This startup helps homeowners in India find trusted professionals for any home improvement project

Finding the best person for a home improvement project in India is almost like shooting in the dark, and the home improvement market is highly unorganized. Anyone with basic knowledge of a particular job, from cleaning to plumbing, can claim to be a professional.

Be it interior design or upholstery repair, word of mouth referrals for handymen are usually the best bet. Even if you are lucky enough to find one, next comes reviewing for a quote, fetching materials, and finally negotiating the total bill.

Two techies, Dhirendra Pratap and Ramesh Chincholi, went through a similar tedious experience while searching for suitable professionals for an interior design job and still didn’t get what they paid for. Hence, they conceived of HomeTriangle in October 2013 with an objective to help homeowners connect with qualified professionals. Both quit their full time jobs at Komli Media and bootstrapped HomeTriangle’s operations starting from January this year in Bangalore.

The listed businesses showcase their service packages for a variety of home maintenance jobs. “Since the homeowners are our primary focus, we offer a social marketplace and are very different from other classifieds portals. We don’t charge the professionals to promote or boost their listings. Their rankings are purely based on customer reviews and feedback,” Chincholi told Tech in Asia.

A social marketplace

HomeTriangle lets a user input their requirements or choose from the listed service packages. When the user submits the requirements and his or her location, the site delivers a list of professionals. The resulting list contains professionals with higher positive reviews and immediate availability on top and the fresh firms at the bottom.

Only after the home owners opt to book the services are contact details exchanged. Once the handymen complete their job, HomeTriangle calls the home owner to give feedback and review the workers.

Going forward, the company foresees India’s language diversity as a key challenge. Personalization for local languages puts homeowners at ease while sharing feedback. Customers feel more comfortable and can share accurate details when sharing their experience with the professionals.

In order to maintain quality standards, the team only lists registered firms. Once listed, the firms can post service packages that include details about available jobs and the costs. They can upload images to showcase their work and skills. “At our marketplace, many professionals noted an increase in their lead conversions,” stated Chincholi.

Listing a business is free for access to basic services, and they can opt to pay a yearly subscription for a personalized dashboard and other features.

These subscriptions and a commission on the service packages is the current source of revenue for HomeTriangle. It plans to introduce a point system to facilitate quick payments for both home owners and professionals. Apart from that, contextual advertising for big companies to promote their home improvement products and dealers is also on its list.

Currently, the company is crunching numbers related to over 80 listed businesses covering 12 regions in India. Beyond that, they plan to seek funding and expand operations. Capitalizing on the smartphone boom, introducing a mobile interface and an app are also priorities.