ImproveNet employees then send these requests to prescreened contractors with the same telephone area codes as the homeowners. Interested contractors respond directly to ImproveNet, which then forwards the bids to homeowners via e-mail. Without paying a cent, homeowners get a list of contractors who have been in business for at least three years, who have been screened within the last quarter and found free of credit and legal problems, and who are available for the proposed jobs. Stevens says ImproveNet has faxed as many as 8,000 requests in a single day. However simple a concept, though, it has proved a challenge to execute.
Homeowners pay nothing for the service.
By agreement with contractors, the fee isn't passed on to homeowners. So ImproveNet's success depends on generating a huge volume of transactions. Stevens believes that his business concept is sound and that growth is now his focus. Our business shows the power of the Internet to engage people in a new way and essentially to create a new market. We haven't even really begun to scale up.