The numbers are almost staggering, and sure to inspire Denver’s burgeoning tech companies:
- Golden-based HomeAdvisor (NASDAQ: IACI) opened its doors in 1999. Today, it has more than 1,500 employees, with 900 of them in Denver, and others in offices in New York City, Kansas City, France and The Netherlands. More expansion is planned.
- A homeowner submits a project on HomeAdvisor.com every 5 seconds. That’s 60 million people per year.
- The site – dedicated to helping homeowners find qualified service personnel for their home renovations, remodeling and repairs – lists almost 90,000 prescreened service professionals, across the United States, in 500 home-improvement categories.
- HomeAdvisor has increased revenue 32 percent year-over-year.
- The company keeps growing, and by summer expects to add 22 tech positions and 40 sales positions.
“What we’re known for is helping homeowners connect with prescreened service professionals,” said Brooke Gabbert, vice president of corporate communications. “That’s what we really do well. We’re really good at helping homeowners get projects done.”
HomeAdvisor seemingly has thought of everything.
For example, it offers a real-time price guide that enables users to quickly learn what similar projects cost in their area. Gabbert notes that competitors rely instead on annual surveys.
Also, homeowners can post ratings and reviews of service professionals. “This is how a professional can really set himself apart,” Gabbert said. “And if we see a pattern of poor reviews, we’ll remove them from the network.”
The company – which started out as ServiceMagic, then rebranded as HomeAdvisor in 2012 – also protects homeowners by rejecting about 15 percent of service provider applicants because they fail the background screening.
The site also supplies information about the most popular projects in many U.S. cities.
