Birdwatch SL Palooza 2024 Preso
Summary
TLDRThe speaker introduces Bird Watch, a service designed to alleviate the stress of homeownership by providing a comprehensive solution for home maintenance and repair. With a focus on personalized service, Bird Watch offers a membership that includes a dedicated home manager, in-house technicians, and a preventive maintenance approach. The company aims to build trust and create an ecosystem around the home, leveraging technology to enhance customer experience and efficiency. The goal is to help homeowners enjoy their properties more by making home management effortless and reliable.
Takeaways
- 🏡 The company aims to assist homeowners in managing the responsibilities and challenges of home ownership, especially for those who feel overwhelmed by the lack of a 'user manual' for their homes.
- 🛠 Bird Watch differentiates itself from marketplaces by focusing on delivering outcomes rather than just providing options, emphasizing the importance of controlling the customer experience in home services.
- 👷♂️ The company employs in-house technicians (W2 staff) to handle about 70% of the home maintenance needs, offering a more consistent customer experience compared to a marketplace model.
- 💼 Bird Watch is both a service and tech company, focusing on the 'last mile delivery' and leveraging technology to enhance the customer experience and service efficiency.
- 👨👧👦 The target customers are upper-middle-class homeowners who value their time and are looking for a reliable and comprehensive solution to manage their homes.
- 🛂 The service includes a personalized approach with a dedicated 'home manager' who understands the homeowner's needs and evolves with their changing requirements over time.
- 🔒 The company has a low churn rate, indicating high customer retention and satisfaction with the service provided.
- 🌱 Bird Watch is a Public Benefit Corporation and a Delaware SE Corp, emphasizing community involvement and ethical business practices.
- 💰 The business model includes a membership fee of $80 a month, providing access to a range of services including a home evaluation and 24/7 safety and soundness visits.
- 📈 The company is focused on scaling within the DC and Philadelphia metro areas before considering geographic expansion, aiming for market domination rather than rapid expansion.
- 🔑 The long-term vision includes building an ecosystem around trust and the home, potentially offering additional services such as fintech, insurance products, and e-commerce, similar to Amazon's development of AWS.
Q & A
What is the primary concern for homeowners when they encounter issues with their home?
-The primary concern for homeowners is to have the problem fixed efficiently and effectively, rather than spending time searching for service providers on platforms like Angie's List.
What is the fundamental flaw in the marketplace model for home services according to the speaker?
-The fundamental flaw in the marketplace model for home services is the lack of control over the customer experience, which is critical given the variability in service delivery in home services.
What does Bird Watch aim to provide for homeowners?
-Bird Watch aims to help homeowners save time, energy, and money by taking care of issues that arise in and around their homes, focusing on both large and small tasks that homeowners may not have the skills or time to handle themselves.
How does Bird Watch differentiate itself from a marketplace in the home services industry?
-Bird Watch differentiates itself by providing a consistent customer experience through its in-house technicians and a focus on long-term relationships with customers, rather than the episodic, transactional relationships typical of marketplaces.
What is the significance of the membership model for Bird Watch?
-The membership model is significant because it allows Bird Watch to build long-term relationships with customers, providing them with a reliable provider for all their home maintenance needs and fostering trust and customer retention.
What are the key features of Bird Watch's service?
-Key features of Bird Watch's service include a dedicated home manager, in-house technicians for about 70% of homeowners' needs, personalized service based on the homeowner's property and preferences, and a focus on preventive maintenance programs.
How does Bird Watch view the importance of investing in its technicians?
-Bird Watch views investing in its technicians as crucial for delivering a higher degree of customer experience. The company provides benefits and reliable, full-time pay to its technicians, recognizing their craft and the importance of their work.
What is the demographic that Bird Watch primarily serves?
-Bird Watch primarily serves upper middle-class homeowners who make more than $150,000, value their time, and are in need of a reliable and comprehensive home maintenance solution.
What is Bird Watch's approach to scaling its business?
-Bird Watch's approach to scaling involves focusing on dominating existing markets, such as the DC and Philadelphia metro areas, by building a solid playbook for customer acquisition and service operations before considering geographic expansion.
What is the long-term vision for Bird Watch's platform?
