GreenPal is an online freelancing platform that connects landscapers to clients in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. The company is based in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and ...

and was founded in 2012. GreenPal's business model was inspired by

Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), packa ...

Airbnb Airbnb, Inc. ( ), based in San Francisco, California, operates an online marketplace focused on short-term homestays and experiences. The company acts as a broker and charges a commission from each booking. The company was founded in 2008 b ...

and

Lyft Lyft, Inc. offers mobility as a service, ride-hailing, vehicles for hire, motorized scooters, a bicycle-sharing system, rental cars, and food delivery in the United States and select cities in Canada. Lyft sets fares, which vary using a dyn ...

. As of January 2020, the company operated in 45states and had approximately 1million users.

History

GreenPal was founded in April 2012 by Bryan M. Clayton, Gene Caballero, Zach Hendrix, and Ross Brooks. Clayton, Caballero, and Hendrix had previously worked together in the

landscaping Landscaping refers to any activity that modifies the visible features of an area of land, including the following: # Living elements, such as flora or fauna; or what is commonly called gardening, the art and craft of growing plants with a goal ...

industry, and they noticed that the demand for same-day lawncare was growing. Clayton cited

and

as his inspirations for the company, stating that "If people were going to allow strangers to sleep in their own beds (in the case of an Airbnb), then they have to be open to allowing others to help them get better lawn care." In order to encourage brand loyalty, GreenPal began offering complimentary treats and customized notes for homeowners with pets. In 2016, three of the

founders Founder or Founders may refer to: Places *Founders Park, a stadium in South Carolina, formerly known as Carolina Stadium * Founders Park, a waterside park in Islamorada, Florida Arts, entertainment, and media * Founders (''Star Trek''), the ali ...

needed to obtain a $250,000 loan and personally guarantee it to buy out a fourth founder who was going through a divorce. Using the company's earnings, they settled the loan in about 18 months. From 2016 to 2017, GreenPal expanded its operations, and launched in several new cities such as

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

, and Marietta. According to ''

Naples Daily News The ''Naples Daily News'' is the main daily newspaper of Naples, Florida, and Collier County. It is owned by Gannett and has a circulation of more than 40,000. It was previously owned by Milwaukee-based Journal Media Group, which was formed by a ...

'', the company generated nearly $5million in revenue in 2017. In 2019, GreenPal extended its operations to cities such as

Minneapolis–Saint Paul Minneapolis–Saint Paul is a metropolitan area in the Upper Midwestern United States centered around the confluence of the Mississippi, Minnesota and St. Croix rivers in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It is commonly known as the Twin Cities ...

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...

, and

Spokane, Washington Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Cana ...

. In January 2020, the app was used by a reported 150,000 vendors, and 1million homeowners. That same month, the company expanded its snow removal service to

Greater Boston Greater Boston is the metropolitan region of New England encompassing the municipality of Boston (the capital of the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England) and its surrounding areas. The region forms the northern a ...

. GreenPal has been cited as an example of economic "vaporization", wherein physical products can be replaced by information technologies. The introduction of apps like GreenPal has reduced the need for homeowners to purchase landscaping equipment, much as

diminished the need for individuals to own cars.

Features

GreenPal's app functions as a matchmaking service to connect professional landscapers with local homeowners. Users download the app and list their address, the types of landscaping work they would like and the date that they would like the work completed. Nearby landscapers, known as "vendors" on the platform, are then able to bid on the job, based on the customers' description and Google Earth images of their yards. GreenPal screens vendors to ensure that they have commercial landscaping equipment and references, and requires them to register with a valid social security number and bank account. Vendors are then rated based on user reviews. In addition to work such as lawnmowing and gardening, GreenPal's vendors also offer seasonal services such as

snow removal Snow removal or snow clearing is the job of removing snow after a snowfall to make travel easier and safer. This is done by both individual households and by governments and institutions. De-icing and anti-icing De-icing is defined as removal ...

Development

The company initially paid $90,000 to develop an app and website for the service. However, this app turned out to be unusable, and had been designed for use on traditional computers rather than mobile devices. Hendrix, the CTO, began studying software design and developed a new app for the company.

References

External links

* {{Sharing economy Location-based software Freelance marketplace websites Online marketplaces of the United States

History

Features

Development

See also

References

External links