RemodelMate, the new service which connects homeowners with licensed contractors is improving home improvement for the journeyman homeowner and needs your help. A firm launch date has not been set, but the goal is to have the finished product ready for use in time for the start of the home improvement season this spring. The program will be available in San Francisco (HQ), Washington, D.C. & New York and is currently crowdfunding via gofundme to meet their next milestone. RemodelMate is the only wholly owned minority technology start-up company in the remodeling industry, something of which the founders are extremely proud as the team is gains momentum. In November, RemodelMate’s app earned first place at the California State University’s (CSUMB) Startup Hackathon.
Created by three BGLO members, RemodelMate is a web and mobile application which helps homeowners with their home improvement projects by simplifying the process of finding a contractor and calculating and comparing costs.
The process is simple. Using the RemodelMate app, homeowners who are ready to renovate enter their zip code and are matched with contractors in their area who offer the products, services and prices that suit their needs. The contractors are invited to the platform after a vigorous vetting and approval procedure. RemodelMate has avoided big government data and reviews and instead are offering a simple way for homeowners to upgrade without the hassle of time sensitive estimates and harassing sales calls.
The company’s founders are Chad Hall, a Brother of Alpha Phi Alpha, who got his first sales job while a student at UMD and has since worked in the home improvement industry and in business development at technology start-ups LivingSocial, Breeze and Indeed; Victor Etongwe, Chad’s college roommate, friend and Brother of Omega Psi Phi who brings his marketing and real estate experience from Bozzuto to RemodelMate, and Steven Lee, a mutual friend of theirs’ and Brother of Kappa Alpha Psi, who brings his experience in finance, gained from working in real estate investments and at J.P. Morgan as a Business Risk Analyst.
“I got so many calls from friends & family members asking for my opinion to make sure that they were not overpaying that I realized there was a problem. There seemed to be a lot of distrust of contractors and I set out to change that,”
Hall explains, describing the motivation for RemodelMate. Interestingly, Etongwe and Lee were also used to fielding similar inquiries from their clients, which provided them with an intimate appreciation of the problem and the motivation to build a product to make the process more transparent and overcome these challenges. The team did not disclose how they’ve been able to provide pricing to users in real-time (which traditionally requires an onsite estimate) stating that it’s part of their trade secrets, but urge any homeowners, contractors and tech enthusiasts to request an invite while the platform is in private beta for a sneak peek or send an email to hello@remodelmate.com to learn more before the public launch early in 2016.
RemodelMate is deliberately for-going monthly subscriptions or pay-per-lead models to make the platform inviting to both homeowners and contractors. Instead they have figured out how they will generate revenue by “aligning the services of their platform with the goals of their end-users in mind” which for homeowners is to save time and money and for contractors to win more jobs. At this time they are rapidly finishing development of the final product and need all the help they can get as minorities in the tech space if they intend to continue improving home improvement.
If you’d like to you can support their campaign here.
