For this edition of Founder Spotlight, we had a chance to sit down with Joe Shiraz, the Founder and CEO of ServiceBot. ServiceBot is currently participating in the Launch Delta Home Services accelerator program. Because of his experience in launching multiple startup companies, he gives us a fresh outlook on how failing is ultimately what turned him into the entrepreneur that he is today.
ServiceBot uses text bots, machine learning, and proprietary algorithms to automate most of what it takes to run a home services company. Running a home services company is extremely difficult; business owners must schedule and ensure the quality of a highly distributed workforce, handle a constant bombardment of customer calls and requests, and deal with the administrative burden of payroll and billing.
ServiceBot takes that time back. They combine field service management, CRM, scheduling, back office functionality and much more into a complete home services management platform. What makes them unique is the way they approach automation, especially with customer communication.
Here is my far-ranging conversation with Joe Shiraz:
Q: Tell me more about ServiceBot.
Joe: ServiceBot is a SaaS platform to manage everything it takes to run a home service company. We manage everything from customer relations management, field service management, scheduling, billing, and even payroll — essentially all of the nuts and bolts of a company. What particularly makes it special is that we’re using text message bots and machine learning to automate a lot of the tasks that a home service provider has to do. Instead of a thirty minute phone call to reschedule a visit, someone can just text us and our bot will process it and provide the homeowner with options to reschedule, eliminating the need for home service providers to have to deal with the phone call and paperwork. We also have some other functionalities like one-click back office. We offer one-click billing where they can bill all of their customers at once. We’re just trying to use some of the new tools of technology today to make life easier for both home service providers and customers.
Q: How has your experience as a founder, with one startup exit, prepared you to run ServiceBot?
Joe: What has prepared me the most along the way has been all of my failures. You start to learn the pitfalls and begin to be able to see them coming in advance. It helps to learn from those mistakes. It’s hard to replicate the success you’ve previously had again with a new startup, but it helps to have that intuition on what to avoid and what pitfalls will come up. The MBA program I went to was good about teaching us about that. They have you go through a hundred different Harvard Business School cases and then have a socratic discussion about each case. I had to do all of the research and financial analysis for each case with all of these other entrepreneurs in the class, and it forced us to work together to figure out how to best move forward with each scenario. Practicing with these cases over and over prepared me well to move forward as an entrepreneur.
Q: Where do you see ServiceBot five years from now?
Joe: We would like to be the market leader with 20-30% of all home service companies using the software. We hope that we can acquire a lot of data so our machine learning processes can be as refined as possible, which is why I’m really excited about getting more and more users on it. In five years if we hope to have all of these providers, we would be in a unique position in the marketplace where we know all of the service providers’ attributes like when they’re late, when they aren’t, who’s good and who’s bad, their pricing, and scheduling. With all of this, we could be what’s called a “last mile” home service provider where large companies like Google, Amazon, or Yelp that are trying to get in home services could just plug into us and be able to manage home services in a real way.
Q: Tell us how being in the Launch Delta Home Services Accelerator Program and how having a space at ServiceMaster’s Ground Floor has helped you grow your business?
Joe: I’ve been in a lot of tech offices before, but the Ground Floor is just beautiful. It’s a great space and you feel like you’re in more of the tech world rather than just in home services. On a non-superficial level, it’s still awesome. I have executives and team members from ServiceMaster stopping by my desk and talking about my ideas with me and getting excited about different aspects of it. The partnerships have been invaluable with getting that level of insight. Even after coming from working with home services myself, being in this kind of high level, corporate environment has given me a lot of validation and new ideas. It’s been a great working environment.
Q: Where do you think you would be now had you not joined the Summer of Acceleration?
Joe: Well first, the funding definitely helps as a startup. It adds fuel to the fire for sure. Second, just being in Memphis and pulling myself out of my hometown and social circles has been helpful in getting laser focused. Not having to worry about my home responsibilities and just being here and only working on my business and nothing else has allowed me to allocate almost all my time towards ServiceBot. Third, just being around other home service companies and having the ability to talk about home service tech and the market has been super helpful as well. Being in Memphis with the startup community has been almost like a startup itself; everyone is hungry for success. I feel like I’ve gotten a lot more attention here than I would have in other programs across the country.
Q: What is one of your favorite memories so far in the program?
Joe: I’m having way more fun than I thought I would. The town is great and the people are friendly. BBQ Fest was one of my favorite experiences in Memphis this summer. Coming from Texas where we have pretty good barbecue, I thought to myself how good can Memphis barbecue really be? Boy was I wrong. BBQ Fest was insane; I don’t think I’ve ever eaten that much barbecue before in my life. That was just an overall great experience. It’s definitely on the list of things I want to keep coming back to.
I also love how many people here I can talk to and get excited about home services with. Those conversations have been my favorite; the intense happy hour conversations with people who are really energized about what we’re building have been awesome.
Q: What do you like to do for fun outside of building ServiceBot?
Joe: I’ve been playing a lot of pickup basketball at the YMCA. Memphis is a basketball town and there’s some great talent out there. It’s definitely a level of play that I haven’t played with in quite some time, but it’s a lot of fun.
Q: What advice would you give to someone like myself who’s a young twenty one year old hoping to eventually start my own business one day?
Joe: Don’t feel like youth is a weakness. I used to be hesitant about reaching out and asking for help. Don’t be hesitant. Asking for help and reaching out to the greater community early is something that I wished I would have done. I probably would have done a lot better with my first startup if I would have done that. Getting involved in the entrepreneurial community sooner rather than later is something I would advise to anyone looking to jump into the startup world.
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Joseph Shiraz graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a degree in Mathematics and received an MBA from the Acton School of Business (top rated entrepreneurial MBA program) where he graduated top in his class.
Professionally Joe has started multiple startups mostly in the services / home services industries. His first startup was a restaurant delivery company that was one of the first companies to offer online food ordering and mobile workforce dispatching. This company was acquired in 2010 by Mr. Delivery.
Most importantly he has over 15 years of home service experience working in various aspects of the industry, first for ServiceMaster in sales, marketing and support and then consulting for companies in verticals such as pool, cleaning, lawn, locksmiths and others, finally starting his own on-demand home services company.
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jshiraz Twitter: https://twitter.com/joeinaustin
By Jonah Baer