Bridging a gap by connecting clients with independent, highly skilled cleaners

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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:00] SPEAKER_02: Welcome to Canada's Podcast.
[00:05] SPEAKER_02: Oh, I'm Mario Tonigusi, managing editor of Canada's Podcast.
[00:09] SPEAKER_02: My guest today on Calgary's Podcast is Nick Ross, Go Founder of Home Sprits.
[00:15] SPEAKER_02: Thanks for joining us today, Nick.
[00:17] SPEAKER_02: Mario, glad to be here.
[00:19] SPEAKER_02: All right, let me ask you first of all, tell me what Home Sprits is and what it does.
[00:24] SPEAKER_01: Right. So Home Sprits is a leading and growing marketplace for homeowners to find house cleaners.
[00:32] SPEAKER_01: So really what we do is we put a lot of work into finding a top percentage of cleaners.
[00:39] SPEAKER_01: These are very experienced cleaners who we test, we interview, train, and we make sure that they're available on our marketplace for for people to easily find, connect with and hopefully bring into their home.
[00:51] SPEAKER_01: Okay, and establish a work in relationship for hopefully years.
[00:56] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so that's what we do. We really solve two problems here.
[00:59] SPEAKER_01: This one problem is the homeowner looking for a house cleaner and on the other side of the house cleaners looking for good clients.
[01:07] SPEAKER_01: And I think we're doing a pretty good job of it so far.
[01:10] SPEAKER_01: So tell me how this all began.
[01:13] SPEAKER_01: Where did the idea come from and why?
[01:15] SPEAKER_01: Right. Yeah, so I guess anybody who's ever looked for a house cleaner can tell you it's a bit of a pain.
[01:21] SPEAKER_01: So that has been our experience as well.
[01:23] SPEAKER_01: If you're a lucky person, you may know somebody, you know, somebody who may recommend a person to come to your house.
[01:31] SPEAKER_01: And you know, letting somebody into your house, that's a bit of a, you know, it's an intimate thing, right?
[01:35] SPEAKER_01: It's it's vulnerable.
[01:37] SPEAKER_01: So you want to make sure that the people come into your house or somebody you can trust and somebody who can do a good job.
[01:42] SPEAKER_01: So if you're not a lucky person, you don't know somebody who know somebody who may recommend you somebody.
[01:48] SPEAKER_01: Well, then you're into the weeds, your into GG's, the Facebook marketplaces or you're into one of the bigger cleaning companies.
[01:58] SPEAKER_01: But then the problem is you don't really know the person hiring a company and you don't know who they hire and you don't know how well they paid.
[02:06] SPEAKER_01: And the person coming into your house week after week may actually change and often do as it is the case with these bigger companies.
[02:16] SPEAKER_01: And of course, there's a problem of living wage, but we'll get into that later, I think.
[02:20] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so with us, it's been a frustrating point.
[02:23] SPEAKER_01: And we started talking to cleaners, started talking to people who get house getting regularly and we kind of found the same recurring themes for everybody.
[02:32] SPEAKER_01: It just the whole process sucks for everybody and we thought, hey, there's space for it to make it better for for cleaners.
[02:41] SPEAKER_01: What we find is that there's a lot of turnover.
[02:44] SPEAKER_01: Cleaners change companies very often and that's usually doing this is very unfortunate because being underpaid and undervalued goes hand in hand really.
[02:56] SPEAKER_01: So there's no consistency for house cleaners.
[03:00] SPEAKER_01: We had this crazy idea we said, what if we treat cleaners really well and then hopefully that makes them bring more clients and have them stay with us and that idea is actually kind of working out.
[03:17] SPEAKER_02: When did you start this?
[03:19] SPEAKER_01: 2019, say a land of 2019.
[03:22] SPEAKER_01: Kind of brazen to say now, wow, it's been a few years.
[03:26] SPEAKER_02: So tell me, I guess from the perspective of house cleaning, are you finding more and more people are wanting kind of that service?
[03:40] SPEAKER_02: Or is that they just for whatever reason they don't want to or they don't have the time to do it themselves?
[03:48] SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, absolutely.
[03:49] SPEAKER_01: I mean, house cleaning is absolutely worth it.
[03:52] SPEAKER_01: A blog because the thing is this is the world of difference between a professional doing it and you yourself doing it right.
[04:03] SPEAKER_01: Getting somebody to convince your house wants an awhile to do a deep clean like really go through the stuff and really set up the baseline.
[04:10] SPEAKER_01: And then you just kind of having to upkeep it for a while.
