Homejoy

Homejoy, Inc.
Private
Industry Cleaning services
Founded 2010 (2010)
Headquarters San Francisco, California, United States
Key people
 Adora Cheung (Co-founder & CEO)
Aaron Cheung (Co-founder & VP of Growth)
Services House cleaning
Number of employees
 100+
Website www.homejoy.com

Homejoy was an online platform which connected customers with house cleaners. The company was based in San Francisco.[1][2] Homejoy served the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom[3] for a total of over 31 major cities. It charged a variable rate of $25–$35 per hour (or £13 an hour in the UK).[4]

History

Homejoy was founded in 2010 by siblings Adora and Aaron Cheung, who worked as CEO and VP of Growth, respectively.[5] Originally, the company was named Pathjoy.[6][7]

Co-founder Adora Cheung did the first few cleaning jobs herself, and until late 2013 continued to work at least one cleaning job per month.[8][9]

Homejoy received an undisclosed amount of funding from Y Combinator in March 2010, but began operations in 2012.[5] The company raised another $1.7 million in seed funding in early 2013.[6] The seed investors included Andreessen Horowitz,[10] First Round Capital, Resolute.VC, and other individuals and groups.[5] Since then, there have been two other rounds of fundraising conducted by Homejoy (Series A and Series B). Series A was conducted in October 2013, and the amount invested during this round has not been publicly disclosed. After Series B, led by Google Ventures,[11] completed in early December 2013, the total raised from both rounds was around $38 million.[12][13][14]

In April 2014, Homejoy expanded into the United Kingdom, its first market outside North America.[15] It charges £13 per hour, of which cleaners earn between £7 and £9.5.[11]

On July 17, 2015, Homejoy announced that it would cease operations on July 31, 2015. The company cited difficulties in maintaining profitability, as well as lawsuits over whether its workers are contractors or employees.[16] Google hired portions of the company's technical staff.[17]

Operations

Homejoy was run by a team of over 100 employees, and worked with thousands of independent professional cleaners in their cities of operation as of early 2014.[13] They charged a uniform rate of $25 an hour[18] for service. Cleanings were fully bonded, and cleaners contracting on the platform had to go through a screening process which involved third-party background checks and a certification process.[14]

Homejoy’s company culture focused on the use of technology to increase operating efficiency and offer on-demand services.[19][20][21] Investors have also credited Homejoy for creating jobs in a slow job market by connecting their service to the demand and expanding their scope beyond traditional house cleaning companies.[22][23][24]

Homejoy Foundation

In December 2013, Homejoy announced the establishment of the Homejoy Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports initiatives for veterans and their families.[25][26][27]

Controversies

A number of former employees claimed the main reasons on why Homejoy shut down was not due to the lawsuits, but the company was facing a multitude of issues, including "mounting losses, poor customer retention, a costly international expansion, run-of-the-mill execution problems, technical glitches and the steady leak of its best workers to direct employment arrangements with its own (now former) clients.[28]

Paul Graham said Homejoy was the fastest growing Y Combinator company.[29] But the industry questioned the ethics of growing the customers by giving a steep $19 deal, where other companies charge $85.[30]

In October 2015, three months after Homejoy shut down, Aaron Cheung, the Co-Founder of Homejoy illegally used the Homejoy customer database to start a similar company, Fly Maids. Cheung admitted that he was behind the startup after a Homejoy user found his credit card and profile information on the Fly Maid site — without even signing up. Cheung decided to shut down Fly Maids after the news became public to avoid another lawsuits due to illegal usage of Homejoy customer database.[31][32]

