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Didn’t Homejoy Shut Down?

(medium.com)
1121 points alokedesai | 4 comments | 28 Oct 15 19:51 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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aarontcheung ◴[28 Oct 15 22:42 UTC] No.10467925[source]▶
I'm one of the founders of Homejoy. I'm still very passionate about the home service space. After leaving Homejoy, I started FlyMaids, where we're exploring a few different angles on the space.

We recently acquired the customer and service provider data from Homejoy.

We're a small team that has been focused on moving quickly while bootstraping. We tried to quickly test different approaches, but we realize now that we did so in an unclear manner. We recognize the need to use the data we acquired responsibily. As a result, we're taking the site down, and we're going to do a better job with our testing moving forward.

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jrochkind1 ◴[28 Oct 15 22:48 UTC] No.10467957[source]▶
You're passionate about a "space"?
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wpietri ◴[28 Oct 15 23:36 UTC] No.10468189[source]▶
It's jargon, but people definitely are like that. There are a horde of people who just want to do Bitcoin or VR or video games, for example. They're less concerned with the specific company than something about the tech, the users, or the market.
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jrochkind1 ◴[28 Oct 15 23:40 UTC] No.10468215[source]▶
Oh, I understand being passionate about video games, or VR, or Bitcoin, or even, maybe, although it's a stretch, helping people keep their houses clean. And wanting to work in that area.

When you say you're passionate about a "space" though, I think you reveal that all you're really saying is you think you can make a lot of money in that "space". Which isn't passion at all. Well, maybe passionate about making money. Which is more like at best ambition or at worst greed, not actually passion.

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1. volaski ◴[29 Oct 15 00:13 UTC] No.10468375[source]▶
While I think this is a stupid move on the founder's end and there's no debate about that, I disagree with your understanding of what "passion" is. People seem to think most passionate people are born with some sort of pre-assigned passion, but it's something that arises out of your experience and action. Just like Thomas Edison was "passionate" about what he built (but he was super greedy and an asshole too), this guy probably became obsessed with this "space" after having worked on it for such a long time, even though 5 years ago he probably didn't care about home cleaning at all.
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2. jrochkind1 ◴[29 Oct 15 00:40 UTC] No.10468482[source]▶
I do not think anyone is born with a pre-assigned passion. I just still doubt you can be "passionate" about a "space". That the word "space" is used in this entrepeneurial jargon is not a coincidence. The word "space" is a lack of things, not a thing itself, a vacuum, an absence, an opportunity. An opportunity to make money, specifically. I don't think the firm belief that there's a lot of money to be made in a certain "space" is actually a "passion". Not that there's anything wrong with that, not everything needs to be a "passion". Except in the silicon valley entrepeneurial mythos, where nothing is just a business, everything is a "passion" and will change the world (presumably for the better).
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3. volaski ◴[29 Oct 15 01:00 UTC] No.10468551[source]▶
You're being too cynical. Why does everything have to do with money? He didn't say he thinks there's money in this. You are the one who did. And there is not even a guarantee that there's money in this "space" either. Rather, this on-demand home-cleaning category is quite gloomy if you look at what's happening to all the companies that belong to it. Maybe you think all "opportunities" are related to money, but to many entrepreneurs it's just a secondary objective.
4. wpietri ◴[29 Oct 15 12:58 UTC] No.10470597[source]▶
I agree that greed isn't passion, but "space" here is industry jargon for things like "business domain" or "market" or "customer segment". He could by lying (that is¸ saying he's passionate about something he's not) or wrong (confusing greed or familiarity or obsession for passion).