Charlotte startup StreetFair has announced that it will officially be joining Thumbtack, a San Francisco platform built to streamline home improvement efforts.
The announcement marks the culmination of five years of building at StreetFair, a process Co-Founder and CEO Teddy Fitzgibbons referred to as the “easiest, hardest, and the most fun ‘work’” he’s ever done.
Financial details were not disclosed, but Fitzgibbons shared that it didn’t happen overnight. “We spent many months getting to know Thumbtack, their team, vision for the future, and of course what impact we could have together on this industry,” he said. “It felt like a very natural fit and we’re excited to join forces.”
When GrepBeat last covered StreetFair, the startup was working on geographical expansion of its platform, which helps homeowners find and coordinate home services based on recommendations from neighbors. The company had just expanded to the Triangle, and since then has continued to work on moving into new areas.
Moving toward acquisition
As StreetFair went about launching in new markets, the team was not specifically angling for acquisition. Rather, the focus was on improving its community-driven experience for homeowners and local service professionals alike in whatever way was most effective.
“Our vision has always been to build a better way for homeowners to find businesses they could trust, and vice versa, and then scale our solution nationwide,” Fitzgibbons said. “We always knew there could be many ways to realize that vision.”
In the process of working toward that goal, the StreetFair team was introduced to Thumbtack through 1984 VC (one of StreetFair’s investors). The relationship developed naturally from there.
“Joining Thumbtack felt like a great way to scale efficiently and benefit from their extensive network and expertise as well,” Fitzgibbons said. He specified that because Thumbtack already has a national network on both sides of the equation—homeowners and service professionals, that is—the partnership will help StreetFair achieve nationwide rollout of its neighborhood-driven experience “much faster and more efficiently.”
What will change?
Asked what would change for an existing StreetFair user, Fitzgibbons was clear that the experience will only improve.
“It’ll only get better for you!” he said. “Everything you love about StreetFair’s product will be coming to Thumbtack’s app later this year, and much more, since we’ll benefit from Thumbtack’s scale, resources, and existing user base.” This, he clarified, means more neighborhood recommendations, more group service visits, and more listed local professionals.
He did not that there will be a short-term disruption of service as they sunset the existing StreetFair app and transfer the platform over to Thumbtack. Ultimately, though, the fully integrated experience will amount to “taking the best of both platforms to create one seamless experience for homeowners and professionals.”
As for Fitzgibbons and his team, they’ll be integrating as well. They’re joining Thumbtack across product, engineering, and operations to build and scale the neighborhood-driven solution from the inside.
