Listen to this articleBelow is our recent interview with Kwame Boler, CEO and Co-founder of neu:
Q: Can you tell us something more about the company and your business?
A: neu is a reliable platform that provides quality cleans on demand. For cleaners, we’re a modern alternative to an agency. We help them find stable, consistent, and high-paying work based on their availability. For vacation rental hosts and homeowners, we provide access to a network of vetted service providers to foster peace of mind and streamline on-demand cleaning. For guests, we improve their vacation experience. We help ensure that they check-in to a clean space, with fresh linens, and all amenities needed for them to enjoy their vacation.
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Q: Can you give us more insights into your services?
A: Unlike many of our competitors, we’re able to give hosts and homeowners a direct quote, instantly, and actually show up — there’s no back-and-forth, haggling, or up-pricing the service and we also foster peace of mind with automated alerts, custom checklists, updates, and photos. Our tech syncs directly to their Airbnb, VRBO, or any calendar-enabled account, and auto-schedules cleans after every checkout. This, when combined with our linen/supply provisions — sheets, towels, amenities, toiletries, PPE, etc. — significantly reduces the need for a homeowner to visit their property in-between guest stays and generate passive income.
Additionally, cleaners on-average earn more on our platform than they would independently.
It takes much longer to do a single load of laundry than to clean an entire apartment and because cleaners come equipped with all supplies and PPE, they can complete 2-3 times the number of jobs within the same window of time. We also help streamline service by owning the marketing, sales, and customer support to ensure that they’re best set up for success and allow them to focus on what they do best.
Q: What’s the best thing about neu that people might not know about?
A: I think what often delights our customers is how comprehensive the service is — that and the fact that it actually works. Our competition pales in comparison and many of our customers share horror stories of what life was like before neu.
Another huge component is our mission and social impact.
Outside of being an environmentally conscious company, we value diversity, equity, and inclusion. It’s no secret that housekeepers have been trapped in a perpetually stagnant industry and even though cleaning is quite technical, there is a strong societal shame associated with domestic work. Additionally, and possibly consequentially, many housekeepers are poorly compensated, looked down upon, and are 3× more likely to be living in poverty — which has a significant effect on nearly an entire industry disproportionately comprised of women (>90%) and people of color (>50%).
Neu’s committed to disrupting this industry by creating a pipeline of high-paying, stable, and consistent work and introducing opportunities to those who traditionally wouldn’t have access. Cleaners on neu are paid 1.5 – 3× the national average and have the freedom and flexibility to work when they want to, not because they have to.
Q: What’s your revenue model? How are you funded?
A: Transaction and Subscription-Transaction. Our customers can either order one-off jobs or opt-in to a monthly/annual subscription in exchange for a discount on transactional services and premium features.
We’ve primarily operated as a bootstrapped company but recently accepted venture capital to grow and scale our business. Our seed round was led by New Stack Ventures and other notable venture partners/investors included MTT Ventures, Greg Greeley, and Techstars.
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Q: What is next on the roadmap for neu?
A: We’ve just launched our next location in Phoenix/Scottsdale! We’re extremely excited to set up shop and look forward to catering to the needs of Arizona hosts.
Last Updated on December 26, 2020
