Mike Glanz - Co-founder & CEO of HireAHelper

Welcome to the Tacos and Tech Podcast, where we discover cutting edge technology and the builders making it happen. I'm your host, Neal Bloom, San Diego's tech ambassador, and together we're going to uncover what technology San Diegans are creating with our own blend of local lifestyle. This podcast episode is proudly brought to you by our friends at Cox Business, a broadband and cloud services provider to the modern tech company. As a longtime supporter of San Diego Startup Week and the San Diego startup community, Cox also puts on top Tech awards. Get started. And most recently, quick pitch with San Diego Venture Group and Techcoast Angels. Thanks again to our friends at Cox Business for their support of the community. Welcome back. This is your host, Neal Bloom to the Tacos and Tech Podcast and I am joined with co founder and CEO Mike Glanz. Hire a Helper. Recently acquired Hire A Helper, which we're excited to talk a little about, but why don't you give us a quick little bit about what Hire Helper is?

Hire Helper is a marketplace for online shopping of moving services. We consider ourselves the Airbnb of moving. We have full service and labor only movers in 50 states and we've been doing that for about 11 years now.

That's awesome. I'm excited to hear about the genesis of that. Why don't you take us though way back, where'd you grow up?

I actually grew up in San Diego, Mission Bay Area. Went to Claremont High School.

A local. A unicorn.

Yeah.

Native.

Yeah, I got born and raised all around Mission Bay Area, Pacific beach, you know, it's my hangout spots. And then went to school in Riverside, started a company there and then and moved right back the second I could afford it, and now we're in Oceanside area.

Okay, so ucr, The Highlanders, right? No, no. What are they?

Cal Baptist.

Oh, Cal Baptist. Oh, okay, got it.

The Lancers.

The Lancers. Okay. What'd you study there?

I studied information systems management, so business degree, emphasis in tech.

Got it. So you had a little tech background?

Yeah, my co founder is. Was pre law and math.

Okay.

And so was doing software development actually when I got out and lasted about a year with a. With a real job before I started the company with him.

Okay, so you and your co founder Pete met at a previous company together. Is that where you guys were?

No, no, we were roommates in college.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

Oh, that's cool.

Yep. So played basketball together, got into college trouble together and got out of college and thought we should start something.

Okay.

Can't be that hard.

What Was that first thing that you guys worked on together?

I mean, this was it.

But what was it like? What was it then in concept?

Well, originally we had this idea that people would purchase services online and we could sell all different types of services.

Like manual labor, specific.

Yeah. So day labor, handyman, lawn services, you know, moving, you name it. So very, very much in line with TaskRabbit and Handy and all these companies that came about.

That came about later.

Yes.

But there was nothing like it then, right?

No, nothing.

This is what year this is?

Late 06, early 07, when we started talking about it building prototype. I think we have prototype done in 06, and then we started talking to investors in 07.

Okay, you were in San Diego by then?

No, no, we started in Riverside. We were in Riverside through 07 and then moved to San Diego early 08.

And what was it like looking for investors in Riverside?

We didn't look in Riverside. We looked San Diego. Ted Coast Angels, Orange County Tech Coast Angels went to the Bay Area, talked to some VCs. Yeah. So in general, just got laughed out of everyone's office.

Really?

Yeah. People said, no way people are gonna spend $300 online. No one's gonna book moving services or any other type of services online. Like, that's not something people are gonna do.

Really.

Yeah. So we were just beating our heads into a wall trying to convince people that, like. No, it's. You know, people buy $300 products online, people will buy $300 services online. It's the same thing.

Yeah.

And no one would believe us.

Really.

It's not. No one thought it was something that could be done.

Crazy.

Tech coast angel said, you know, there were a couple people who were interested in what we were doing and. And like the idea, but said they wanted to see us with skin in the game. They said, you know, find. Find 50 grand of your own to put in, and, you know, we'll. We'll put in some too. And I mean, that was to two kids who just graduated college. I don't. I don't know where they expected us to find 50 grand. Maybe they were just politely.

Yeah.

Trying to get rid of us. But we went around and asked friends and family and scraped up 150 and figured that's plenty of money. And that was probably not prudent thinking, but at the time, it seemed like a lot of money.

Yeah.

And so we. We launched in June 07.

