Summary
On this episode of Startup Junkies, hosts Caleb Talley, Jeff Amerine, and Victoria Dickerson are joined by Owen Parker. Owen is the co-founder and CTO of HomeKeeper, an app that creates easy to follow, effort-free maintenance plans for busy homeowners that want to take great care of their home without the hassle of researching, billing, and record keeping. Throughout the episode, Owen and the hosts discuss HomeKeeper’s origin story, creating a platform that helps both customers and vendors, and future plans for scaling.
Show Notes
(1:23) Introducing Owen Parker and HomeKeeper
(4:24) Owen’s Origin Story
(8:34) Advice for App Development
(10:26) Helping Both Customers and Vendors
(12:40) HomeKeeper’s Unique Rollout
(16:40) Raising Outside Capital
(18:10) What’s Next?
(19:53) How Owen’s Childhood Impacted His Entrepreneurial DNA
(22:44) Advice for the Younger Self
(25:56) Connecting with HomeKeeper
Links
Quotes
“I guess the advice would be do not over-engineer. But don’t solve your problem, solve whatever the universal problem is for that marketplace.” – Owen Parker, (10:10)
“That’s our number one priority, it’s advocating for the homeowner. Now that being said, when it comes to vendor relationships, we think that there’s a hugely positive impact for vendors as well.” – Owen Parker, (10:48)
“I think that’s the big thing that keeps me up at night. We’re sort of in a race against time to perfect the processes and models to take this to other markets, because we know that it’s going to happen. I mean, this business makes too much sense to not exist.” – Owen Parker, (16:03)
Solving Homeowner’s Headaches with Owen Parker
On this episode of Startup Junkies, hosts Caleb Talley, Jeff Amerine, and Victoria Dickerson are joined by Owen Parker. Owen is the co-founder and CTO of HomeKeeper, an app that creates easy to follow, effort-free maintenance plans for busy homeowners that want to take great care of their home without the hassle of researching, billing, and record keeping. Throughout the episode, Owen and the hosts discuss HomeKeeper’s origin story, creating a platform that helps both customers and vendors, and future plans for scaling.
Creating a Platform That Helps Customers and Vendors
Owen and his co-founders built HomeKeeper with the intention of creating a home services platform that simplified the home maintenance process for homeowners who don’t have the time to research on Yelp and read Google Reviews. The app compiles services, prices, and other important information and puts it in an easy to understand package, taking all of the frustration out of home maintenance and repair.
HomeKeeper’s unique business model allows homeowners to pay a regular monthly subscription fee, eliminating the frustrations of maintenance cost varience throughout the year.
“That’s our number one priority, it’s advocating for the homeowner. Now that being said, when it comes to vendor relationships, we think that there’s a hugely positive impact for vendors as well.” – Owen Parker, (10:48)
While HomeKeeper focuses much of its attention on customers, it appeals to vendors as well. Many service providers prefer to handle their own booking and are leery of platforms that sell services for them, but HomeKeeper offers several benefits for service providers. With it’s large network of customers, HomeKeeper provides consistent and reliable cashflow for vendors, and it also widens their potential customer base. Many homeowners are interested in services such as lawn treatment, but they assume it’s expensive or difficult to schedule. Through HomeKeeper’s easy to use interface, customers can see that lawn treatment is accessible and worth it.
Future Plans for Scaling
Currently, HomeKeeper is only active in Little Rock, Arkansas, but it hopes to expand to several new markets in the coming years. When Owen and his team founded HomeKeeper, they wanted proof of their concept before they scaled and grew to bigger markets. They’ve ironed out bugs, identified pain points, and crafted solutions, and now the business is considering expanding into neighboring markets, with Northwest Arkansas being a qualified candidate.
As HomeKeeper considers new markets, it understands the challenge of bringing on service providers that can be skeptical of platforms like this. By placing individuals in these markets to network and grow trust, the business hopes to show a new market of vendors how it can help them.
“I think that’s the big thing that keeps me up at night. We’re sort of in a race against time to perfect the processes and models to take this to other markets, because we know that it’s going to happen. I mean, this business makes too much sense to not exist.” – Owen Parker, (16:03)
While HomeKeeper continues to hone it’s process in Little Rock, Owen wasn’t shy about the race to scale HomeKeeper before other similar businesses establism themselvs in other markets.
Connect with Us!
Do you consider yourself a startup junkie? Join the conversation by following us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter! Startup Junkie wants to come alongside these entrepreneurs every step of the way. Want to learn more about our services?
English 
Spanish 
Korean