seems to be plenty of blame to pass around. It would be interesting to read more perspectives and definitely enough material for a book. That HN job post is immortalized even more now.<p>But one interesting take-away it seems, not just for Homejoy, but for just about everyone in the market; the software is really bad. Not scheduling time to get from Point A to Point B - is that rocket science? If the customer support line is on fire, isn't that when you start fixing the bug? Failing basic usability and billing is not an MVP for a $40m funded startup.<p>One thing I'll say, is trying to own the experience, establish a heavy brand, and take a large cut means you have to be providing a valuable service in return to the contractor. For the on-demand economy, the way I think I would approach the problem is my customer is the service worker first, and their customer second.<p>These companies think about churn all wrong. The service provider is ultimately providing the service to the end-user, intentionally churning the end-user across different service providers is madness. You only win by making the service provider's job more difficult? I don't get it.<p>Obviously a lot of value in connecting a new household with a new service provider, whatever that service may be. Making that connection is a job well done and should be monetized at that time. If you can provide a new reliable <i>repeat</i> customer then that's even more valuable to the service provider, and the startup who made the connection can in theory charge a higher price for those customers.