[04:13] SPEAKER_01: It's a lot easier than having to do everything yourself. That's one thing.
[04:17] SPEAKER_01: Second thing is people are busy, right?
[04:20] SPEAKER_01: People have careers, kids that all take time effort a lot of it.
[04:24] SPEAKER_01: And so house can just make sense again.
[04:27] SPEAKER_01: And really what makes sense, I think is where people have a set up schedule where somebody comes in, you know, once a month every six weeks, you know, some people do it a lot more.
[04:38] SPEAKER_01: And sort of maintain that baseline of cleaning of cleanliness in the house.
[04:44] SPEAKER_01: And another thing pro tip to anybody to anybody out there.
[04:48] SPEAKER_01: I'm married guys. House can is a great gift to somebody.
[04:52] SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I like the limited set up for actually do this. I do this all the time.
[04:56] SPEAKER_01: Suppose you have a date you go with your wife on a date.
[04:58] SPEAKER_01: While you can somebody comes in and cleans your house. That's just.
[05:02] SPEAKER_01: That's amazing.
[05:03] SPEAKER_01: Or if you gift somebody a house, that's also.
[05:08] SPEAKER_01: It's also really cool. I've done it before and deep back is always been really positive.
[05:13] SPEAKER_02: Nick, what's your background?
[05:15] SPEAKER_02: Like what were you in into before we got into doing this?
[05:20] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I might back from my education background is computer science and mathematics.
[05:24] SPEAKER_01: And I've spent last decade building software.
[05:29] SPEAKER_01: Primarily have spent most of the time building financial software.
[05:34] SPEAKER_01: And so only recently was able to go full time with home spritz.
[05:39] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so with home spritz, I think we're kind of an interesting case because our co powders, myself and my partners, we have very different backgrounds.
[05:48] SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I'm the tech guy. I'm the software guy.
[05:51] SPEAKER_01: We have also have the finance guy and we have a young self can who's a human relationship specialist.
[05:57] SPEAKER_01: So we've just spent over a decade.
[06:00] SPEAKER_01: Dealing with with people in a variety of situations.
[06:04] SPEAKER_01: So I think it really.
[06:05] SPEAKER_02: So what how did you get involved in the software part of it?
[06:11] SPEAKER_02: Like was this something you always always wanted to do the.
[06:15] SPEAKER_02: The view as software developer?
[06:18] SPEAKER_01: Well, so my generation would have been growing up in the 90s early 2000s.
[06:24] SPEAKER_01: We were the first ones, I think, with computers as kind of like a daily driver, right?
[06:28] SPEAKER_01: The first generation, that of course, I think captivated me because it's the closest thing we have to magic.
[06:35] SPEAKER_01: There's, you know, we say incantations and we type in the runes and the magic rock does something.
[06:41] SPEAKER_01: So I think I find that always found that very incisive to me.
[06:44] SPEAKER_01: Plus, I always like mathematics.
[06:46] SPEAKER_01: And so, I think I really got into programming around university time.
[06:51] SPEAKER_01: I switched to computer science and never looked back really.
[06:56] SPEAKER_01: I mean, being an early person, I programming is my hobby.
[07:01] SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I do it full time and then I do it some more in the evening.
[07:05] SPEAKER_01: Why do you like that so much?
[07:07] SPEAKER_01: What's your appeal to this?
[07:10] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think I think problem solving and just ability to prototype rapidly.
[07:14] SPEAKER_01: Because think about it, if you want to build say an electric motor or something,
[07:18] SPEAKER_01: that takes a lot of work. You have to physically combine things and if they break while you got to get more things,
[07:24] SPEAKER_01: and things might take a long time.
[07:26] SPEAKER_01: A software is something where you can prototype something really rapidly,
[07:30] SPEAKER_01: throw it away and prototype another thing really rapidly.
[07:33] SPEAKER_01: And so the cost of doing that is just, is nil and allows you to explore effectively infinite amount of spaces and ideas.
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[07:51] SPEAKER_02: So when you when you first started home spreads,
[07:55] SPEAKER_02: what were some of the bigger challenges you guys had to face in starting this company?
[08:01] SPEAKER_01: Right. Yeah. So biggest thing, Marlon, is hiring because we really aim at hiring top 2%.
[08:09] SPEAKER_01: And it's not like a set in stone target is just an emergent quantity because ratio rather.
[08:15] SPEAKER_01: Because we do really thorough hiring.
[08:20] SPEAKER_01: It's it's a very thorough process and it takes a while.
