Ask HN: Is 'Handy.com for offices' a viable business idea?

2 points by faisalkhalid80 9 years ago | 3 comments

I'm thinking of launching a 'Handy.com for offices' product in London. Is this a viable idea? The only reason I'm asking is because it seems Handy.com and others have not even bothered trying to crack this market.

Am I missing something? Is the market really small, is that why Handy.com and others haven't bothered with it? What is it?

As someone who's run small offices (50 ppl) in London, I've personally found it quite hard to keep up with all the things that needed to be done. Cleaning esp is a pain. In the past I've used cleaning services recommended by the building, but its hit or miss really.

I've always wished there was something like an Uber for office services, just press a button and have someone show up to fix or clean up, so that's what I'm building, but just keen to know why it seems no one else has done it before. It just seems like not having to worry about dealing with issues in the office would tremendously boost my and the office managers productivity, hence keen to try this.

marcc 9 years ago |

I'd be as huge fan. Running a small office with 15 people in it takes a lot of work. I'm definitely not above mopping the floors, doing the dishes or hanging whiteboards myself, but it's more effective for me to pay someone to do this while I spend my time working on the product or helping someone else.

I can't speak for the size of the market, but offices we've looked at in LA don't often include cleaning services, and there are a lot of small offices that couldn't justify a full time person for this role.

I would like to be able to get the same person most of the time.

The services that would be important to consider doing are:

  - Cleaning  
  - Assembling new desks/furniture  
  - Light repair and maintenance (stuff not covered by the lease and doesn't require speciality knowledge)   
  - Setup / Cleanup for meetups and other events  
  - Running errands and picking things up from the store

hmahncke 9 years ago |

In San Francisco, every downtown office space I've been in has had cleaning service included in the rent and a building manager who looked after fixing minor issues.

byoung2 9 years ago |

For one off or infrequent services like cubicle assembly or wiring new Ethernet ports, an uber model works, but cleaning you probably do every day and you want a contract to outline exactly what you want done and to negotiate a lower price.