A brand new Seattle startup desires you to place down the hammer, rake or no matter different device you may use to do work from home, and as an alternative choose up your telephone and ship a textual content.
Rising from stealth mode, Welcome House is a predictive dwelling upkeep service which helps manage contractors and schedule neighborhood offers. Each Tuesday, customers are alerted to a deal accessible the subsequent day, equivalent to yard cleansing, window washing, automotive detailing and extra. The corporate may facilitate random jobs, such because the hanging of a tv.
Welcome House’s co-founders are Ashley Michael, a longtime actual property and property administration skilled, who’s serving as CEO, and Patrick Opie, a tech veteran who beforehand began Scout9, a platform that helps information customers by the assorted levels of pet possession.
“Everyone seems to be simply so busy,” Michael mentioned in regards to the inspiration for beginning her personal firm.
Tackling a to-do checklist or determining who to contact for assist may be overwhelming for owners, she mentioned. Welcome House bases its predictive upkeep mannequin on seasons, geographical location, neighborhoods, kinds of properties in these neighborhoods, and extra.
The corporate not too long ago wrapped up a take a look at pilot the the Seattle neighborhoods of Magnolia, Queen Anne and Madison Park the place they discovered, amongst different issues, that owners usually postpone even the only upkeep duties. The startup desires to be the center individual whose job it’s to seek out one of the best contractors at one of the best worth.
“It’d be excellent to have 20 properties in a neighborhood which can be commonly opting into the completely different offers,” Michael mentioned, “and likewise assist them with duties which may not be on the deal circuit.”
Fairly than construct an app, Welcome House facilitates communication with its “home managers” through textual content. For example, leaves piling up? Ship a textual content to that supervisor to start out the method for getting them cleaned up.
Welcome House makes cash by taking a small share of the value paid by prospects to contractors for any providers. Proper now the corporate shouldn’t be charging contractors any payment to be related to its weekly offers because it seeks to encourage these contractors to offer one of the best service at one of the best worth.
Numerous tech corporations have tried to deal with dwelling repairs and providers. Welcome House says it takes what it calls a “extra predictive and proactive method” to dwelling upkeep than corporations equivalent to Porch, TaskRabbit or Thumbtack. Michael referred to as opponents’ method “reactive,” that means when owners have a necessity they search out a service supplier.
“WelcomeHome brings dwelling providers to the doorways of house owners in a really handy, enjoyable, and economical method,” she mentioned.
Michael referred to as Seattle a troublesome marketplace for beginning a house providers firm because of the price of labor and supplies. However at the same time as different startups and tech corporations face the financial uncertainty of a downturn, she’s optimistic about getting up and operating in Seattle.
“I feel that lots of people are pulling initiatives or not selecting to do dwelling remodels or there’s just a bit little bit of a shift happening in that business,” Michael mentioned. “So it’s a superb time for us to have loads of service suppliers to select from and produce higher offers.”
Welcome House, which employs simply Michael and Opie, has raised some pre-seed funding from investor Tihan Seale, however it didn’t share particular numbers. Apart from Seattle, the startup plans to function in Phoenix after which Denver.