If you own a home, you know that there is always something that needs to be repaired, installed or generally addressed. Whether it’s a leaky faucet, a new bed that needs to be assembled or a Nest thermostat that needs to be installed, there is always something.

One startup wants to make that particular part of home ownership less painful by offering up a dedicated handyman to be there to take care of all the random tasks on your to-do list. It’s an interesting model. Honey Homes hires the handyman as part of its staff, as a salaried employee to help ensure consistency in who’s taking care of the work in your home. Homeowners pay Honey Homes a flat fee ($200 per month or $2,000 per year) for the convenience of a membership-based “end-to-end” service using its app.

The way it works is that members are matched with a dedicated handyperson who comes by at least once a month to take care of home improvements and preventative maintenance. Because the employees are salaried, they also receive benefits, including parental leave and paid time off, a rarity in an industry that has historically relied on contractors.

Honey Homes launched the company with its first 10 beta customers in August of 2021 and is currently available to single-family homeowners in all of the San Francisco Bay Area suburbs, although not San Francisco proper. It recently began operations in Dallas.

Husband and wife team Vishwas Prabhakara (Yelp’s first general manager) and Avantika Prabhakara (a former marketing head at Opendoor, Trulia and Zillow) teamed up with Katie Pham and Rory O’Connell to start Honey Homes in 2021.

In the last two years, Honey Homes has grown to more than 500 members and has completed over 20,000 tasks for homeowners, according to Vishwas. The company grew members — and thus revenue — by 8x in 2022, he added, and almost doubled already this year.

Since inception, the company has raised a total of $12.1 million in funding, including more recently $9 million in a Series A led by Khosla Ventures. Khosla and Pear VC co-led Honey Homes’ seed round in 2021. Other backers include Teambuilder Ventures and Moving Capital, along with angel investors such as DoorDash co-founders Tony Xu and Stanley Tang, Lyft co-founder Logan Green, Opendoor co-founder Eric Wu and Mercury co-founder Immad Akhund, among others. 

Vishwas told TechCrunch he began working on the company in earnest after talking to a number of homeowners and concluding that there would be enough people interested in paying for a generalist to come to their house once or twice a month for ongoing maintenance or improvement work. 

“I asked them, ‘would that be interesting to you? Would you pay for that?’ And surprisingly to me, the answer was a resounding yes,” he said. “We seemed to hit a nerve with homeowners.”

The Honey Homes app lets a homeowner create a to-do list and schedule appointments. It also helps pair homeowners with specialists if needed.

But what if, I was curious, you cross all the tasks off your to-do list? What then?

“The one thing that has been really eye-opening is that by offering this as a membership service, all of a sudden you realize you want more,” Vishwas said.”And there are some people who just like the peace of mind.”

Honey Homes employs 45 people, including 25 handy people. Vishwas said the consistency of workers has helped boost its credibility.

“From a homeowner perspective, what you want is somebody you can build a relationship with and trust,” he told TechCrunch. “And so seeing the same person over and over is highly valuable to a homeowner.”

The startup has also launched something called Honey Homes University, or a training facility for people who work in the field so they can build their skills. Looking ahead, Honey Homes eventually plans to expand into urban centers but for now is focused on serving suburban single family homeowners, which Vishwas says tend to have a wider set of upkeep and maintenance needs.

Khosla Partner Evan Moore, who joined the Honey Homes board as part of the Series A funding round and also is a co-founder of DoorDash, said that while he was VP of product at Opendoor he saw that the company “could get dramatically better service, quality and pricing from home service providers.”

But as an individual homeowner, “it’s hard to reliably get good work done at a reasonable cost.”

Moore wrote via email: “Many startups have attempted to improve this customer experience and failed, but it seems Honey Homes got it right. Rarely does an idea work so well so quickly. I’ve been involved since day one and have been fortunate to see the incredible response from customers.”

He believes that Honey Homes differs from many other consumer startups in the home services space that simply match homeowners with potential vendors or “serve as a concierge.”

Added Moore: “Honey Homes solves the whole problem of home improvement and maintenance, from idea to completion. By doing quality work repeatedly, we build trust with our customers. They then reward us with more work over time.”