[08:24] SPEAKER_01: But we end up hiring about only 2% give a take of the people who apply and get a lot of applications.
[08:30] SPEAKER_01: So hiring has always been a huge huge challenge for us.
[08:35] SPEAKER_01: And we're working around sort of trying to mainstream,
[08:38] SPEAKER_01: not mainstream, streamline it a little bit.
[08:40] SPEAKER_01: And get it to a point where we can do it faster because now we've accumulated some data.
[08:46] SPEAKER_01: We've we have a lot of cleaners working with us in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver.
[08:51] SPEAKER_01: So now we're working on ways to making that.
[08:55] SPEAKER_01: More streamlined because business is growing.
[08:58] SPEAKER_01: We frankly have to turn people away because we're we don't have capacity.
[09:02] SPEAKER_01: And so it has been and it's now a problem.
[09:06] SPEAKER_01: Another thing that's been a lot of problem, but it's challenge is is marketing because house cleaning space is very fragmented.
[09:17] SPEAKER_01: There's as I mentioned, there's a few big players, but then majority, vast majority of businesses are actually individual shops.
[09:27] SPEAKER_01: Right. And so marketing in that space is a little challenging.
[09:31] SPEAKER_01: And so we didn't have a marketing specialist to begin with and we're kind of playing a catch up game.
[09:38] SPEAKER_02: What about running a business in Calgary?
[09:42] SPEAKER_02: What do you think the benefits and are having a business in this city?
[09:50] SPEAKER_01: Oh my god, Calgary is amazing underrated by a huge margin.
[09:54] SPEAKER_01: Let me just preface this. So we have our demographic, a picture of what our client is.
[10:02] SPEAKER_01: Right. Now our client is usually it's families in their mid to late 30s to their 50s, often with kids, households with good income.
[10:11] SPEAKER_01: Well, Calgary is one of those places where all those things really come together. Right.
[10:16] SPEAKER_01: We have because we have robust economy due to the energy sector and the satellite providers as well as actually good software sector as well.
[10:27] SPEAKER_01: Because of that, we have robust economy, high incomes, very young population, but really fits within that category for us.
[10:36] SPEAKER_01: And so starting out here has been a blessing to us, frankly.
[10:40] SPEAKER_01: Not to mention Calgary is just a good place to be in general because it's not a high cost city yet.
[10:52] SPEAKER_01: And so it's really affordable and it makes it so we can actually run a business without running massive massive massive expenses.
[11:04] SPEAKER_01: If we were in Toronto or elsewhere in high cost area, that would be really different.
[11:13] SPEAKER_02: But I guess as you're a type of business, you could go running it anywhere.
[11:18] SPEAKER_02: Wouldn't you be able to?
[11:19] SPEAKER_01: We potentially could. Yes.
[11:22] SPEAKER_01: And also one of the challenges is now that we're growing, managing time, time zones is becoming a bit of an issue.
[11:29] SPEAKER_01: We could potentially absolutely could potentially manage it anywhere, but we like Calgary or Calgaryen.
[11:36] SPEAKER_01: So you know, we've been here for forever. We like this place.
[11:39] SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
[11:40] SPEAKER_02: What what would you tell somebody, especially say a young person who wanted to start up a business no matter what it was?
[11:49] SPEAKER_02: What advice would you give them?
[11:51] SPEAKER_01: So I would actually advise them to seek partners.
[11:56] SPEAKER_01: And this one thing that we learn is that not one person cannot really have all the context necessary to run a business.
[12:05] SPEAKER_01: Because it's a multi faceted thing.
[12:09] SPEAKER_01: I mentioned you know tech, marketing, finance, holding all of that in one head is nearly impossible.
[12:16] SPEAKER_01: So I would advise people to seek and build network of people of professionals, only can have trust with and have similar mindset, similar, similar entrepreneurial mindset that when the time comes and they have that great idea and they find a funding that they can actually bring in those people as partners and have a much smoother time of running a business.
[12:38] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
[12:40] SPEAKER_02: When you look at the business, what are you thinking about the future for your business and what you want to do with it?
[12:51] SPEAKER_01: Oh, there's a lot of things in the horizon.
[12:54] SPEAKER_01: Right now the name of the game is growth.
[12:57] SPEAKER_01: As I mentioned, we have a lot of demand and we're really looking at growing across the country.
[13:03] SPEAKER_01: And then in a few years growing across North America as well, so in the United States and whatnot.
[13:10] SPEAKER_01: But so right now we're really retargeting the markets we're in already and we're buying out new markets where we're going to be opening up.