-The long-term vision for Bird Watch's platform is to create an ecosystem around trust, similar to how Amazon built AWS. The platform aims to offer services that reduce the stress of homeownership and make home management easier, potentially including fintech, insurance products, and e-commerce.
How does Bird Watch plan to leverage technology to improve its services?
-Bird Watch plans to leverage technology, such as AI, to automate processes like triage, pricing, deployment, and scheduling, thereby enhancing the customer experience and operational efficiency.
Outlines
🏠 Home Ownership Challenges and the Role of Bird Watch
The speaker initiates the discussion by highlighting the optimism and subsequent challenges faced by new homeowners, often feeling unprepared due to the lack of a 'user manual.' The narrative then shifts to introduce Bird Watch, a service designed to assist homeowners in managing home maintenance issues. The company differentiates itself from marketplaces by focusing on delivering outcomes rather than just options. Bird Watch aims to save homeowners time, energy, and money by addressing a wide range of home issues, with a special emphasis on the 'long tail' of smaller, often neglected tasks. The speaker also underscores the company's commitment to supporting skilled technicians, advocating for fair work conditions and benefits, using the story of a master plumber to illustrate the point. The overarching goal of Bird Watch is to alleviate the stress associated with home ownership and to enhance the customer experience in home services.
🛠️ Bird Watch's Service Model and Customer Targeting
This paragraph delves into the specifics of Bird Watch's service offering, which includes a personalized approach with a dedicated 'home manager' who understands the client's needs and property. The company employs in-house technicians, distinguishing itself from marketplace models, and offers a tailored service to suit each homeowner's unique situation. The target demographic is identified as upper-middle-class homeowners who value their time and seek reliability and ease of use in managing home maintenance. The speaker also discusses the company's aspiration to become the 'easy button' for home management, emphasizing the desire to minimize the time consumers spend on dealing with home issues. Additionally, the paragraph outlines the types of customers Bird Watch serves, including busy professionals, aging homeowners, and first-time buyers, and briefly touches on the company's growth and operational status, including its status as a public benefit corporation and commitment to community investment.
🌐 Bird Watch's Growth Strategy and Long-Term Vision
The speaker outlines Bird Watch's strategic approach to growth, focusing on establishing a solid playbook in the DC and Philadelphia metro areas before considering geographic expansion. The company aims to dominate these markets by perfecting customer acquisition and service operations. The paragraph also touches on the company's long-term vision, which includes ecosystem expansion beyond basic home maintenance services. This could involve fintech solutions, insurance products, and other value-added services to further reduce the stress of homeownership. The speaker also hints at the potential for Bird Watch's proprietary technology platform to be opened up to other markets in the future, much like how Amazon developed AWS. The paragraph concludes with a teaser about the technological innovations Bird Watch is working on to improve customer experience, such as AI-driven automation in various aspects of service delivery.
🤖 Technology at the Core of Bird Watch's Service Delivery
In this paragraph, the speaker highlights the importance of technology in enhancing Bird Watch's service delivery. The company is developing its software to better suit the needs of hospitality and home services, which often require a different approach than traditional help desk or trade-specific software. The speaker mentions AI as a key technology that will serve as a force multiplier, automating various aspects of the service process, from triage and pricing to deployment and scheduling. A brief video teaser is mentioned, suggesting the potential for a more elegant and streamlined customer experience through technological advancements.
💰 Business Model and Future Expansion Plans
The final paragraph discusses Bird Watch's business model, emphasizing the high-margin work done by the company's in-house technicians and the project management approach for specialty work. The speaker addresses the company's membership fee, which includes a comprehensive home evaluation and ongoing support. The paragraph also touches on potential future services, such as smart home installations and green energy audits, positioning home maintenance as an entry point for building trust with customers. The speaker concludes by reiterating the company's focus on being a singular answer for home-related needs, which is key to customer retention and value.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Homeownership
💡Marketplace
💡Customer Experience
💡Preventative Maintenance
💡Home Manager
💡In-House Technicians
💡Membership Model
💡Churn Rate
💡Estate Management
💡Trust
💡Platform
Highlights
The speaker starts with an interactive question about home ownership to engage the audience.
