Skip to main content

A Cleaning Start-Up Wielding Mops, Buckets and 700 Data Points

By 
On a Thursday night in October 2013, Simon Brooks packed his belongings and drove west toward Silicon Valley, thinking he was on his way to creating the next Scrabble app, a word game he called Gadzookery. He had little to lose. Mr. Brooks owed more on his house in Louisville, Ky., than it was worth. His marriage was over and he had been working in restaurants and bars for two years, ever since the financial crisis forced him to leave his job as a mortgage broker.

“I put my dogs and my bags in the car and drove to the Dojo,” Mr. Brooks said. He was referring to Hacker Dojo in Silicon Valley, a community space for technology start-ups whose members (fees generally start at $125 a month) have round-the-clock access. The hacker space proved to be the key to his new enterprise — just not in the way he had imagined.
Mr. Brooks arrived with $12,000 and a rough version of his educational word game. He hoped to assemble a team at the Dojo to help him rebuild it but, once there, he found neither the developers he needed nor a room to rent. He wound up in motels instead. Four months later, he was out of money and living in his 1999 Lexus. When the Dojo’s manager asked for a volunteer to clean the restrooms and kitchen every afternoon in exchange for free membership, Mr. Brooks raised his hand. Without realizing it, he had taken the first step toward creating his start-up: a cleaning company that relies on analytics to improve efficiency and set prices. Larry Maloney, a founding member of Hacker Dojo, said people were dissatisfied with the quality of the work done by the cleaners before Mr. Brooks volunteered.

Normally, said Mr. Maloney, the Dojo smelled a bit sour, largely because of developers working late into the night. “After Simon,” he said, “it smelled squeaky clean.”That was no easy feat. The Dojo is a sprawling space of more than 16,000 square feet. It never closes and typically has at least 300 visitors each day.After eight months, management got rid of the small local firm that did its cleaning and began paying Mr. Brooks $400 a month for his services. Eight months after that — having spent about two years trying unsuccessfully to create the Gadzookery app — Mr. Brooks took a hard look at the commercial cleaning market.
“It was a $51 billion industry,” consisting mostly of small firms, he said. Mr. Brooks saw an opportunity. Hacker Dojo’s management agreed to give him a one-month advance to buy the equipment and supplies he needed to start, and in 2015 he started Squiffy Clean. There are about 100,000 firms in the commercial cleaning business in the country today, said John Barrett, executive director of ISSA, a trade association for the global cleaning industry. The 50 largest companies account for about 30 percent of the revenue, according to an industry report published by Dun & Bradstreet, leaving the other firms plenty of room to capture customers.
More than 90 percent of janitorial services companies are sole proprietorships, according to a report from the industry research firm IBISWorld. But the greatest turnover is at the start-up level, Mr. Barrett said.
“The churn is unbelievable,” he said. So far Mr. Brooks has avoided that churn. Six months after he began, he was earning enough to move his business out of Hacker Dojo and into an office in Palo Alto. His company is unusually high-tech for the industry. It collects more than 700 points of data, like the time it takes to mop a square foot, and uses the information to improve and refine its cleaning methods, and to set prices. “We have a client with an 8,000-square-foot building and we dove into the data and made changes to how the cleaning is done, such as combining certain tasks or changing the order in which they are done, and saved $600 in monthly labor costs,” Mr. Brooks said. “Margins in the industry are so low that we have to shave off every bit of labor we can.”
Most small cleaning companies charge by the number of labor hours, but Squiffy Clean created an algorithm that sets prices based on the data it collects about cleaning sites. The company is also developing a technology to prevent fraudulent workers’ compensation claims. It will use data to help determine whether an incident occurred. Mr. Barrett at ISSA says although large companies in the contract cleaning business use high-tech methods, it is far less common among smaller firms.
Compared with other office cleaning companies, Squiffy Clean generally pays a higher hourly wage (about $17 per hour). The median hourly wage in the industry is $11.27, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It also gives cleaners equity in the company and makes their safety a top priority. The residential cleaning service Handy, for example, was sued in 2014 by two of its former house cleaners, who accused the company of a variety of labor law violations.
Starting any business, regardless of the technology, is difficult — and even more so when the founder is homeless. But Mr. Brooks was physically and mentally healthy and had the support of Mr. Maloney and others at Hacker Dojo. One of Squiffy Clean’s first clients was Singularity University, a Silicon Valley think tank and start-up accelerator. “A lot of people view janitorial work as just a way to make money, but Simon embraces it as the very important job it is and takes a very scientific approach to it,” said Tom LeGan, the facilities manager at Singularity. “He’s also very compassionate about his workers. You don’t see that in many corporations, let alone a janitorial services company.”