[13:19] SPEAKER_01: That's in the near term.
[13:21] SPEAKER_01: And then in the mid term, we're really because the name of the game for us is really make things so good for cleaners they never ever leave and then they keep the clients with us.
[13:29] SPEAKER_01: So a lot of that is going to be our focus in the next few years where we bring in also to tools for cleaners to manage their business, you know, from doing taxes to really manage all the expenses.
[13:45] SPEAKER_01: To having a training platform and a bunch of other things, but yeah, those things are in the mid to long term.
[13:52] SPEAKER_02: I guess you don't not to not to put words in your mouth or whatever, but I guess this is a concept that can be rolled out in many other things like people need services for lots of stuff, right?
[14:10] SPEAKER_02: Whatever, you know, lawn care or whatever like is this like a concept that can be rolled out in so many other different services?
[14:22] SPEAKER_01: They can though I would caution those willing to try because we're really focusing on home cleaning right and because we're focusing on this one area, we really understand the problem so that one area right and we really solve the problems there.
[14:39] SPEAKER_01: I think what we've come to understand is that different professions have really different challenges oftentimes and that comes from a variety of reasons, right?
[14:51] SPEAKER_01: Just perception with home with home spritz and house cleaning house cleaning is not considered a profession right now, unfortunately, though it absolutely should be.
[15:04] SPEAKER_01: So something we will be trying to change and as we grow and exist, but that's a challenge unique to house cleaning.
[15:12] SPEAKER_01: It's not a challenge, say that's present with trades that are credited and and have training bodies and whatnot.
[15:21] SPEAKER_01: And so I think it's best to focus, best to focus and solve the problem really, really well and think about it right and I and while there is a general general lesson here that a treat worker well and then the clients will follow, I think that solving individual profession problems one of the time is a better approach.
[15:45] SPEAKER_02: Now, as an entrepreneur, Nick, are there any other entrepreneurs out there that over over time that you've admired or been inspired by?
[15:58] SPEAKER_01: Oh, well, okay, so as a technical person, right, I would, of course, I'm going to I'm going to name a variety of them that are all in second all have to do with technology.
[16:12] SPEAKER_01: I think what I really admire in entrepreneurs and in the tech space is people who generally give back to the community is people who contribute to something more than they are for instance as a person called DHH is a very famous software engineer, he's a creator of Ruby and Rails.
[16:35] SPEAKER_01: I follow and I get inspired by this man a lot and he really embodies the given back the growing something bigger than than oneself.
[16:47] SPEAKER_01: That's what we try and do and that's I mean, you see that reflected in home space as well with our commitment to living wage.
[16:54] SPEAKER_01: Again, it's the same concept really where we're trying to do something more than you know, that's what needed and get back to the community.
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[17:14] SPEAKER_02: Is it how important has that become you know that aspect of companies you know, given back or or having an impact on the communities that they operate in?
[17:30] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's only I mean think about it. It's it's it's it's really a no brainer you want better communities you want people in your communities to do well and just was not a scenario where that's not the key for anybody.
[17:43] SPEAKER_01: So with us while our whole idea is to treat cleaner really well, you know, and that part of that is paying really well is to us living wages no brainer at all.
[17:59] SPEAKER_01: Because well, so and by the way, just for those who don't know living wage, the idea is there's a concept of minimum wage that's the minimum wage anybody allowed to pay and then living wage is basically a amount of money that actually takes a household to have a dignified living.
[18:14] SPEAKER_01: So we actually pay a little bit more than living wage in our in all of our markets.
[18:21] SPEAKER_01: And to us, it's a no brainer like yeah, we make a little bit less money. Sure, but we have long term we keep we keep cleaners and that means we keep the clients.
[18:32] SPEAKER_01: So it just makes that. And of course on top of that, we get to do amazing things with the community. People make money right people can support their families and that's great.
[18:42] SPEAKER_01: And they want to continue doing this work. Another thing here is if people make good money doing house cleaning, they stay in house cleaning, right.
[18:53] SPEAKER_01: Meaning that they retain the experience, meaning that experience stays with us. And if you want to get amazing job done to your house being clean, you come to where the experience is. And so again, it's an old.
[19:05] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly. What about you Nick, you know, with, you know, outside of spending time, you know, be around the computer and and and and running the business. What do you do?
[19:20] SPEAKER_02: To relax.
[19:21] SPEAKER_02: I guess, spend time or yourself.
