Though the home service industry is worth $500 billion, it remains a highly fragmented space occupied by a variety of players: independent contractors, platforms such as Angie, TaskRabbit, as well as white label concierge firms like LiveEasy.
Vishwas Prabhakara has a new twist to offer. Through a membership system, his startup Honey Homes provides its clients, the homeowners, with the services of a dedicated, salaried handyman. One of the goals of the company, Prabhakara told HousingWire, is to build a partnership between a homeowner and a handyperson based on “consistency and trust.”
The base price for the membership starts at $2,950 for an annual plan and $295 per month for a monthly plan. It provides a household with one dedicated handy person who is able to complete tasks around the house, such as caulking, grouting, patching, paint touch-ups, TV hanging, installations, furniture assembly as well as “minor electrical and plumbing jobs.” Jobs that require a licensed specialist are not covered by the monthly membership, the additional cost will have to be shouldered by the homeowners.
Prabhakara identified busy families as his company’s target audience. These families usually have providers for childcare, house cleaning as well as landscaping. But they rarely have a dedicated home maintenance professional, Prabhakara said.
“One of the big beliefs I have is that home maintenance, while really important, is actually not the thing that people want to buy,” Prabhakara told HousingWire. “They want to buy a better lifestyle. And with our handymen, this is what people are actually asking us to do. They want to upgrade their home in all the areas that bring them comfort and joy.”
Honey Homes has full-time employees who receive healthcare, PTO, parental leave, as well as “ongoing professional development opportunities.” Founded in 2021, the startup matches homeowners and home maintenance professionals in the San Francisco Bay area as well as Dallas through their app.
Over the next couple of years, Prabhakara hopes to expand his company to additional markets.
“Over the next couple years, we should be able to be in the top 20 metros across the country,” he said.
The Honey Homes roadmap
Over the summer, Honey Homes notched Series A funding to grow the company’s presence and improve its technology. It raised $9 million in Series A funding led by Khosla Ventures. DoorDash co-founders Tony Xu and Stanley Tang, Lyft co-founder Logan Green, Opendoor co-founder Eric Wu and Mercury co-founder Immad Akhund also invested in that round.
It has led to the company rolling out a new product, Home Health, which will provide new customers with a professional who will execute a “top-to-bottom” evaluation of a home’s major appliances, systems and fixtures. After that evaluation, the handyman will be able to come up with a customized, annual home maintenance plan, which he will execute.
Andrew Ladd, Honey Homes’ latest recruit and former senior director at DoorDash, will oversee all product development for the company.
Honey Homes doubled its customer base over the last three months to 1,000 members, the company said.