Discussion about the common experience of homeowners facing issues without a 'user manual'.
Introduction of Bird Watch as a solution for home maintenance and repair services.
Differentiation between Bird Watch and marketplaces, emphasizing control over customer experience.
The importance of reliable service providers for both large and small home maintenance tasks.
Bird Watch's focus on the 'long tail' of small maintenance tasks often overlooked.
The company's dual nature as both a service and tech company, emphasizing last-mile delivery.
Emphasis on supporting skilled technicians with benefits and reliable work.
Statistics on homeowners feeling stressed or overwhelmed by property maintenance.
The business model built on trust and delivering a higher degree of customer experience.
The introduction of a 'home manager' as a personal point of contact for customers.
In-house technicians as a key differentiator from marketplace models for consistent customer experience.
Personalization of services based on individual property needs and homeowner preferences.
Aspiration to be the 'easy button' for home management, minimizing time spent on administrative tasks.
Target customer profile: upper middle class homeowners valuing their time and seeking reliability.
High retention rates and the low churn in the consumer business as a sign of customer satisfaction.
The company's status as a public benefit corporation and commitment to community investment.
Future growth plans focusing on solidifying the business model before geographic expansion.
Long-term vision includes ecosystem expansion with fintech, insurance products, and e-commerce.
Technology development focusing on consumer, manager, and field technician interfaces for efficiency.
The significance of trust in the home services industry and the company's strategy to build a 'moat' around it.
Final thoughts on the impact of home happiness on overall life satisfaction, emphasizing the company's mission.
Transcripts
appreciate that thank you
Gary magri all right thank you everybody
um so a question for you to start off
how many people here live in a home that
you own
raise oh boy all right so everybody with
their hand down enjoy the rental
environment you haven't yet acquired
your own money pit um but we'll talk a
little bit about what that journey is
like for those of you who have closed on
that home you maybe this picture is
familiar it's it's usually a lot of
optimism that comes along with that
closing transaction uh and then within
two weeks it looks something like this
where the reality of home ownership is
suddenly upon you and you realize you
don't have a user manual you don't have
a guy for that um and you're not quite
sure what to do so that's where we come
in so I want to make this personal for a
moment and this is a picture of a
flooded bathroom this is not my bathroom
in fact when I lived in New York I think
this was the entire size of my apartment
but picture for those of you again who
own your own home an episode that you've
had like this we've all had them so once
you have that in your mind what was the
first thing that you wanted to do after
you encountered this
problem did anyone say spend an hour on
Angie's List I don't think so so that's
where we come into play we are not a
Marketplace very specifically I like to
say that UPF front because sometimes we
get the question at the end marketplaces
provide options and not outcomes and
when your bathroom looks like this you
just want it fixed so that's where we
come into play marketplaces tend to work
really well in product Industries or
commoditized services but in home
services so much variability is at that
point of delivery uh that the
marketplaces cannot control and for me
that's a fundamentally fatal flaw if you
do not control the customer experience
you do not control the customer
experience so uh introducing Bird Watch
so we help homeowners save time energy
and money by taking care of all those
things that go wrong uh in and around a
home um it's a long laundry list that we
usually have um we focus a lot on the
long tail if you want to do a $25,000
bathroom Renault you can get a lot of
GCS to show up for your house if you
have a leaky faucet good luck so that's
where we come into play um we are both a
services company and a tech company we
do that last mild delivery and I'll talk
about that a lot I'm on the slide so
that you know who I am but the company
is really about these people up here is
about enabling the work of good um
technicians people that work with their
hands have a craft that have really been
left by the wayside somewhere along the
last 15 years the tech industry decided
that God's gift to the labor force is
gig workk it is not right folks that
work with their hand that refine their
their craft like this want the same
things that all of us want they want
things like benefits they want jobs that
they can rely upon that have full-time
pay they want paytime off with their
families quick story here Chuck our
master plumber he's 50 years old he has
five daughters ages 2 to 18 pretty wide
range um but when he started with us
couple weeks in couple months in he got
his first ever paid vacation he didn't
understand what it was like to not be on
call and being paid he's 50 years old so
those are some of the things and the
stories that we like to bring to life
because when you can invest in people
like this to do their best you can
