
Thumbtack, an Online Market for Services, Raises $100M - elsewhen
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/08/20/thumbtack-an-online-market-for-services-raises-100-million/
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pptr1
Thumbtack really saved my former Condo association.

Last August, the condo association signed 1 year contract with a property
management firm. 6 months into the contract they suddenly gave us their 3
month termination notice. Apparently due to the co-owners divorcing.

As soon as we got the termination notice we started searching on Angies List
and Google for other property management firms. The search was not that
fruitful.

Came across Thumbtack, entered in our data. Like magic we got 2 solid leads.
Interviewed both companies, both were good, but we ended up choosing one of
those companies. Both of the companies were better than the companies we
interviewed last year; and we got leads for those through references and
Google.

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zrail
I have used both Thumbtack and AngiesList for finding contractors for our
house. The quality and professionalism of the contractors from AngiesList is
_far and away_ better than those who submitted bids from my Thumbtack post.

I imagine they think they're going to use the money to drive local contractor
adoption, but that's a hell of a lot of money for that.

~~~
pmorici
I had the same experience. I tried to hire a plumber to move a radiator and
the one guy that contacted me came off as totally unprofessional and
desperate. Not the kind of warm and fuzzy you want when having that kind of
work done.

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jabrams2003
I wonder if this investment by Google Capital signals upcoming
legal/regulatory challenges for Google Corp. In theory Google Local should be
able to upend the Thumbtack business model by driving significant organic
search traffic directly to local businesses.

Google bought Zagat to go head to head with Yelp and now gives Zagat reviewed
restaurants premium search placement atop a ticker. Why not follow the same
strategy for local services?

I find it interesting that the one company that can do the most damage to
Thumbtack puts ~$100m into the company.

~~~
ajcarpy2005
Look at it as the funding of 3rd party R&D in a non-zero-sum-game.

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downandout
I'm amazed at the number of companies that I have never heard of doing massive
funding rounds. As for this one, it seems like a good idea (I tried something
very similar and failed miserably with it) but they are obviously better at
executing it than I was....

 _" It says it operates in all 50 states and sends roughly $1.8 billion of
business annually to more than 75,000 professionals."_

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joshu
Congrats to Marco and the Thumbtack team!

(I invested in their original seed round.)

~~~
fourstar
So I guess congrats to you too, then?

~~~
birken
Well when Thumbtack was raising the angel round things weren't as rosy as they
are today, so I'd say it is well deserved.

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saumil07
Congrats to Marco and team - they busted their ass in a tough market, stuck
with it for years when no one gave a rat's ass about them and are now flying
high.

Congrats!

~~~
mladenkovacevic
I think they are far from putting the business on cruise-control just yet.

Amazon is about to enter this space the $100m will make a good war chest but
only time will tell if it's going to be enough.

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ianstallings
Some of these tech investments boggle my mind. Not because of the actual
valuation but because of the responsibility of spending $100M wisely and
getting at least a $300M return. It's an immense amount of pressure to put on
an organization. I guess I can understand it in this case, where network
effects will be the key to success and marketing can get them there. But wow,
talk about a huge risk.

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smegmalife
Has anybody ever had a good experience with Thumbtack (or Homeadvisor)? Every
time I've tried it, I've only gotten vague bids (since they can't see my house
until I connect through the platform), and it seems all of their contractors
are desperate for work. They seem to be the types of handymen that are doing
this as a side gig.

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jgalt212
David Lawee, General Partner at Google Capital, says in the press release.
"The bigger story, however, is the potential for small businesses: Thumbtack
has a real opportunity to transform how local professionals find new
customers."

This sounds a lot like how Groupon was going to revolutionize advertising for
local businesses.

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iolothebard
130m for what? Insanity.

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bitJericho
Have people not heard about craigslist?

~~~
clamprecht
People heard about craigslist, yes. Before AirBNB, before Indeed.com, before
OkCupid. Very good reading: [http://cdixon.org/2012/11/23/some-problems-are-
so-hard-they-...](http://cdixon.org/2012/11/23/some-problems-are-so-hard-they-
need-to-be-solved-piece-by-piece/)

~~~
bitJericho
That's the thing, airbnb will probably be gone within 10 years but craigslist
will be around for another 20!

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iamleppert
I'm sorry, but I'm just not buying into this business model. Trying to do
everything at once and doing nothing well at all.

Just look at their services directory:

[http://www.thumbtack.com/more-services](http://www.thumbtack.com/more-
services)

My friends who are DJ's and hair stylists hate these kinds of services with a
passion. People like to deal with people directly and operate on referrals in
most of these industries.

~~~
prawn
There are a bunch of them in Australia for tradespeople that are a bit iffy as
well, though they can work.

But think of it from the punters' perspective where you can visit one place,
describe your task once and then hear back. Rather than Googling or calling
around.

