Summer is on its way to the Queen City, which made April the perfect time for lawn care platform Green Pal to launch operations here.
The Nashville, Tennessee-based company was co-founded in 2012 by Gene Caballero, Bryan Clayton and Zach Hendrix. The platform services more than 250 major U.S. cities in 48 states. Most recently, Caballero said, Green Pal expanded its services into Charlotte.
"We let our data tell us where to launch next," he said. "When we see homeowners and vendors signing up in an area, we know there's a demand ... Charlotte was one of those markets where we knew we needed to launch quickly."
Green Pal's first foray into North Carolina was Raleigh last summer. Caballero said he anticipates to eventually spread across more of the state. Since launching in Charlotte earlier this month, he said the platform has experienced a steady onslaught of vendor and homeowner signups.
Currently, close to 85 Charlotte-area landscaping and lawn care companies are using the platform.
"It's going really well here. We think North Carolina, in general, is going to end up being a really great market," he said.
The Green Pal platform operates as the facilitator for homeowners to find the best possible options for their landscaping and lawn care needs, Caballero said.
A homeowner simply enters their address and date of the services needed. This alerts the prescreened vendors, who can then submit bids for the job. The homeowner reviews the bids and chooses which company they want to hire.
"All we do is facilitate the interest and payment process," Caballero said. "The homeowner takes a picture of the completed services, uploads it to the app for the homeowner to approve, and then they're paid directly."
He said Green Pal automatically takes 5% of the total cost, so there is no fee or uncharge to the homeowner.
Caballero said he believes Green Pal's success has remained steady over the years for the same reason ride share services are popular. He considers the company Uber for lawn care.
"No longer do we want to wait for anything, and this service just follows in neatly behind that. It's where we've been able to grow the most," he said. "I kind of knew if people would summon a stranger to pick them up and drive them somewhere, they would probably do the same with lawn care."