deliver a higher degree of customer
experience that the entire model is
built on so from a macro view why do we
exist well all the hands in the room
there are 93 million people who live in
their own home there's a lot of proptech
and a lot of stuff that focuses on the
rental environment we focus on
homeowners the
consumers 68% of people that own their
own home report being stressed or
overwhelmed about taking care of that
property and as an end result fewer than
1% of properties are taken care of the
preventative maintenance that they need
now preventative maintenance for me it's
like the side dish it's like the
vegetables sure go to the dentist do
those sorts of things but it's not the
sex appeal that that number in the
middle is why we exist for two-thirds of
people to be stressed about the biggest
asset in their lives that's just not a
good thing that's sad there's an
emotional burden there um that we can
really tap into and hope to solve so the
problem itself is not rocket science
it's complicated it's timec consuming to
take care of these properties most
homeowners like me perhaps like a lot of
you we lack the skill the time and the
knowledge to do the things ourselves and
it's hard to find help particularly post
pandemic the world has changed about
finding reliability and that's partly
because the marketplace model has
accelerated everything to an episodic
transactional relationship or lack of a
relationship as I should say um it's you
know emergency repairs can be super
expensive you can lose home value when
you go to resell the home the part that
we're most interested in people enjoy
their places less and I'll Circle back
to that at the end so the solution you
can sort of think of it about
uh Estate Management but for the masses
people that live in five 10 15 million
homes they can have a GC on speed dial
they have Solutions our members range
from $500,000 homes to 2.5 million so
we're looking for that upper middle
class 19 million of those homeowners
that make more than
$150,000 that know the value of their
time and that they don't have enough of
it to spend on these matters that are
important to them the basics of the
service are relatively straightforward
people want a reliable provider not just
for the big stuff but for all of that
small stuff that is that endless to-do
list but they want that bundle they want
expert guidance a lot of people don't
know what matters what does it in my
home do I really need to clean out my
ducks on an annual basis Pro tiip no you
don't um and then finally ease of use
there are so many things that have
become dead simple easy to use consumer
apps in 2024 that has not yet come to
the management of your home couple key
features you get a home manager this is
a human being somebody who gets to know
you your family your property your needs
how they evolve over time so somebody's
on your side in-house technicians again
we have W2 staff that do the work in the
field for about 70% of what our
homeowners need very different model
than a Marketplace but again being in
people's homes unlocks a more consistent
customer experience it gives us more
upside uh and you'll see how that pans
out in the business model and then
finally it's personalized to you and
your home all properties are different
and especially your preferences within
that home are different so there's a lot
of upside about coming up with that
personalized program for our members
what we really aspire to be is the easy
button for your home we sort of think of
things like the anti- Facebook how do
you spend as little time with us as
possible on our technology and get
exactly what you need so you can get
back to the more important things in
your
life um I spoke about before we're
trying not to build a company for the 1%
these are the customers that we serve
today uh the genx professionals and
family usually two partners professional
income some work travel kids sports
practices going in 9,000 different
directions they want to live in a nice
place but they don't have the time to
manage all of that post pandemic Aging
in place huge motions there right people
want to live in that home but they may
not have the safety they might not have
the energy to take care of it in the
same way that they had and and this was
the generation that used to have a guy
but until you don't right those people
retire as well so what is that solution
that builds trust for Mom and Dad and
Grandpa and Grandma and then finally
Millennial first-time buyers right
buying first homes and droves over the
last five to eight years I joke that
this generation doesn't even know what
DIY stands for let alone being able to
do it their digital natives are used to
Outsourcing there's a natural kind of
flow there quick updates on birdwatch we
found the company a little over two
years ago um we have operations on the
ground the DC Metro area and the
Philadelphia metro area we are a
hospitality company first and foremost
we just happen to fix things in your
home that's the orientation to customer
service that we bring how do you become
the zapo the Nordstroms in the Home
Services space that is known for being
hyper fragmented um and not focused on
customer experience we're also a public
benefit Corp we're a Delaware SE Corp
all of the things you know in investment
wise flow just the same but we focus on
things that build up our community we
believe there's a virtuous circle by
taking care of the communities the team
