Running errands in a big city can be so time consuming that keeping a clean apartment isn't always feasible.
Luckily, the proliferation of on-demand services has allowed services like MyClean to alleviate the stress.
The New York-based company, like many others, takes advantage of online and mobile technologies to reach new customers.
Handy and TaskRabbit have made innovations in this space as well, but MyClean is different in that it is exclusive to New York City and Chicago. It also chooses to focus on one particular area of expertise — cleaning.
Founded in 2009, MyClean touts more than $9 million in annual revenue and completed more than 375,000 home and office cleans (averaging more than 2,000 cleans a week). Its employees are also on staff, as opposed to the typical 1099 economy employee structure adopted by most on-demand startups.
Today it unveiled a pricing engine to incentivize customers with discounts for booking cleaning services during off-peak hours, something CEO Michael Scharf calls "the ‘Anti-Uber’ model."
To learn more about MyClean, we reached out to Scharf to discuss how his company launched and where it's headed from here.
Did you always want to work in cleaning services?
No. I started out as a structurer and salesman on an equity derivative desk at an investment bank. I’m naturally a tidy person, but while working in investment banking, I found it difficult to clean the apartment consistently because of my schedule. Finding a cleaner and paying the cleaner — forgetting to put cash on the table, which meant I had to go back home — was also very inconvenient.
That’s when I saw an opportunity and decided to become an entrepreneur in 2009 — big, fragmented market just waiting for technology improvements! So we started as the first company to provide a scheduling engine and secure online payments for cleaning services.
Why did you choose to expand to Chicago and what was that process like?
Because N.Y.C. is somewhat unique (in size and demographics), we wanted to make sure our model worked in other cities, with an eye toward expanding to other major urban markets.
We chose Chicago because it is big, has reliable mass transit and has a large professional community across a number of industries. Also, Kenny Schultz, our COO, has personal and professional connections to the city.
After working out some roll-out challenges — finding and training our first few cleaners, building a public reputation in Chicago — the process has been very smooth. Our head of operations, Ross, has really taken pride in building his staff of 40 great cleaners. We are now profitable in Chicago, and our business is growing at a steady pace.
What are some challenges you face?
The biggest challenge is addressing day-to-day issues in a scalable manner, while keeping an eye toward the horizon. Sending our employee’s into customers’ homes, sight-unseen, leads to unique concerns. For example, strange breakage, misplaced dusters and hoarding situations.
We want to make sure our cleaning team members and office team members give our full attention and effort to these issues, and address them with the customers in a timely manner, without getting bogged down. As Kenny says, “Every morning 200 people walk into 200 homes with our reputation on their back!”
Were there any investors or business leaders that inspired you over the years?
I get my inspiration from many places. Jack Welsh said, "Control your destiny or someone else will." That helped me decide to take the leap from the safe world of investment banking into the world of small business.
My co-founder, Mike Russell (founder of Paintzen), has helped me to dream big, and then think about how to get there.
I also read a lot. I find that taking the best parts — processes, acronyms, plans — from management books can be a great way to look at the business in a new way. Right now, I am re-reading one of the most influential books I have read: "Delivering Happiness" by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh.
Finally, it may be a little corny, but I get a lot of inspiration from my wife, Tressie. She is a yoga instructor and consistently reminds me to stay grounded and connected. As CEO, it's very easy to close my door and put my head down, but it's important to stay connected to customers, office staff, cleaners, and even myself.
How does MyClean differentiate itself from new, on-demand competition like Handy and TaskRabbit?
I think one of our key philosophical differences is that we care about both clients and cleaners. We started out very much like existing booking platforms such as Handy and TaskRabbit. However, we quickly learned that the very essence of our business is so human and personal (strangers in one’s homes performing subjective work).
So we decided to pivot into a real cleaning company. This allowed us to not only effectively manage quality control but also adequately provide our cleaners an ability to create a sustainable career. In an industry where plenty of unfair and dubious business practices (such as unpaid overtime and travel time and below minimum-wage compensation) are the norms, we believe the best way to disrupt the industry is to operate responsibly.
This means we employ and train our cleaners and provide benefits and a sustainable livelihood. This means we do not treat cleaning as a commodity, which means neither client nor cleaners is reduced to a number. I’m proud to say that more than half our staff has been with us for over 2 years and many have gone on to become managers, trainers, etc.
Where is the company headed next? What’s the path for growth?
Right now, our energy is focused on the relaunch of our website. We will be adding dynamic pricing, giving flexible and off-peak discounts to customers, which we believe will lead to more consistent, stable work schedules for our cleaners.
Next up will be more technology improvements, to improve the experience of both our customers and our staff. These include online tipping; seeing your favorite cleaner's availability; and integrated customer satisfaction surveys. From there, we will look to open in a few major urban markets throughout the East Coast and Midwest.
Who are some of the members on your team and what are their roles?
My right hand man is Kenny. I met him through a networking contact in 2011. He convinced me that bringing our cleaning in-house was the only way to control quality. We've been together ever since. In that time, we've grown to over 200 cleaners, 20 office staff, and successful operations in two cities. Kenny oversees all of that and boils it down to allow us to focus on other important issues like marketing, technology, and finance.
Erin Eastern is our chief human capital officer. She started in customer service and has risen through the ranks. She is an invaluable resource in understanding the pulse of our cleaning and office staff.
About 8 months ago, we brought on Derrick Shich as our chief product and marketing officer. He really took the bull by the horns, building out product & marketing strategies. He overseen our website re-launch. If I do say so myself, it's pretty amazing what he has done in such a short time with us. With my current team, the sky is really the limit.
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Anthony Noto is a multimedia journalist focused on venture capital and Silicon Alley startups. Based in New York for the Business Journals, he previously was a reporter at SourceMedia and The Deal LLC. He is a graduate of Rutgers University
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