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Photo credit: the Burtons / Getty Images

If you own a home, you know there’s always something that needs fixing, installing, or general repairs. Whether it’s a faucet leaking, a new bed in need of assembly, or a Nest thermostat in need of installation, there’s always something.

A startup wants to make that particular part of homeowning less of a pain by offering a dedicated handyman to take care of all the random tasks on your to-do list. It’s an interesting model. honey houses hires the handyman as part of its staff as an employee to ensure the work is consistent throughout your home. Homeowners pay Honey Homes a flat fee ($200 per month or $2,000 per year) for the convenience of an “end-to-end” membership-based service through the app.

The way it works is that members are assigned a dedicated handyman who visits at least once a month to take care of home improvement and preventative maintenance. Because employees are salaried, they also receive benefits, including parental leave and paid time off, a rarity in an industry that has historically relied on contractors.

Honey Homes launched the company with its first 10 beta customers in August 2021 and is currently available to single-family homeowners in all suburbs of the San Francisco Bay Area, excluding San Francisco itself. It recently began operations in Dallas.

man woman team Vishwas Prabhakara (Yelp’s first General Manager) and Avantika Prabhakara (former marketing director at Opendoor, Trulia and Zillow) joined forces with Katie Pham and Rory O’Connell to found Honey Homes in 2021.

In the last two years, Honey Homes has grown to over 500 members and claims to have completed over 20,000 homeowner tasks Vishwas. The company has grown membership — and therefore revenue — eightfold in 2022, he added, and has already nearly doubled this year.

Since inception, the company has raised a total of $12.1 million in funding, most recently raising $9 million in Series A led by Khosla Ventures. Khosla and Pear VC co-led the Honey Homes seed round in 2021. Other supporters are: Team builders Ventures and Moving Capital, as well as angel investors such as DoorDash co-founders Tony Xu and Stanley Tang, Lyft co-founders Logan Green, Opendoor co-founders Eric Wu and Mercury co-founders Immad Akhund.

Vishwas informed TechCrunch that he has started working on the company in earnest after speaking to a number of homeowners and Conclusion: There would be enough people who would be interested in paying a generalist to come to their home once or twice a month to do ongoing maintenance or enhancements.

“I asked her, ‘Would that be interesting for you?’ Would you pay for it?’ And surprisingly, for me, the answer was a resounding yes,” he said. “We seemed to have struck a chord with homeowners.”

With the Honey Homes app, a homeowner can create a to-do list and schedule appointments. It also helps homeowners work with specialists when needed.

But what if I was curious and crossed all tasks off your to-do list? So what?

“The one thing that’s really eye-opening for me is that when you offer this as a membership service, you suddenly realize you want more,” Vishwas said. “And there are some people who just like peace of mind.”

Honey Homes employs 45 people, including 25 tradesmen. Vishwas said the staff’s consistency helped boost the company’s credibility.

“Of a From a homeowner’s perspective, you want someone you can relate to and trust,” he told TechCrunch. “Therefore, seeing the same person over and over again is extremely valuable for a homeowner.”

The startup has also created what it calls Honey Homes University, a training facility for people working in the field so they can build their skills. Looking ahead, Honey Homes eventually plans to expand into urban centers, but for now is focused on serving suburban single-family homeowners, who Vishwas said tend to have greater maintenance and upkeep needs.

Khosla partner Evan Moore, who joined Honey Homes’ board of directors as part of the Series A funding round and is also a co-founder of DoorDash, said that as vice president of products at Opendoor, he saw the company “could get significantly better service, quality and prices from home service providers.”

But as an individual homeowner, “it’s difficult to reliably do a good job at a reasonable cost.”

Moore wrote via email, “Many startups have tried and failed to improve this customer experience, but Honey Homes seems to have gotten it right.” Rarely does an idea work so well so quickly. I’ve been there since day one and have been fortunate to see the incredible response from customers.”

He believes Honey Homes differs from many other consumer home services startups that simply match homeowners with potential vendors or “act as a concierge.”

Moore added, “Honey Homes solves the entire home improvement and maintenance problem, from idea to completion. By doing quality work repeatedly, we build trust with our customers. They then reward us with more work over time.”

