pvuong's Profile

Very good points. Thanks Anshul. I really like the loyalty program as well as value added services.

Great point! Handy works on scale so there’s a reason why they hire too many cleaners without a good quality check. We will see how this pans out for the company future.

Those are very good points. I don’t have more data other than that zip code and frequency of cleaning visits are factors in prices that I am charged. For contractors, it varies. I never had cleaner before Handy so I guess they solved the issue of starting and if your observation of difficulty in scheduling directly with cleaner is common then I guess there’s a reason for Handy to exist.

The main premise of the contractor/employee debacle is these startups are providing “guidelines” that in practice perceived and communicated as expectation of a company to its employees. If you think about the entrepreneurial gap, it’s up to the employees to fulfill that gap but if you are a contractor, that gap should not exist. Full time staffing will result in better quality services, there are more variability in using contractors. The consequence is Handy employees are having to deliver as much as a full time employee should but do not get the benefits of healthcare and job security and other protections provided by employment laws.

A few startups saw the writing on the wall and has already transitioned to a full time staffing model such as Alfred (which is another interesting post by itself)

Hey Elyse, you have to sign up for a subscription service when you claim the starter offer and you get charged less per cleaning visit the more frequent your subscription is. They just recently introduced a Cancel subscription button but hide it quite well 🙂

I would be surprised if they are still around in a year without any major pivot from their current business and operation model

Hey Yasmin! I think the problem is that they don’t. I don’t see any way they could capture offline interaction or prevent cleaners from going offline where they could get paid more. Potentially some entrepreneurial cleaners are using them as a marketing and customer acquisition platform 😉 Why not right?

thanks for the great article! I wonder what their price point is because making nutritious and great tasting food costs more with the current America’s agriculture supply chain. If they are at the higher end of the market, are they truly making a difference or just purely answering a need for better food at richer schools?

Thanks for the great article! I myself is not a big fan of Blue Apron because of the amount of time it takes to cook each recipe. It is usually not as fast as they advertised. My bigger concern is the environmental effects the packaging of ingredients cause. They ship you a teaspoon of soy sauce in a plastic container. It bothers me that my convenience is causing harmful damage to the planet. I wonder if others have the same concerns and they will have to address it soon.

I agree with Bankole. I thought McKinsey’s proposition is its emphasis on expertise, the firm claims to have a global P&L and that is why a lot of people travel leading to one of the worst work life balance. I believe the tradeoff between global expertise vs regional relationship depends on the industry and the project you are in. For retail projects in emerging markets, it’s probably not worth bringing in experts from North America, which is a very different market.

It is interesting that Basecamp avoids meetings as much as possible. I wonder that it came out of engineers’ mentality and the necessity of having a long stretch of time to work on one task versus a “manager’s schedule” with meetings back to back and always on the go. That is probably wise that Basecamp intends to stay small, which allows it to be nimble and stay true to its beliefs such as this one.

I love this post! I agree that the buy-all approach has allowed TJX to stock very high end designers as well as lower end at a lower price point. Also, fresh inventory keeps the treasure hunt going! I know a number of entrepreneurs in developing markets are buying designer goods from TJX and bringing them back to their country in suitcases to sell at a premium. How do you evaluate their potential in international market? My first concern is pushback from clothes manufacturers as they usually go through exclusive distributors in emerging markets and would be concerned with brand dilution.

In light of Holidazzle aka everyone-shops-at-RTR event, your post is quite timely! I didn’t know about their spotter problem so that’s quite interesting. To me, this is a business that feeds on scale. The more unique styles you have, the more value to renters and the more renters you can attract, the more inventory you can afford to keep. However, I wonder if the business is subject to self-cannibalization. When RTR is so successful, it becomes the default for special event dressing and at some point, customers will start leaving because they don’t want to be wearing the same dress as 5 other girls at the event. I wonder if RTR would reach that point before it turns profitable. Perhaps consider a different monetization model such as a subscription service or tiered pricing?

To echo Steve’s comment, they did open up their battery technology (and/or other technology crucial to their cars) but they are not sitting on their hands. Instead, they’re opening their own battery factory.

I also think their talent strategy is very fascinating. They have a huge bias for engineers for all parts of the organization and hire mostly hungry ambitious engineering grads from Stanford, pay them way below market rate and sell them the dream of changing the future. It seems to have worked brilliantly so far.

Great analysis on Trader Joe’s. I read recently that a lot of their products are actually completely made by manufacturers, the only slap their private label on it after the products have proven to be a success. I wonder if this tactic is new and if it hurts their margin.

By the way, great insights on the compensation piece. Time to go back to my career coach…

Great post Cara! I certainly can see the value proposition of a clean simple merchandising strategy. I wonder though if the quality of their garments have been put to the test. If I am looking for basics, I am most concerned with quality more than design. Thanks!