
Managed by Q, an On-Demand Start-Up, Raises $25M - howrude
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/04/technology/managed-by-q-anon-demand-start-up-raises-25-million.html?_r=0
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ThomPete
I think it's hard to overestimate how big an achievement this is in itself.
Managed by Q is going after a market dominated by ISS [1],a Danish company
founded in 1901, with more than half a million employees and revenue around
$75 billion. And its doing it by paying proper salaries.

The market is very interesting because and the potential for expanding into
new categories and with a more modern approach to facility management.

I could imagine them getting into using drones for surveillance or even
automated green areas management. It's a field I believe is pretty well
defended by the incumbents but which can be disrupted using a combination of
technology and more on demand services to drive down cost and increase
profitability without actually having to treat it's people like uber drivers.

On top of that it has revenue and is solving a real problem.

[1] [http://www.us.issworld.com/](http://www.us.issworld.com/)

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cm3
Hadn't heard of ISS before and in Germany there's one big and many smaller
incumbents doing this line of work.

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ThomPete
Yeah there are others of course. Whats interesting is how huge the market is
and how little competition it has seen because of it's unsexy industry.

It's also interesting in the sense that we will most likely see radiologist
being replaced by automation than cleaning personal. (specialist algos vs.
general purpose ones)

The market is huge and the potential for disrupting it is ripe.

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cm3
Don't know about radiologist. I'm certain that most prefer the human aspect
there. But if it means we don't have wait times anymore, then most will pick
automation over humans operating machinery.

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ThomPete
Human aspect to deliver the message, not necessarily to find the cancer.

Point is more about general purpose vs. specialized algos.

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cylinder
Why wouldn't offices have reoccurring cleaning on a set schedule? Every office
I've been in had cleaners come every evening.

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HorizonXP
Is anyone currently using this service? Would appreciate some anecdata about
them.

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samcheng
We're using them, to mixed reviews.

They installed a jailbroken ipad (in a holder with a cutout for the front
camera) in our break room. Seems like a potential hazard for industrial
espionage...

The office does seem to stay clean. They have an annoying tendency to
'organize' individuals' desks, though. I've even had some of my cables re-
arranged.

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jtwhite1414
Hey, Managed by Q employee here. Appreciate your feedback. Wanted to just
follow up and let you know that we do not jailbreak any iPads, nor do we use
the camera to collect any data. We take our customers privacy and security
extremely seriously.

Regarding the organization of your desk, if you leave a post-it-note on your
desk mentioning that you would prefer for it to be left alone that should do
the trick.

Happy to hear that you like the cleaning quality - if you have any additional
concerns feel free to follow up with me.

JT

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plinkplonk
Why would you put a camera in your clients office at all? sounds creepy and
vulnerable to abuse.

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ThomPete
Because they can take video call with them.

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coldcode
When I first read the headline it made no sense until I saw that "Managed by
Q" is the name of the startup. I first thought it was a startup run by the
actor who played "Q" in Star Trek the next generation.

