
YardBook (YC W16) Is an Online Marketplace for the $30.9B Lawncare Business - bgamido
http://techcrunch.com/2016/02/10/backed-by-ycombinator-yardbook-is-an-online-marketplace-for-the-30-9-billion-lawncare-business/
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shimon
I'm surprised by the business model. You're providing business management
software but monetizing through ads?

I think this means you're trying to earn dominance over the attention of
business owners by providing good software for free, and that you expect to be
able to charge a premium for well-targeted ads. This might make great sense
for landscaping, where there are significant equipment and material costs and
those vendors are highly competitive. "Hello Husqvarna, I have 300 users with
$10000 of tree work booked in the next week and only one functioning chainsaw"
sounds like a pretty good pitch.

It's kinda the long tail version of facebook's business model, serving a
business need instead of a social one. Nifty.

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bgamido
You are definitely on the right track since it is otherwise very difficult for
specific brands (selling big ticket items) to target a this highly specific
yet large audience. We're currently monetizing along this dimension and plan
to further optimize this approach.

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shimon
Cool. Thanks and good luck!

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bgamido
Hello HN--

I wanted to share what my Co-Founder and I have been working on. We built
Yardbook to provide small landscape businesses with software tools to help
them run their businesses. We have features for customer management,
scheduling, billing just to name a few.

Check it out at:
[https://www.yardbook.com/pages/home](https://www.yardbook.com/pages/home)

It’s a humble start but I’d love to get your thoughts and feedback on how we
can improve the site.

Thanks in advance.

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conductr
I like this. I've thought about tackling this space with something similar for
years, just never made it a priority. I think your site is great but here's
some feedback on that: you probably want to support Spanish language (did i
miss it?). You could probably upsell the free aspect more heavily. I would
remove the "why is it free" part. Just sell the FREE! Risk-free, no credit
card required, sign up now!! People generally don't care why, this just
distracts when you're trying to convert. Tell them why once in the app if you
feel it's absolutely necessary, will make for a more natural "upgrade to
remove ads" experience if that's what you're after

I would test a landing page without the background image, and a more concise
benefits w/ CTA. I just get the feeling that the above the fold section isn't
converting to it's full potential. The mossy forest ground doesn't make it
immediately apparent this is a landscaping website. I have to read the text,
so focusing on the text make sense to me.

If I click "Claim my profile" link, why does it scroll down? Seems like I want
to sign up if I click that. Then if I click the "Get my Profile" button
there's a popup asking if I already have an account. This flow seems very high
friction.

Keep up the good work!

~~~
bgamido
Thank you for the thoughtful and thorough feedback! We will definitely start
tweaking and testing the items you called out.

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rubidium
Good example of choosing a niche market, but being able to jump to other
markets with the core product built (e.g. any service based small business is
going to need invoicing, route planning, customer management). Geoffrey Moore
(crossing the chasm) would be proud.

~~~
bgamido
That is part of our philosophy as well. The balancing act is how
'verticalized' you make a product. Too vertical will entail challenges when
you transpose to another market. Not vertical enough will entail challenges in
the go-to-market.

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anu7df
Please do not take this as a knock on your business. Why exactly do we need
special software tools specifically for landscape business? Are there any
specific challenges here that usual small businesses do not encounter (handy
men, pet grooming, plumbing etc etc). I fear for the worse when I see
companies starting to cater to a very specialized markets. Obviously YC and
hence you have answers to all of the above and more. But these are questions I
hope at least a few HN readers have.

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HeyLaughingBoy
There is a very large site that caters to landscape businesses (lawnsite.com).
Browse through the forums there and you'll quickly get a feeling for how
useful the software tools unique to that industry are.

Not in the business, but I used to hang out there when I was looking for
software business ideas.

~~~
bgamido
Great point! We frequent lawnsite as well and there is resounding consensus
that companies in the space want software 'tailored enough' to their specific
needs.

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sharemywin
Any interest in partnering with a lead provider? if so, email me at
rsnyder@bid2mow.com. Actually, I plan on being a bidding platform soon.

~~~
bgamido
Thanks!

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sjs382
Sounds great. How can I find/hire a vendor that uses YardBook, though? It's
not clear from the website.

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bgamido
Right now Yardbook is strictly a tool for the vendor (lawn professional). You
can almost think about us as Salesforce and quickbooks for landscapers and
gardeners. We haven't yet built out an experience for the homeowner to find
and choose vendors, but that is definitely a consideration.

