
Why Many On-Demand Platforms Fail – AMA with Sam Madden of PocketSuite - craigcannon
http://themacro.com/articles/2016/10/why-many-on-demand-platforms-fail/
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SRM
Hi everyone - Sam here (co-founder of PocketSuite). Happy to answer any
questions around the On Demand / SMB / future of work market if you've got
them!

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masudhossain
What are some of your long term goals? Do you see enterprise companies such as
Godaddy using your product to schedule their appointments? Or do you see
yourself mainly focused on small businesses?

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SRM
We (as in PocketSuite) are really focused on the small / service business
market. There's a huge opportunity among small/solo business owners selling
their time and services, so we are laser focused on that market as of now.
Most software that has been created has catered to enterprise companies, so
our mission is to bring those efficiencies to the millions of professionals in
the U.S. and abroad first and foremost.

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capocannoniere
What are your thoughts on doctor-on-demand companies (e.g. DoctorOnDemand,
HealthTap, MDLive, Teladoc)?

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SRM
The medical field is an interesting one and a unique one at that.

That being said, I see a lot of similarities between a doctor and a home
service professional. That is to say, if I find a doctor that I like and
trust, I want to go back to that doctor each and every time I have the same
ailment -- there is no real upside going back to the well to find a new doctor
on the On Demand platforms for the same issue I was having before. Thus once I
use DoctorOnDemand for that first time, find that doctor I like, I'm going to
move off platform and the next time I need that doctor I will reach out to
him/her directly.

Doctors will push for this too to avoid the platform fees and to be able to
foster a more direct/warm relationship with the client. (Even though doctors
do good, they still have a business to run)

However the uniqueness to the medical field is for many use-cases you only
need to see a specialist once. Once I see that specialist, get my health
problem resolved, then that's it - relationship over and I'm all fixed up. So
I'm sure those On Demand medical platforms benefit from repeat clients needing
to find different specialists multiple times throughout their lives.

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yiru99
What do you mean when you say that empowering the ongoing direct relationship
between professional and client is going to be the next huge wave in platform
creation?

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masudhossain
My interpretation was that he meant most of the businesses nowadays does very
similar things, so relationship between professionals and clients is what's
going to separate them.

And that the next wave of innovation will be platforms that supports this.

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dradding
Why doesn't this article mention HomeJoy? This reads like a postmortem for it.

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SRM
We tried not to call out any one co specifically :)

HomeJoy was ideal for the first-time client -- cheap clean, convenient
booking/payment experience.

However trust & quality of the work wasn't there. The platform economics for
cleaners was pretty unfavorable which caused low quality workers to be part of
the network. For high quality cleaners, it was increasingly common to take
clients "off platform" so that they wouldn't have to pay the platform fee.

Plus as a homeowner, once I find the cleaner I like and trust, I want to keep
using them and give them business directly (without the middleman).

We dove more into a detailed HomeJoy case study on TC last year:
[https://techcrunch.com/2015/07/31/why-homejoy-failed-and-
the...](https://techcrunch.com/2015/07/31/why-homejoy-failed-and-the-future-
of-the-on-demand-economy/)

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jpincus
What are your thoughts on Thumbtack?

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SRM
Thumbtack has had a lot of success with its pay-for-lead model. Reminds me of
ServiceMagic before it transitioned to HomeAdvisor with an updated business
model. (More detail in the pay-per-lead space: [http://pocketsuite.io/leads-
online](http://pocketsuite.io/leads-online))

Thumbtack does a great job matching up the first time client with a business
in a concierge-type way -- I (the homeowner) say what services I need, then a
few pros can reach out with quotes and pitch themselves. I get my choice of
the litter!

Some clients like that way of discovering new pros. Other clients like to
browse reviews in a Yelp type structure. Other clients like the On Demand type
of convenience. Other clients like to search for discounts and deals similar
to Groupon.

Thumbtack has made the lead model cool again - kudos to them.

