The Homemade Food Graveyard
It's been 9 years since my first serious attempt at a startup began, Homemade. Starting over with Fixers Club, a platform connecting homeowners with tradespeople for unbiased advice, has had me reflecting on the first time around.
Homemade was one of many companies that tried and failed to build a successful marketplace for homemade food. I didn't make anything worth selling at the time, but have since gotten into making ice cream. I'd love to sell it in small batches and see if I really do make the best ice cream in Dallas. It would make sense either as a short-term fun endeavor or stepping stone to opening a proper ice cream business. The reality of these two user motivations make the homemade food marketplace an attractive idea to founders. The churn problem inherent in the motivations is what makes the marketplace for homemade food a graveyard.
Admitting When You Are Wrong
We realized the flaw in our business after raising a seed round but before we had spent much of the money. The simple options in this position are to:
- Return the money to the investors and give up.
- Keep trying to work on the impossible business in case you get winds at your back that make it possible.
- Use the money to try something else, ideally based on what you learned.
If we hadn't had the opportunity to buy a shared commercial kitchen in Brooklyn fall into our laps we probably would have tried a few software businesses around food entrepreneurship, and then wound down. Instead we became a physical startup with tech roots, and raised a lot more money to try to be the WeWork of food.
More Money Less Focus
It is much easier to stay focused when you can't afford to do many things. At worst you will entertain the idea of doing different things, but it will be mostly harmless fantasizing. Once you have the budget to actually do those things, watch out. This wasn't a lesson I needed to learn the hard way, but did all the same. At the time I tried to be an advocate for focus as a board member, but the other thing that the money had diminished was my influence on the business.
We ended up having a terrible and unoriginal end for a startup. We almost raised a Series B or bridge round, but failed to do it and had no other outs. We kept building more floors when we hadn't solidified the foundation, and the building collapsed. The only thing I would change about what happened is I would have left a year before we closed. By then there was no alignment between me and the rest of the board on the importance of focus, and staying was a signal to the contrary.
The Forever Beginner
I've worked at startups since, and the thing I'm most proud of has been my willingness to learn new things. Learning a new coding framework, a new role, or a new customer's problems is naturally uncomfortable. It is always easier to be an expert than a beginner. You already know the problems that can arise and how to handle them. In the startup world things change so much that you are much more likely to benefit from being a great beginner than a great expert.
With Homemade I felt like I was racing to become an expert at so many different things all at once. With Fixers Club I'm happy to be a forever beginner.
Problems Worth Solving
As I saw with Homemade, solving a problem that didn't lead to a sustainable business model doesn't work very well. Food Entrepreneurship is definitely hard, but if we couldn't solve it in a way that would sustain a marketplace then it wasn't going to last.
I've watched my family and friends face the challenges of homeownership over the years. You never know what is going to need work next, and you can't become a specialist in everything. Incentive aligned guidance would be a massive win for them, but this isn't enough on its own. We need to consider the other side of the equation, the Fixers.
We believe that providing remote, flexible, and knowledge-based work will be great for the millions tradespeople living in the US. Slow seasons, in between projects, and daily downtime are all great times when work on Fixers Club could provide extra income. We still have so much to learn about this space, but believe we are building something that could be a long term income stream for tradespeople.
The Beta
Our beta is free for homeowners and launching in February. If you have any home maintenance, home repair, contractor quotes, or DIY questions that you'd like help with you can sign up on our homepage with your email. Once you are added you'll get invited to download our iPhone app, and you'll get unbiased advice from a real + qualified person on your home issues via messaging.
We believe that homeownership, the American Dream, is due for an upgrade. We'd love your help in learning out how to make that happen! We feel good about our initial product, but know it will get massively better with feedback.