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New homes in downtown San Diego. Photo by Chris Stone

Have you ever wondered why rental costs in the region have become so high? Well, the apartment rental website Rent Cafe provides some insight in answering this question.

According to a recent study by the website, “rising home prices and a preference for flexibility have led to a wave of high earners” nationwide competing in the rental market over the past half decade.

According to the latest analysis, more than 2.6 million Americans with incomes of $150,000 and above are choosing to rent homes over buying.

Here in California, that group has exploded by 136% in the last five years.

But what is the fallout for San Diego? Renters making $150,000 or more annually now make up 12.4% of San Diego renters. That’s a significant number.

According to the study, the number of well-heeled renters in San Diego has doubled to 33,500 since 2018.

And it’s pretty obvious that this demand for luxury living is one of the reasons so many luxury homes are coming onto the market.

During the same period, home prices rose 36% — less than state sister cities like San Jose, which saw increases of over 50% — but still well above the national average of 29%.

Some other results: San Diego ranked #7 on a list of the top 20 high-income renter places.

San Francisco ranked #1 with more than 80,000 residential units occupied by well-paid tenants. Last on the list was San Antonio, Texas, with less than 3% of units occupied by people making $150,000 or more.

* * *

Hungry for something new while eating out? Here are a few dining tidbits.

A new franchise from The great Greek Mediterranean grilll has opened in the Kearney Mesa neighborhood – the chain’s first franchise location in California.

According to a press release, the new grill owner is there Manic Sharma“an avid traveler with over two decades of management experience and a background in the food and retail industry.”

Meanwhile a new restaurant the sushi stand, opens at Point Loma’s Liberty Public Market. According to a publicist, it will be the only sushi restaurant in the market.

The restaurant was created by the owners of the SoCal chain The perfect ParisPlus guillaume And Ludivine Ryon.

* * *

Fortune 500 News: Fortune Magazine has named a local energy supplier always as one of its “World’s Most Admired Companies for 2023”.

According to a press release from Sempra, the company has now made the prestigious list 13 times.

* * *

Local non-profit organization Wounded warrior homes has reopened his home in Vista for wounded warriors. The home is home to four veterans with post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injuries.

According to a publicist for the group, veterans can stay in the home for up to two years, depending on their needs, while also receiving support such as counseling and rehabilitation services.

The reopening of the home brings the total number of Veterans housed in Wounded Warrior Homes to 14 at a time.

The house needed repairs and modernization, including from local sponsors tuft, ServPro from North Vista and San Marcos, Collins Pacific Plumbing And Come on HotMop.

* * *

Political Action Group San Diego County Gun Ownerswho champions 2nd Amendment rights Gail Rower a former associate of two Sacramento legislatures for 12 years as the new executive director.

Michael Blackthe founder of SDCGO, announced this.

“We live under the most anti-gun government in our country’s history,” Ramer said. “Activism is more important now than ever.”

Ramer was on the staff of the former congressman and current state senator brian jonesand later MP Randy Voepel.

* * *

Based in San Diego Mulligan Funding, which claims to be one of the nation’s largest providers of access to working capital for small and medium-sized businesses, has completed a $100 million asset-backed securitization.

According to a publicist, this new financing continues the company’s story of impressive growth, even in difficult market conditions.

As the first securitization by Mulligan Funding, the Senior Bonds received an A rating of Kroll Bond rating agencythe highest rating they give to a first-time issuer in this asset class, she said.

The facility has a revolving term of 3 years and is expandable to US$500 million.

* * *

The Chamber of Commerce Karlovy Vary celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2023 and has planned a number of activities throughout the year to celebrate the achievement, according to a press release.

Since the chamber was founded 30 years before Carlsbad and the county government was 35 miles away in San Diego, the organization became the voice of the community and remains a powerful influence on business today.

President and CEO Bret Schanzenbach said the chamber will host a community block party on Aug. 18. “To thank the community, along with a red carpet gala on October 13 to raise money for our foundation.”

* * *

Planet Based Foods Global said it will use its dairy-free cheese alternative for its Southwest Style Taquitos and Original with Cheese Taquitos.

The Canada-based public company said the inclusion of these products “reflects their efforts to create more sustainable and ethical food systems without compromising on the most important factor, taste.”