members that we have as well as the
homes in which we serve for example 1%
of our net revenues go to a housing
Justice fund that was set up by one of
our uh co-founders it's called the bird
seed foundation and that provides down
payment grants for first-time bipac home
buyers we have over 530 members with us
today taking care of their properties to
give you an idea the single family home
segment for us spends over $99,000 per
year with us people have a lot of needs
they're willing to aggregate that spend
and I'll talk about that in a second we
have very high alltime ret pension rates
for a consumer business churn is under
3% and we're targeting by the end of
this year about a $5 million run rate in
terms of our
revenues we have a leadership team that
has run businesses in the space before
whether it's service businesses real
estate Tech James Bruno is our uh most
recent hire he was the founding Chief
construction officer at kerbo you grew
that to be one of the top five Home
Remodeling businesses in the company and
now he works for us taking over field
operations Ryan troll is in the front
row here he oversees all of our product
in Tech ran massive optimization
platforms at Capital One Steph Toller
ran a property management company
overseeing 2.5 billion do uh in
residential real estate so we have all
the pieces here to grow this operation
um and what does growth look like so
I'll talk about value creation real
quickly value creation for our members
right business 101 you have to create
more value than you capture this to-do
list here might look familiar for some
of you but this is literally from a new
member that we had that started just
last week her name was Rebecca I took
her sales call the sales call began if
it were up to me I would be living in a
camper on the road but my husband
doesn't want that so I'm here and I'm
talking to you and she wanted us to take
care of her property and when folks sign
up we asked them one question what's the
biggest you know impact we can make for
you what should we be talking about and
this was what she said to
us so if that's not customer lifetime
value I don't know what is and we're
going to be happy to get into Becky's
house uh and to serve her as best we can
with preventive maintenance programs
to-do lists all these sort of things but
what does that really mean and how does
that differentiate Us in the marketplace
so a couple interesting things to throw
your way number one is aggregating
across trades at the point of demand so
what do I mean by that well you see a
lot of private Equity uh activity and
things like the plumbing trades at track
a lot of rollups in those Industries and
those sorts of things but people don't
necessarily aspire to have a carpenter
and a plumber and an HVAC person people
just have problems and they want them
solved and they don't really care about
how they're getting solved as long as
they're getting solved well so within
our team we are handling problems across
all of those trades today and when
you're at the point of demand working
with that relationship with the consumer
that we believe is a point of power uh
second one here a little joke for the
LPS in the room proprietary deal flow
but how does it work for most Home
Services business in the country when
your phone rings and somebody have a
problem that's when you have a revenue
opportunity but for us building that
long-term relationship the membership
model that we have is all about future
orientation so by building the to-do
list and all the features we'll have in
the future that are more like Pinterest
and cultivating design boards and these
sorts of things is to see what these
folks are thinking about not when they
have that point of need that is acute
what are they thinking about next season
next year and Beyond so that we can
influence when that happens and also
have a better operational delivery
mechanism to make it more efficient um
than the average in the industry and
then finally we want to create a moat
around trust as a platform so technology
companies have been really good over the
last 15 years about being on every
device that you have here the delivery
companies in Amazon now come to your
doorway but very few companies are in
your home that inner sanctum where you
and your family are now we have a very
high bar to make sure that we treat that
with the respect and deorum that it
needs but when you succeed in that
environment and it's an execution
business we have to do it each and every
every day that trust is very unique and
we can have a whole ecosystem that we
build around that um we sometimes gets
asked about seasonal and these sorts of
things because we don't have a pure
singular trade business like HVAC or
like Plumbing we have pretty smooth
demand throughout the year as we've seen
people often come in for repairs and
deferred maintenance but more than half
of our consumer spend is discretionary
nature you've had a chandelier in a box
for six months you need the back deck
power wash the kids bookshelf needs to
be painted it goes on and on and on and
when you can execute those small things
they build up to large things we're
getting now into preventive maintenance
programs where you can put your entire
home on autopilot you know Round the
Clock around the year um and also safety
to make sure that your family is uh safe
and sound so a lot of opportunities
there and then how does that build up
what is the long-term vision of what