Okay. And like a specific marketplace in a specific city or what was launched.

Like, we started recruiting movers in every major Metro and just kind of around the country because there was no geography, didn't really matter to us. And we were gonna acquire demand immediately with pay per click and SEO and we didn't have really control over where that came or went from. So we just grabbed a whole bunch of movers all over the country, started recruiting them manually and then turned on pay per click and waited to see what happened and you know, started booking orders.

Okay.

Probably first order, I think was within seven days. Really exciting.

Wow, that's exciting. So summer 2007, we all know kind of what the storyline's coming is. The financial crash of the next few years. What did that do to the company as you guys were growing?

We always grew. I think there was, there was just so much opportunity in those first couple years when the crash happened that it didn't, you know, market conditions. Like we might have been able to grow faster, but we had just for context, in prior to being acquired, which happened after 136 months in business or just over, just under 12 years, we only had four months ever in that entire time period that we didn't have year over year growth.

Wow.

So we, we, there was, there's a lot of opportunity that we were able to capitalize on. We. So going through the market crash was interesting, but it wasn't just because there were so much fresh stuff like coming up. Like we were still. There's so much other stuff it didn't affect us like it would have. Okay, now got it.

Interesting. So in those early days, you obviously ultimately did not raise capital from anyone outside. No, just that initial 150k. Did you ever go back to thinking that you would. What was that like?

I mean, a couple times. So once like three or four years in, we went and tried to raise money. And at that time there were some, you know, handys and task drive and some other companies that had popped up and they had gotten a whole bunch of interest. And so people looked at us like, ah, well, if you were going to be like them, you would have done it already.

Yeah.

And so it was a little hard to garner interest at that time. And then three years ago, two years ago, two and a half, three years ago, we actually had some VCs come to us and offer us our first term sheet for Series A when we were eight years old, doing millions in revenue.

Yeah.

So. And it was a good offer and they were just great guys and we really liked them, but we were already getting inbound interest to sell the company too. And it was, you know, investors had been in it for eight years and it was friends and families and we were going to take the guaranteed win. As much as maybe my co founder would have liked to see what we could have done at another level.

Okay, so interesting. So that's pretty interesting to hear. I'm curious from the tech side. So you always built it in house here?

Pretty much, yeah. Software development was all done actually. Interesting story. Most people who would have looked at us for the first five years would have been really confused as to what kind of company we were. If you looked up kind of the employee makeup, we had no software developers on staff until about three years in and then only a front end developer.

Okay.

All of our back end development we were outsourcing to the company that I used to work for. My boss at that software development company was one of our original investors and so he kind of, he gave us kind of a sweetheart deal and did some part time stuff for us. Would throw one of his employees on some of our projects and help us like build stuff.

Okay.

So we had very limited resources for software development and had to be really strategic about what features we were gonna roll out. And then probably five or six, you know, six years in we had, you know, is when we got our, our first software developer. And even now, you know, last year over 20 million in sales and we did. We still only have four software developers.

Wow. Incredible.

Yeah, it's. We've always been real lean on that side and strategic about what we build and when and how we do it.

Yeah, that's really cool. What specifically brought you to Oceanside? Anything that comes to mind for that?

Yeah, so we were, I mean we were in Riverside when we launched and we were getting to about, you know, cash flow, break even, not paying ourselves real great, but we could survive and starting to think like, oh this, you know, we're actually going to make it. You know, do we really want to be in Riverside, you know, looking at buying houses and starting families and stuff like that. And we're like, well, you know, San Diego would be nice but it's, you know, twice the cost of Riverside and Del Mar's nice, but it's, you know, one and a half times the cost of Riverside and Carlsbad's 25% more than Riverside. Oceanside is the same price as Riverside at the time. Now I think Oceanside, it's gone up quite a bit. So Oceanside it was and it seemed like a good choice. Now it seems like it's worked out really well for us. Obviously Oceanside is the last decade In Oceanside has been amazing.

Booming.

Yeah.

Foodie central now too.

Yeah. When we got here, there were no restaurants, Nothing. Right. It was like Outback Steakhouse was like your lunch option. And now, I mean, I think Outback went out of business and there's just all sorts of great stuff. So that's cool. It's been good.

Has it affected at all pulling talent? Has it all been kind of a very local talent pool then that you've been able to pull from?

