Kyle
Now that Spring is officially underway, despite that cold front we just had on the east coast, home improvement is on a lot of peoples minds. Home Improvement startups happen to be a hot topic these days. Earlier this week we told you about Florida startup showoff.com that helps home owners by providing free home virtualization software so home owners can see what home improvements will look like.
RegainGo is a Detroit based startup in the home improvement space. Co-Founders Jason Beale and Clark Covert are looking to bring home owners and home improvement service providers together in a way that fosters a relationship of trust. Xconomy calls the startup a hybrid of Groupon and AngiesList.
Covert and Beale have backgrounds in real estate. They found that when people were looking to have work done for their homes they would go to Google and use the first name that pops up. That caused a disconnect between homeowners and service providers that do quality work.
RegainGo is attracting homeowners to their site and their service providers by offering coupons for home improvement services. After the user signs in via Facebook they can browse the deals on the RegainGo site and buy the ones they like. The site encourages you to share the deal with friends and family via the users social networks. A voucher for the deal you purchase will be emailed to you and that merchant will honor it.
More after the break
When we checked the RegainGo website all of the coupons were sizable offers. There was a 90% off coupon for a cabinet refacing and remodeling company, 50% off carpet cleaning, 90% off a contractor that builds decks and 30% off insulation installation.
While the RegainGo directory is location based Covert and Beale want to build trust with their community of providers. After location, the service providers will be ranked by number of transactions and comments putting the most used merchants at the top.
“We really want users to engage. Our directory is location-based, but contractors will appear higher on the list of search results based on the number of interactions they have with consumers or if they get great customer reviews.” Covert told Xconomy.
There is no charge for a merchant to have a basic listing in the directory. RegainGo offers various levels of services to their merchants between $50 and $200. They’ll also handle of the merchants Facbeook and Twitter marketing for $250 per month, integrating it all with the RegainGo platform.
In the near future RegainGo plans to add an “Ask a RegainGo Pro” section which will give users the chance to leave video questions for the top RegainGo merchants.
Currently the site offers deals in the metro Detroit area. They hope to bring on Ann Arbor, Lansing and Grand Rapids soon as well. There’s no word on expansion outside of Michigan.
Linkage:
If you’re in the Detroit area check our RegainGo here
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Source: XConomy
