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.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.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.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.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 repeat 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.