[andrewljohnson]

No way the $20/hour rate is going to stay that low in the Bay Area, unless they run it as a loss leader.

You cannot get any cleaning person around here for less than $30/hour. I don't think it would be possible to pay people the legal minimum wage and make profit at $20/hour.

[FireBeyond]

On the flipside, while not surprised at $20/hr, I read "First, she said Pathjoy is more affordable, charging only $20 an hour, compared to the $40 charged by most other cleaning services" and thought "Wow, where?", before realizing "Bay Area".

A quick look at maid services in Seattle - even from agencies showed typically $15-25/hr, certainly none charging $40/hr.

And in any case, do people really think the "value-add" of an agency for housecleaning amounts to $20/hr?

Edit: not to mention, Pathjoy's $20/hr doesn't include the $5-10 "supplies fee".

[ryanglasgow]

I currently pay $20/hour (in SF proper) for an independent cleaner who does an excellent job. Language barrier is a major issue tho, and I'd much rather schedule cleanings online. If minimum wage is <$10, why would it be impossible to profit off charging $20/hr?

[andrewljohnson]

Minimum wage is 10.24 in SF, and rising. On top of that:

* there will be refunds (grubhub gives a lot of refunds for bad food)

* they will need insurance (remember airbnb?)

* there will be legal challenges - like Uber, this kind of startup walks a fine line - if you employ 50 maids, you would usually have to provide workers comp at least, and maids seem more prone to file a claim than lots of professions

* there needs to be a margin for pathjoy

I believe you can possibly scale 20/hour maid service in parts of the country, but in the Bay, it will be at a loss or the price will rise. I really don't see how the math works any other way.

Grubhub's strategy was to raise delivery fees after they got traction, and it wouldn't surprise me if thats what pathjoy does. They will need to differentiate on something other than price though.

[tvjunky]

Great points.

On the topic of working elsewhere. Large urban areas provide the best opportunity for lower cost and more efficient operations. Two things limit growth for this kind of service in smaller less dense areas. Travel and population. Both limit the number of jobs that can be requested or completed.

[ryanglasgow]

You're vastly overestimating the costs involved. It's common for such P2P services to take 20-30% to cover everything you've mentioned and make a profit. Lyft takes 20% cut from drivers and faces much stiffer regulation, guarantee's drivers $18/hr, and has a $1M insurance policy. PathJoy faces smaller overhead and taking 20% should be plenty profitable.

[andrewljohnson]

One more comment...

Not to be crass, but do you think that your cleaner is both a legal alien, and pays income tax? Do they prefer to be paid in cash?

One thing about PathJoy-type services is they will not be able to skirt the laws that an independent contractor can. I have hired cleaners, yard workers, handymen, etc, and for whatever reason they like getting paid in cash, and they will often even discount the services if you agree to do so.