[19:25] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, so I we recently had two kids. So there ones just over to the other ones just under two. So that's really taking off.
[19:38] SPEAKER_01: I guess anybody would be telling that, but I'm, you know, I've always been a musician. I've always played guitar in a variety of bands here in Calgary, often played live.
[19:48] SPEAKER_01: So I'm looking to get back into that really. And so, you know, and now, but now my focus is really on kind of spending time with my family, but also finding time to just, you know, exercise and take care of myself with all the craziness.
[20:05] SPEAKER_02: Do you think, you know, obviously with, you know, being entrepreneur like many are in the same boat, right? And they spend almost like 24 or seven. It seems, you know, building a business and and running a business. And then if they have family, then it got that.
[20:25] SPEAKER_02: But, you know, how important is it for any entrepreneur to spend time for themselves and to work on themselves, I guess, physically and mentally.
[20:41] SPEAKER_01: I think it's really important.
[20:43] SPEAKER_01: From a perspective of running a business, if you fail as an, if you run out of steam, at some point you business fails. Right.
[20:54] SPEAKER_01: So there is actually very much need for you to take care of yourself to make sure you actually keep going so that the business you want.
[21:03] SPEAKER_01: So from that perspective, absolutely. From personal perspective, I mean, family is the most important things we have. Really.
[21:11] SPEAKER_01: You know, work come and goes, but your, your kids are only going to be babies once. So, you know, you want to make sure you spend the time with them.
[21:21] SPEAKER_01: And from just perspective of keeping yourself healthy and alive that just has impact on everything you do. I mean, I know that I do better work when I'm well rested when I exercise, I feel great.
[21:35] SPEAKER_01: That's just that's just a given. That's just a given. And in fact, I just had this conversation with with somebody I know and they are an entrepreneur here in Calgary.
[21:45] SPEAKER_01: And they were saying how, you know, after neglecting their body for 15 years or so, you know, just really driving hard.
[21:53] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[21:54] SPEAKER_01: And now it's finally catching up to them in their 50s. Right. And that's something I would, you know, I'm looking at that as a lesson as a warning to myself.
[22:04] SPEAKER_01: So really paying attention.
[22:05] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think should think everyone, whether you're an entrepreneur or not should heed that warning, right? And that's excellent. So I'm curious.
[22:17] SPEAKER_02: What instrument do you play in music?
[22:19] SPEAKER_02: I play guitar and bass guitar.
[22:22] SPEAKER_02: Okay.
[22:22] SPEAKER_01: And what kind of music do you play?
[22:26] SPEAKER_01: Mostly hard rock and metal. So always play that.
[22:29] SPEAKER_01: So they'll recently acquired more of a taste for lighter.
[22:35] SPEAKER_01: Kind of music.
[22:36] SPEAKER_02: It's a real actually to get behind your with the car guitar and.
[22:44] SPEAKER_01: Oh my god. So much. I think this is a part of creative process as well.
[22:49] SPEAKER_01: If you're writing a song and it just kind of like takes you place takes your mind in a very different place than work would.
[22:55] SPEAKER_01: And so you create even a different way.
[22:59] SPEAKER_02: Well, you're the, you know, obviously the, the mathematical thing, right?
[23:06] SPEAKER_02: But there is quite a connection between the math side of things and music, right?
[23:12] SPEAKER_01: I guess so. Yeah.
[23:15] SPEAKER_01: It's it's it's it's a rational, especially in the Western music at its all.
[23:19] SPEAKER_01: It's all not very formulaic, but there's a lot of formula, right?
[23:23] SPEAKER_01: Like anybody who studied musical theory will tell you that there's a lot of learning.
[23:29] SPEAKER_01: And yeah, I guess so. I guess there is a connection. I never looked at it that way, but I think you're right.
[23:34] SPEAKER_01: I think you're right in that.
[23:35] SPEAKER_01: But it's also something about, you know, like the mind, body connection, the exterior of your fingers.
[23:40] SPEAKER_01: And you know, we have to think of the PC playing.
[23:42] SPEAKER_01: There's something to that that's something I think is energizing to the mind and body.
[23:49] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, excellent. All right. Well, wonderful. Thanks so much, Nick.
[23:53] SPEAKER_02: We're joining us today.
[23:54] SPEAKER_02: Thanks so much for having me.
[23:56] SPEAKER_02: All right. That was Nick Ross, who was co founder of Home Spreads.
[24:00] SPEAKER_02: I'm Mario Toggy, managing editor of Canada's podcast today with Calgary's podcast. Thanks for joining us.