Occasionally we have problems finding talent. Software developers, you know, are just hard for anyone anywhere. We've always run lean there, so we've been lucky. We had to had too many issues with that. Luckily, you know, Carlsbad's nearby. There's. We're all a dot net shop. There's a lot of dot net shops in Carlsbad. So we're able to get people from nearby if we need them. Some of like the design marketing talent has been hard because that seems to be more centralized downtown. You know, there's not. There's no agencies up here. We're not finding. There's no one who's at an agency who's looking for like their next big move up in North County, San Diego, they're a big agency with good experience and they've been downtown. So that's been a. That's been a little tough. We end up getting people who have commutes. Okay, we do, which is. Can be unfortunate.

Yeah. But still, I mean, now I think feel like Oceanside because it's come up and it's proximity to Orange county too. Actually like a commute from there is not bad either.

Yeah, no, we've. And we've had people from both, so we've had talent from. I mean, that's probably the biggest benefit from like a location perspective is we can pull from south Orange county and San Diego. So it's kind of better than some areas in San Diego. From that perspective, do you have a.

Sense of other startups or entrepreneurs within Oceanside? I mean, is there kind of a density that you feel or are you just heads down building the business?

I know a few in this area, but not many. There's some people doing some cool stuff in Carlsbad. I actually know a lot of people in like San Marcos, Escondido area who seem to be doing a lot there.

Yeah, that speaks to the whole innovate 78 piece. Right? Just kind of along this corridor.

Yeah. No, and I think, I think, you know, everyone in, you know, in north county is kind of so used to getting ignored, that everyone just tends to be real heads down, work on your business. And so it's cool to kind of see the attention starting to pop up here and some new really interesting companies doing some cool stuff and people coming out of their shells and networking and stuff. So it's been fun to see kind of the ecosystem growing up here, for sure.

Well, let's talk a little bit more about the business, just the growth over the years. At the beginning, you wanted to be kind of a lot of services. At some point you focused in on moving. That was early on, or did that take a few pivots over time?

We were probably within a year, it was obvious that if we focused on density in moving, that advertising, marketing dollars would just be much more well spent. And so. And we had a lot of service providers in moving. Initially there was already competitors who were doing book online. So we were kind of able to draft off them.

Yeah.

In terms of getting people who. Service providers who were able and willing to like experiment with this CPA basis lead acquisition. And so that it worked real well. And we just said, you know, we'll just really get movie moving on lockdown this year, you know, and then next year we'll do more services. And then we just always had more stuff and more opportunity and move moving than there Was anything else.

10 years later. Still doing moving?

Yeah, still doing moving. So the moving products that we have have diversified significantly. Didn't used to do full service, didn't used to do interstate moves. So we've spread out kind of that way, but still very, very focused on moving. Got it.

Has the industry changed in those that 10, 12 years while you've been doing it, or it's just the tech has come into the industry?

Tech has come into the industry. I think a big change is kind of about to happen. I'd like to think that we're kind of at the front of it. We're just really well positioned. I think people are done with the old model of paying five, $10,000 for movers. That's just not. And there's no reviews, there's no transparency. Payment terms are terrible. They're giving you two week delivery windows. Like just all of that is not a business model that will survive. You know, as millennial generation comes into the spending power for movers, that's just not something that's going to work. So I'd like to think we're kind of ahead of the curve there and we'll see some really big changes happening in the next five, ten years.

That's awesome. That's exciting. So tell us about more going forward. The future of Hire Helper. Sounds like at some point you were approached by VCs but were already thinking maybe we should sell. When did that actually creep into both of you guys heads?

So we had a number of companies approach us with inbound interest to acquire us. A lot of strategic companies in the movie industry ended up ultimately not going down that path. Found a strategic in the tech space and ended up having really good conversations with them being able to provide moving for them. They had access to a huge amount of demand and we had the ability to fulfill it. And so there ended up, we ended up finding a really good partner we feel like is going to let us continue to build the business with the same team in the same location and just do more of the cool stuff that we've already done that happened late last year and, and now next steps going forward are going to be really how, how do we solve every person who's moving? Their, their needs are on the moving experience. We already, you know, we can provide loading only we can provide movers with a truck, but we really like to get into the area where we can actually just no matter which way you're, you're planning on moving, we can facilitate any type of movement move and let you book that online going towards, you know, from the Airbnb of moving to the kayak moving if you will. So, you know, help connect you with rental trucks or boxes or you know, every, every aspect of, of moving we'd like to be able to facilitate. So that, that's kind of our goal moving forward and remove kind of the heartache of shopping around and all that from the moving experience.

