Homejoy offers its home cleaning services in more than 30 North American markets, but it managed to expand without opening any offices outside of its San Francisco headquarters — until January, when it opened an office in New York City’s financial district.
It’s been almost exactly a year since Homejoy launched its services in the Big Apple, following the same system it has used in other geographies — a network of contract cleaners overseen by on-the-ground city and regional managers.
That approach makes for “an effective business model” by keeping costs relatively low, said Danny Rueda, the company’s northeast regional manager. However, this presents challenges when it comes to giving those managers “a connection to HQ, a connection to the company.” So one of the main purposes of the New York office is create “a hub” where Homejoy city managers across the northeast can meet up and share tips and experiences. In addition, Rueda said he’s hiring small teams for customer service and data science.
If he’s successful, perhaps we’ll see Homejoy offices opening in other US cities and following a similar model.
Apparently Rueda moved out to San Francisco from New York last year when he joined Homejoy, only to be sent back to the East Coast three months later for his current role. The bicoastal back-and-forth was “a little bit of a shock,” he said, but he was also “flattered” to be given responsibility over an important region to Homejoy’s business.
Asked if there are any unique opportunities or challenges in the northeast, Rueda said he couldn’t think of any. Instead, he suggested that the obstacles tend to be more city specific — Boston, for example, doesn’t have as much public transit as some other large cities, so it’s important to recruit more cleaners with cars.
Homejoy, by the way, announced that it had raised $38 million in Series A and B funding late last year. Around that time, the team also gave me a more in-depth look at the technology it has built to run the company’s operations.
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[image via flickr/Sakeeb Sabakka]
