There are several players in this space. Perhaps the largest are HomeAdvisor (formerly ServiceMagic) and Angie's List.
There are some distinguishing factors: one of the biggest is that we use a heavily data driven approach. One of our goals is to consider every single licensed contractor in the United States. In most areas, the actual number of contractors who are licensed to practice is an order of magnitude (or two) higher than what is considered by most sites. We actually just look at the actual population of contractors to help a homeowner determine the right choice.
I've never heard of these, which is part of the benefit of YC I guess. What that said, none of them seem to offer what BuildZoom does which is a list of all the contractors in my area sorted by reputation. Even if their reputation metrics are questionable at this point, at least they are making an attempt at it.
I just contacted a painter through buildzoom. Let's see how it works out. Contractors in my area (Tahoe) are notoriously hard to track down.
Tahoe has been a little tricky. You need a contractor who is regulated in CA however a lot of the contractors near Tahoe are licensed in Nevada (although a number are licensed in both states).
One of our advisors has a house up there and we've been working with him to create a better experience in that region. If you want to let us know a bit more about your project, I'll make sure we get a great contractor out.
There are some distinguishing factors: one of the biggest is that we use a heavily data driven approach. One of our goals is to consider every single licensed contractor in the United States. In most areas, the actual number of contractors who are licensed to practice is an order of magnitude (or two) higher than what is considered by most sites. We actually just look at the actual population of contractors to help a homeowner determine the right choice.