lot of value,” he says. You could compare it to Uber, the transportation startup that allows consumers to schedule car services on the fly, thereby reducing the amount of time professional drivers are waiting idly between jobs. And like Boston-based Rentabilities, which is building out an online marketplace for searching and reserving rentals for things from tools to party gear, Handybook is trying to streamline and modernize a previously very offline, ad hoc process.
Ultimately the startup could create a marketplace that allows premium service providers to charge more, but its mission is not driving costs down to the lowest possible amount for a given job, Hanrahan says.
Handybook opened up its website to the Boston market about two months ago and Manhattan about two weeks after that. It currently works out of Highland Capital Partners’ office at the Cambridge Innovation Center, and participated in the Summer@Highland incubator program. Handybook has received about $50,000 in funding from the venture firm. And Hanrahan and Dua won’t be returning to business school this year.
For now, Handybook.com caters to cleaning services and handymen, but eventually sees itself connecting consumers with any household service providers, like plumbers and electricians.
“In the short term, we’re going to keep pushing into the cities we’ve got already,” Hanrahan says. “We think there’s a whole lot of growth in Boston and Manhattan.”
