Exec CEO Justin Kan Talks Competition, Cleaning, And Future Plans

Hot on the heels of Exec’s Cleaning Service launch in NYC, we couldn’t resist the opportunity to get CEO and co-founder Justin Kan in the studio for a quick chat. We also couldn’t resist checking out the service in action, and thusly hired Execs from the company’s standalone Cleaning app to help tidy up our NYC Aol Ventures crib. For those unfamiliar with Exec, the concept is quite simple. Exec lets you hire people on a case-by-case basis for errand-running and cleaning. The app originally launched as an errand-running service, letting Execs who sign on to the platform (and pass background checks) run to get you coffee, pick up your dry cleaning, or assemble that Ikea bed for you. You’re charged $25 per hour, the majority of which goes to the Exec and a percentage of which goes to the company. After realizing that cleaning was dominating over 50 percent of Exec’s orders, the company launched a standalone Cleaning app in February. Since, the cleaning side of the business has expanded to Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago and here in New York City. “We wanted the cleaning app to be the easiest thing you can imagine,” said Justin. “We don’t want you to have to make any decisions.” He mentioned that most of the current cleaning services force you to play phone tag and call a number of services. Meanwhile, on Exec, you simply open the app and are instantly given the availability for your house cleaning and a quote. But even though cleaning makes up a large part of the Exec business, we can’t forget about errand-running. I asked Justin how Exec gets users to change behavior, as most people in the younger demographic feel somewhat uncomfortable giving directions for others to do their chores. But Exec has added layers to the app that give you prompts for what you might do with it, like have someone stand in line for you at Brunch. (Justin’s actually used Exec for that very purpose.) As the company continues to enter new markets, the biggest challenge (according to Justin) is handling the logistics on the backend as the apps scale. In the past eight months, over 11,000 people have applied to be Exec contractors. Not only does the company have to handle the massive hiring funnel, complete with interviews and background checks, but also handle scheduling thousands of workers with real-time tasks on

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