Really cool. And you guys are all staying put here in Oceanside?

That's the plan.

Awesome. Moving into a new office, right?

Yeah, well, opening a second office.

Oh, opening. Oh yeah.

So just more, more space, doubling the space. Like I said, big, big investment this year from new owners and trying to get, you know, really take everything to the next level.

That's awesome. Really cool. Well, we love having you guys here up in North County. We love that North County's grown, obviously. Tell us a few things about what else you like here. I mean, are you, I'm guessing you're a taco fan. We all are, right?

Yeah.

You have a favorite taco place nearby?

Yeah. So across the street from our office is a place called Mission Viejo. And their beef tacos are just another level. They're so good, extra greasy. So gotta, gotta be into the grease. And it's. That's kind of a big thing coming for me because I'm not like a big beef eater. I'm usually like chicken everything. But I just, I can't. They'll bring them into the office and only like seven of them and they're giant tacos.

Oh, yeah.

So good.

Maybe we're going there right after this.

I know you do. And then. Yeah. But then just all other taco, like, food, I would say as big fan. Old school Santanas.

Oh, yeah.

Rebranded to fresh MXN food and then eat MXN food or something. They have a new name like every couple years, but everyone from San Diego area knows them. So I just, in general, Tecate Chicken quesadilla and their, Their, their taquitos with the brown salsa. You know, that's, that's back when I was down in central San Diego.

Ocean Bay.

Yeah. Those, those are my. That's my jam.

Awesome. Well, what else? Oceanside up here. Do you partake in any of the, like, local coffee or local craft brew scene?

I can do. I can do some craft brew. Wasn't a huge beer fan before I moved here.

Yeah.

Now I've realized that I can't go to any business or networking type event at all and not partake in San Diego brew. So I've acquired more of a taste for it. But I love, I love anything brown. Just light brown ales are just so good. I'm just. The IPA thing. It's just, it's not me. I know.

That's like teach his own.

That makes me sound like not a San Diegan.

Right. No, we, like. I think what we've realized is, like, we can, we've got, we can curate palates to whatever. That's why brewers are putting out like 25 different beers now.

Yeah. Yeah, it's great now. I mean, just, you know, the variety. Fifteen years ago, you, you know, there were four or five options. And now it's like a restaurant can't stay in business if they don't have 15 options and brewing their own 12 of them. Better be San Diego for sure. Yeah. Otherwise you just. No one's gonna go there.

Yeah.

So a big coffee drinker, but I'm. I am Amazon donut shop subscriber for life.

Okay.

I'm probably six or seven cups of donut shop a day.

Oh, yeah. Okay.

Yeah. So I just.

Giant mug. Just pour it down.

Yeah. There's. I always have two cups on my desk right now with donut shop. And then there's. If you and if you want to go local, by far best coffee. This might be offensive to some, but Bird rock. Oh, my gosh. Bird rock roasters, they're just so good.

Yeah. Are they here? They have a place in Oceanside.

They're opening one in Carlsbad, I think in this month or next month.

Yeah, yeah.

So that's, that's great. But I mean, born and raised down there.

TV or bird Rock.

Yeah, yeah. So it's. That's. They've always been kind of my favorite. Like, if I'm going to treat myself like. Yeah, but you know, those fancy places don't make Keurig cups. And so on a daily basis, it's the donut shop.

Got it. Awesome. Well, Mike, thanks so much for the time. It's great to get to know you and hire a helper. We're really excited to see you guys expand and grow and thanks for being part of this community.

No, thanks for having me. It was great.

Awesome. Thanks. Thanks for joining us on the Tacos and Tech podcast with Neil Blum. Thanks again to Cox Business for helping make this possible by expanding the reach of the San Diego tech ecosystem. This has been a partnership with the San Diego Venture Group and the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation's SD Life Changing Campaign. You can find Neil bloom on Twitter eealbloom and on LinkedIn.

Sam.