we're doing so we Clos the seed round
with with Gary and the fund um about 3
four months ago um we are focused on
building up that Playbook in DC and
Philadelphia I'm not interested in
entering new markets I'm interested in
dominating them which means that we need
to write that Playbook and show how we
scale customer acquisition in a
predictable way the service operations
get all those playbooks down and then
we'll start to hit the gas on that so
for the next year or two it's going to
be let's make sure we have that solid
growth we can then look at Geo expansion
and then the next layer of the cake
start to build on top of that so
ecosystem expansion you know it's not
about introducing random other lead
genen part ship it's what other value
can we create for homeowners to reduce
the stress of home ownership and make it
easier to manage your home so you can
think about a lot of fintech around
savings and financing program Rewards
program 5% of your credit card spend
goes to preventative programs in and
around your home uh we can get into
Insurance products like flipping on in
your app I want some warranty for my
roof I want warranty for uh my
appliances we already know the data in
the home because we collect a lot of
things by being on site that first party
data has a lot of value um things like
you know the Carfax for your home at
point of sale and then e-commerce can
also be a leg of the platform and then
finally the platform itself that we're
building we're looking at it like the
way Amazon built AWS we are the only
client for the next few years but there
are going to be a lot of markets that
bird watch doesn't want to have boots on
the ground over the course of the next
decade so we can open up that platform
to the huge cottage industry whether it
is true Estate Management up Market or
mid-market in in places that we don't
want to be um and as a a final little
teaser here as we close things out I
want to show you kind of where the puck
is going in terms of Technology we build
technology in three main areas for our
consumers for our managers and our field
technicians a lot of the software out
there is not built for Hospitality it's
either help desk or it's focused on very
granular trades it doesn't deliver the
kind of customer experience we need so
there's a lot to build but things like
AI will be a a force multiplier for us
as you can think about what can it do to
automate triage and pricing and
deployment and scheduling over the time
so here's a quick 60-second teaser of
the things I will be working on
[Music]
[Music]
he
[Music]
so I think you get the idea of how we
can make that a more elegant experience
over time um for those of you who live
in or have friends in in DC and
Philadelphia would' be happy to give you
coupon code leverage to give 25% off
membership for a year obviously we have
a geographic component to our business
will be growing over time um but the
last thing I want to leave you with the
reason we do this work I talked about
before the stress of it and how that
impacts people and their families it is
shown that the happiness that one has
with their home is three times more
indicative of their overall happiness
than even your income level so we derive
a lot of energy from our homes we want
to make sure that people have access to
a safe comfortable home that they can
enjoy thank
[Applause]
you any questions yep yes
sir
y so the membership is $80 a month right
now and that gives you the home manager
jur gives you the evaluation we get into
a person's home we're doing the
inspection frankly it's half therapy
session to get to know what's working
what's not it's 247 eall safe and sound
visit so you get a lot for that
value that's a good question um we are
intentionally delaying that decision
we're going to see how we scale up
between the urban core and the Suburban
environments in the two DC and
Philadelphia Metro areas and we're also
going to highlight maybe some markets
which operate in different ways from the
Northeast so we might go somewhere that
is similar um to build into those
strengths and then maybe something like
a Florida to lean into the home away
Market or more of a vacation market so
TBD thank
you yeah some of it we can dabble in
today like installing you know smart
home appliances or doing green energy
audits those kind of things today we
look at home maintenance as a beach head
right and we don't we don't talk a lot
about the word preventative maintenance
we sell in those programs but it's not
the thing that people are searching for
and capturing so we believe by building
up trust in doing that to-do list and
building that relationship I mean we're
in our homeowners homes six eight 15
times in some cases per year right so we
develop that Cadence of trust and once
we have that we believe we can build out
farther things like way waiting for
deliveries for you if you're not home
and all that kind of
stuff sure so about 70% of the work we
do ourselves and that kind of work is
50% margin and above um and when we do
specialty work stuff that we're never
going to do in house mold remediation is
best those tree pring driveways that
kind of stuff we get 133% and we flip
into a project management mode so we
don't really focus on making a ton of
money there but it's about being a
singular answer for your home and that's
where the value and the retention comes
into
play okay thank you
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