Despite losing $38 million, Adora Cheung, the former CEO and Co-Founder becomes a partner at Y Combinator.[33][34]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Homejoy". CrunchBase. Retrieved 26 January 2014.
  2. ↑ Tam, Donna (4 October 2013). "Online home-cleaning service Homejoy expands rapidly, hits 31 cities". CNET. Retrieved 26 January 2014.
  3. ↑ Williams-Grut, Oscar (10 April 2014). "Google-backed US start-up Homejoy opens London headquarters". London Evening Standard. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  4. ↑ Czikk, Joseph (20 September 2013). "Homejoy Launches in Second Canadian City After Success at Home". Betakit. Retrieved 26 January 2014.
  5. 1 2 3 "Homejoy". AngelList. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
  6. 1 2 Ha, Anthony (5 March 2013). "Home Cleaning Service Pathjoy Becomes Homejoy, Raises $1.7M From Andreessen Horowitz And Others". TechCrunch. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
  7. ↑ Carney, Michael (17 January 2013). "PathJoy brings its economical on-demand maid service to LA and Seattle". Pando Daily. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
  8. ↑ Naasel, Kenrya Rankin (1 April 2014). "The Homejoy Creation Story: It All Started With A Dirty Bathroom". FastCompany. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  9. ↑ Truong, Alice (13 February 2014). "Homejoy, The Startup That Makes All New Hires Scrub Toilets". Fast Company. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  10. ↑ Jordan, Jeff (19 December 2013). "Local Heroes: The Public Companies of Tomorrow". Andreesen Horowitz. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
  11. 1 2 Robehmed, Natalie (10 April 2014). "House Cleaning Startup Homejoy Expands To London". Forbes. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  12. ↑ Ha, Anthony (5 December 2013). "Homejoy Raises $38M As It Looks To Expand Beyond Home Cleaning". TechCrunch. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
  13. 1 2 Gannes, Liz (5 December 2013). "Homejoy Raises $38M to Bring $20/Hour Home Cleaning to the Masses". All Things D. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
  14. 1 2 Kolodny, Lora (5 December 2013). "Homejoy Raises $38M for House Cleaning On Demand". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
  15. ↑ Lunden, Ingrid (9 April 2014). "Homejoy Comes To Clean Up The UK, Its First Market Outside North America, For £13/Hour". TechCrunch. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  16. ↑ "Homejoy Shuts Down After Battling Worker Classification Lawsuits". Re/code. Vox Media. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  17. ↑ "Google Hires Tech Team From Homejoy, Readies Leap Into Home Services Market". Re/code. Vox Media. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  18. ↑ "Get Your Place Cleaned". Retrieved 17 November 2014.
  19. ↑ Ha, Anthony (18 August 2013). "Behind The Scenes At Homejoy, A Cleaning Startup That Says It's Really A Tech Company". TechCrunch. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
  20. ↑ Posterli, Bianca (19 March 2013). "The Uber for Apartment Cleaning". Glam. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
  21. ↑ Schwartz, Carly (7 May 2013). "Homejoy, Online House Cleaning Service, Aims To Be The 'Uber' Of Its Field". Huffington Post. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
  22. ↑ Pennington, Maura (26 September 2013). "The Upside Of A Bleak Job Market: Millennials Creating Opportunities". Forbes. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
  23. ↑ Wohlsen, Marcus (5 December 2013). "Google Pours Millions Into New Tech Gold Rush: Housecleaning". Wired. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
  24. ↑ Grant, Rebecca (5 December 2013). "Homejoy sweeps up millions of dollars to liberate you from the burden of brooms". VentureBeat. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
  25. ↑ Grant, Rebecca (27 November 2013). "YC startup Homejoy establishes charitable foundation to help veterans". VentureBeat. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
  26. ↑ "About Us". Homejoy Foundation. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
  27. ↑ Larson, Selena (25 January 2014). "Meet 6 Entrepreneurs Who Use Tech To Change The World". ReadWrite. Retrieved 12 February 2014.
  28. ↑ Farr, Christina (2015-10-26). "Why Homejoy Failed — Backchannel". Medium. Retrieved 2016-06-29.
  29. ↑ Graham, Paul (January 2014). "Female Founders". Retrieved 2016-06-29.
  30. ↑ Huet, Ellen. "What Really Killed Homejoy? It Couldn't Hold On To Its Customers". Retrieved 2016-06-29.
  31. ↑ "Customers of dead house-cleaning startup Homejoy are being funneled to a copycat site - Business Insider". 2015-10-29. Retrieved 2016-06-29.
  32. ↑ "Homejoy Mysteriously Relaunches As Fly Maids, Customer Confusion Ensues". 2015-10-29. Retrieved 2016-06-29.
  33. ↑ "How did Adora Cheung become a YC partner after losing $40M? - Quora". www.quora.com. Retrieved 2016-06-29.
  34. ↑ Garza, Frida. "Y Combinator's next project is a better city". Retrieved 2016-06-29.

External links

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