In retrospect, expanding too quickly into new markets proved to be a major challenge for Homejoy, and put the entire company at risk.

In retrospect, expanding too quickly into new markets proved to be a major challenge for Homejoy, and put the entire company at risk.

In the spring of 2013, the company had about 20 employees. Two years later, it had hired more than 100 people across the world, including city managers, customer support, and an enviable engineering team poached from giants like Facebook and Google. “When I joined in 2014, there were a lot of new faces,” said Zietsman. “We were growing at a steady clip.”

Handy’s executive team made the strategic decision to expand to fewer cities and operate with a slower burn rate than Homejoy. Moreover, Handy attracted more than $60 million in funding to Homejoy’s $40 million, which gives it a longer runway.

“We were bleeding cash across the globe,” said Zeitsman. “All to focus on the growth we thought we needed to justify our valuation.”

Requesting anonymity, one longtime employee said the founders grew overconfident and stopped paying much attention to their more experienced colleagues, including the executive team, after they raised the second round of funding.

Unlike Uber, which requires a drivers’ license, cleaners need more intensive training to do the job properly. It was a constant struggle for Homejoy to determine which cleaners were up to the task, and to keep the good ones loyal.