According to a press release, the company’s subsidiary, Planet Based Foods, was formed in San Diego in 2018 to develop a system that would provide “hemp-formulated superfood products today that support the planet tomorrow.”

* * *

Detection of fentanyl in urine drug test samples remains near historic highs, and concomitant detection of fentanyl in people who use heroin, prescription opioids, methamphetamine or cocaine has reached new heights, according to a report from the San Diego Testing Laboratory Millennium Health this week.

According to the company, between 2019 and 2022, drug tests positive for fentanyl increased 146% nationwide and in nearly all U.S. census departments, particularly in the Pacific and Mountain regions, where positive fentanyl tests increased 875%.

More than 83% of the fentanyl-positive specimens also contained additional drugs; about 30% were positive for another drug, over 43% were positive for 2-3 other drugs, and nearly 10% were positive for 4 or more other drugs.

Tom York is a Carlsbad-based independent journalist specializing in writing about business and economics. If you have any news tips you’d like to share, send them to tom.york@gmail.com.

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COVID-19 Caused no Deaths Among People Experiencing Homelessness, but the Pandemic Reduced Contact With Substance Use Services

By Laura Kurtzman

More than twice as many people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco died during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to previous years, with the leading cause of death being drug overdose. No deaths were attributed to the virus itself.

The research, conducted by UC San Francisco in collaboration with the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH), demonstrates the urgent need to reach people who use drugs and are unhoused with substance use services. The research also shows that the City’s COVID-19 mitigation strategies to support this population, including placing people in shelters in Place hotel rooms, were largely protective and may have prevented additional deaths from occurring.

The study, which appears in JAMA Network Open, examined deaths of people characterized as homeless between March 17, 2020, when San Francisco’s shelter-in-place order was issued, until March 16, 2021, compared to the deaths each year from 2016 until 2019. It then linked them to the City’s data showing demographic characteristics and the services people had used before they died. Autopsy results were provided by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

The overwhelming majority of the deaths, or 82%, were associated with drug overdose, mostly from synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl, often used with methamphetamine. Other causes of death were far less common: 6% died of traumatic injury, including homicide and suicide; 5% died of chronic conditions; 3% died of complications of chronic alcohol use; and 2% died of other causes. San Francisco’s data stands in contrast to other cities such as New York, in which COVID-19 was the leading cause of deaths among the homeless population, followed by drug overdoses.

Mitigating death among people experiencing homelessness will require a multi-faceted approach and a willingness to invest significant resources.

Maria Raven, MD, MPH

“Our findings highlight the severe vulnerabilities faced by individuals who do not have housing,” said Maria Raven, MD, MPH, Chief of Emergency Medicine at UCSF and a Vice Chair in the UCSF Department of Emergency Medicine. Raven also co-leads the program on adults with complex needs at the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative.

“Death from the COVID-19 pandemic may have been avoided, but deaths from other factors known to impact this population disproportionately – drug use and violence – have increased,” she said. “Mitigating death among people experiencing homelessness will require a multi-faceted approach and a willingness to invest significant resources.”

About 80 percent of those who died were male, and as a clear sign of the racial disparity among those who died, a disproportionate number (27%) were Black, although the City’s Black population is just 5.6%.

The pandemic disrupted substance use services as fentanyl was driving a spike in overdoses in San Francisco. Since more than 90% of those who died were known to the City’s public health and social services, the researchers could track their use of services over time. Although fewer people generally used medical services during the pandemic, two-thirds of the people in the study were able to access care in the 12 months prior to their deaths. But contact with substance use services dropped from 20% in 2019-2020 to 13% during the 2020-2021 pandemic year.

“The pandemic has significantly impacted our delivery of care and services to people experiencing homelessness,” said Barry Zevin, MD, SFDPH’s Medical Director of Street Medicine, Shelter Health, and the Open Access Clinic. “We have been able to provide care and treatment to large numbers of people who were previously hidden and hopeless. The key is meeting people where they are at.”

UCSF and SFDPH researchers said it was important to track the cause of death among people experiencing homelessness during the pandemic, so as not to assume they all died of COVID-19. Linking mortality data with the uses of services could help identify places where services could be increased to prevent future deaths.

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