*
From Internet News:
Kher never had much trouble making big
deals when he was Microsoft’s director of
business decisions, engineering many
of that company’s high-profile acquisitions such
Hotmail. But Kher found himself thrashing
about for solutions when his wife asked him to
their two-story, three-bedroom house near
Seattle painted.
It was very frustrating,” Kher said. “I spent
weeks in phone tag with painters I had contacted
friends and the Yellow Pages. When it came
to decision time, I had bids ranging from
2,500 to $10,000 and no really good way to
decide which one was best. That was when
light bulb went off.”
The result was Imandi.com, a consumer infomediary Web operation founded with fellow Microsoft employee and software guru Eric Johnson who agreed there needed to be a better way to connect with a wide variety of services and products, get the best prices and establish
ratings to assist final choices.
Hindi.com (Indian word meaning “bazaar”
or “marketplace,”) was launched by its 35
in late May, backed by a startup round
of $1 million from angel investors.
Imandi.com has generated more than
5,000 purchase requests from
this despite a “soft” launch phase
with little publicity.
To use the system, a consumer logs on to
Imandi.com and selects from one of the five
they currently offer: travel,
finance, automotive, home and garden and moving.
Within these broad categories, a specific
selection, such as painting or roofing is selected a detailed questionnaire filled out which is sent out for bid to the site’s nationwide network 100,000 contractors and merchants.
To weed out unsatisfactory experiences, Imandi
uses an eBay-type user feedback system to
report their experiences. And unlike many other
buying sites, Imandi doesn’t sign exclusive
agreements with any of the merchants or
contractor, allowing them to offer vendor-neutral
service.
Imandi’s biggest challenge, according to
Williams, is the ability to sign up contractors.
“This is a local market and it remains to be
seen how many local contractors will sign up.”
A company spokesman would not say how many of
the 100,000 businesses in their database
have formally signed up, but added that Imandi
is offering an incentive by not charging any
commission on completed deals for the first six
to eight months. Kher says Imandi also
anticipates revenue from advertising and,
perhaps, subscription revenues. Williams also
suggested Imandi might consider wholesaling
these services to local city sites which are
desperate for good content.
And Kher’s house? He finally accepted a $3,300
bid from a painter with good references
who did a fine job that he and his wife are
happy with, even though it took a lot more time
and hassle than they would have liked.
Replies
*
scc,
I guess it had to come to this.
You won't find us listed there.
Ed. Williams
*
Dear scc:
Anything Microsoft (or its "top people")do is pretty scary to me. After attempting to function in a Microsoft environment for three years, I've decided to bite the bullet and move to Apple. God help anyone (contractor or customer) who tries to take advantage of one of their "brilliant ideas."
*Orwellian by nature?Kind of suspicious of that little globe in the top right hand corner of my screen, you know, it rotates and up comes the micro-soft logo?I think it might be watchin' me...
*
Clay, there's always the kind folks at Mozilla.
*I think any of you that the web is not a place to do business are selling yourselves short. Until 1 year ago I was a true disbeliever in the web as well. I have now come to the opinion that it is seriously underdevloped. I really think this will be the prime medium in the future. (It will scare my brother to see me say this)There is no more severe a judgement than in the courtroom of public opinion. If you are a flunkie you would get weeded right out of a site like the one described above. If you are good, you will flourish.I am afraid this is fact, E-commerce and the internet will grow in ways we cannot even fathom. If you folks have ever paid to print promotional materials, it probably cost you more than to set-up your own website. A site tht can be easily updated, topical, thorough, explainative, etc. All while costing you less time than one "go-nowhere quote" face to face with a person.-Rob
*I think the concept is a good one; there was a long piece in the Times recently about a start-up in the Silicon Valley with a similar concept, designed to accumulate the wisdom of people who have actual experience with a product or service. Sure would beat trying to to judge by the name of the company or the size of their ad. Referrals are great, but when you have none and know little about the field, where do you go?As for Microsoft, evidently y'all have missed the important story.If you have more idle time, here's more idle reading.
*
From Internet News:
Kher never had much trouble making big
deals when he was Microsoft's director of
business decisions, engineering many
of that company's high-profile acquisitions such
Hotmail. But Kher found himself thrashing
about for solutions when his wife asked him to
their two-story, three-bedroom house near
Seattle painted.
It was very frustrating," Kher said. "I spent
weeks in phone tag with painters I had contacted
friends and the Yellow Pages. When it came
to decision time, I had bids ranging from
2,500 to $10,000 and no really good way to
decide which one was best. That was when
light bulb went off."
The result was Imandi.com, a consumer infomediary Web operation founded with fellow Microsoft employee and software guru Eric Johnson who agreed there needed to be a better way to connect with a wide variety of services and products, get the best prices and establish
ratings to assist final choices.
Hindi.com (Indian word meaning "bazaar"
or "marketplace,") was launched by its 35
in late May, backed by a startup round
of $1 million from angel investors.
Imandi.com has generated more than
5,000 purchase requests from
this despite a "soft" launch phase
with little publicity.
To use the system, a consumer logs on to
Imandi.com and selects from one of the five
they currently offer: travel,
finance, automotive, home and garden and moving.
Within these broad categories, a specific
selection, such as painting or roofing is selected a detailed questionnaire filled out which is sent out for bid to the site's nationwide network 100,000 contractors and merchants.
To weed out unsatisfactory experiences, Imandi
uses an eBay-type user feedback system to
report their experiences. And unlike many other
buying sites, Imandi doesn't sign exclusive
agreements with any of the merchants or
contractor, allowing them to offer vendor-neutral
service.
Imandi's biggest challenge, according to
Williams, is the ability to sign up contractors.
"This is a local market and it remains to be
seen how many local contractors will sign up."
A company spokesman would not say how many of
the 100,000 businesses in their database
have formally signed up, but added that Imandi
is offering an incentive by not charging any
commission on completed deals for the first six
to eight months. Kher says Imandi also
anticipates revenue from advertising and,
perhaps, subscription revenues. Williams also
suggested Imandi might consider wholesaling
these services to local city sites which are
desperate for good content.
And Kher's house? He finally accepted a $3,300
bid from a painter with good references
who did a fine job that he and his wife are
happy with, even though it took a lot more time
and hassle than they would have liked.