Adora Cheung is an American entrepreneur, investor, and programmer. She was the co-founder and CEO of house cleaning business

Homejoy Homejoy was an online platform which connected customers with home service providers, including house cleaners and handymen. The company was based in San Francisco. Homejoy served the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom for a total of over ...

. After Homejoy shut down, Cheung continued working for Y Combinator as a partner, until February 2021.

Early life and education

Cheung grew up in a small town in

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

and earned a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in Computer Science from Clemson University. She received a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in Economics from the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The University of Roc ...

. While working on her PhD, a friend asked for programming help with his startup, so she left her PhD program to help him. When that didn't follow through, she moved to

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...

Career

Cheung worked at Slide.com as a group product manager, overlooking multiple projects such as FunWall, SuperPoke!, and SuperPoke! Pets. After leaving, Cheung and her brother joined Y Combinator. Together they brainstormed several startup ideas, including Pathjoy, a platform to connect customers with life coaches and therapists, but soon abandoned the idea. Instead Cheung started to focus Pathjoy on finding house cleaners instead of therapists. The idea came when her brother was looking for a cleaning service, but all offerings were either from expensive cleaning agencies or untested cleaners from Craigslist. To further reinforce the company's new direction, the name Pathjoy was changed to Homejoy.

Homejoy

Inspired by other companies that participate in a

sharing economy In capitalism, the sharing economy is a socio-economic system built around the sharing of resources. It often involves a way of purchasing goods and services that differs from the traditional business model of companies hiring employees to produce ...

, Cheung created Homejoy with her brother in 2012. The company was located in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

and she worked as the

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

. By 2013, the company raised $38 million from

Google Ventures GV is a venture capital investment arm of Alphabet Inc., founded by Bill Maris, that provides Seed investment, seed, Venture capital financing, venture, and Growth investing, growth stage funding to technology companies. Founded as Google Venture ...

, Redpoint Ventures, and Max Levchin towards their

venture funding Venture capital financing is a type of funding by venture capital. It is private equity capital that can be provided at various stages or funding rounds. Common funding rounds include early-stage seed funding in high-potential, growth companies ( ...

. By 2013, Homejoy was available in 31 cities. For research, Cheung worked at a professional cleaning company to learn the issues facing cleaners, including scheduling difficulties and inefficient traveling. She was the first cleaner for Homejoy and cleaned houses herself as the startup got off the ground. Because of her experience, the new Homejoy hires were required to do a test cleaning job as part of the hiring process. During their test cleaning the new hires were taught how to clean in an efficient manner, and how to communicate with the homeowners in a friendly and effective way. Cheung herself also went out on cleaning assignments at least once a month. She had plans for Homejoy to move into home repairs, including electricity and plumbing. Homejoy shut down in 2015 due to poor customer retention rates, high customer acquisition costs, and several

lawsuit - A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil actio ...

s from workers claiming to being "misclassified as independent contractors.". An estimated 20 of Homejoy's employees were hired by

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

in the wake of the closure.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cheung, Adora Living people Clemson University alumni University of Rochester alumni American technology company founders American women company founders American company founders American women business executives Y Combinator people American venture capitalists American women investors 1984 births 21st-century American businesswomen 21st-century American businesspeople