Mr. Brooks still faces many of the same difficulties as other Bay Area start-ups, including a tight labor market. “We are all trying to attract the best engineers and the cleaning industry is not sexy, so it’s tough,” he said. Whatever the challenges, he said his life had been improved by entrepreneurship. He no longer lives in his car and has moved into an old 34-foot recreational vehicle. When he gets home, he is grateful just to have a shower and a bed. “I’ve lived in vehicles for so long I’ve gotten used to it,” Mr. Brooks said. “And this is a whole lot better than a car.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/08/business/smallbusiness/a-cleaning-start-up-wielding-mops-buckets-and-700-data-points.html?_r=0 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Amplify By Guardian - PATHOGEN CLEANING & DISINFECTING

PATHOGEN CLEANING & DISINFECTING Introducing our strongest response to pathogen cleaning... Amplify By Guardian.   Our Amplify By Guardian program provides you, your tenants, guests, and employees with the peace of mind needed to return to your daily activities. Developed in conjunction with industry experts, consultants and our in-house Certified Safety professionals, Amplify By Guardian focuses on the importance of proper disinfecting. Cleaning for health is the main focus and we can offer you several options on how to implement the program. Our cleaning technicians are specially trained in the latest disinfecting techniques under the guidance of our authorized and certified trainers. Emphasis is placed on using the latest EPA List N approved disinfectants and cleaners.  Product effectiveness improves daily and we make sure that we are using the best solution for your space. In addition to the chemicals used, we educate the cleaning technicians on proper dwell times to ensure the

Charles A. LoBosco Appointed President of Guardian Service Industries, Inc.

  For immediate release: January 30, 2023 Guardian Service Industries, Inc. New York, NY: Charles A. LoBosco has been appointed to the position of President of Guardian Service Industries, Inc.   Mr. LoBosco has been with Guardian for over ten years where he has overseen numerous business units in both the Janitorial and Security divisions, and provided senior level leadership and advisement across all company lines. Under his leadership, Guardian Security Services has had triple digit growth and is now a formidable and respected provider in the contract security arena. Charles is an industry veteran and SME with over 35 years in the facility services industry. Starting his career in 1986 as a sales and account executive for a large regional service provider, Charles rose quickly in the industry to where he is today after having served in various senior management roles for several companies, including 6 years as President for a national service provider prior to joining Guardian

THINKING ABOUT WINTER YET?

Now is the time to start getting your snow removal equipment ready.  Like with most pieces of equipment, preventive maintenance is the best way to stay ahead of the game by reducing downtime and costly repairs during peak season. The following check list will give you a head start in preparing for our first snow fall. Review, repair or replace the following snow removal equipment and restock your supplies as needed. Make sure you have a designated place for keeping all your snow items and that they are properly maintained. Plows  Snow blowers -  Shovels Ice scrapers Sand & salt Sand and salt spreaders Cover your employees – proper clothing and personal protective equipment: Workers should have durable work boots with slip resistant soles Workers performing snow removal should have gloves and safety glasses Remind workers to dress warmly and in layers Train now – make sure all workers are trained on proper snow removal procedures including: Safe equipment operation and maintenanc Pr