Adora Cheung facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Adora Cheung
Born	1985 (age 39–40)
Occupation	Founder at stealth startup
Known for	Homejoy, Y Combinator

Adora Cheung is an American entrepreneur, investor, and programmer. She is known for starting her own businesses. She was the co-founder and CEO of a company called Homejoy. This company helped people find house cleaning services. After Homejoy closed, Cheung worked as a partner at Y Combinator. This company helps new businesses get started. She worked there until February 2021.

Adora Cheung's Story

Early Life and Learning

Adora Cheung grew up in a small town in South Carolina. She went to Clemson University and earned a bachelor's degree in Computer Science. This means she studied how computers work and how to create computer programs. Later, she got a master's degree in Economics from the University of Rochester. Economics is the study of how people make choices about money and resources.

While she was studying for her PhD, a friend asked for her help. He needed programming help for his new business, called a startup. Adora decided to leave her PhD program to help him. When that business idea didn't work out, she moved to Silicon Valley. This area in California is famous for its many technology companies.

Starting Her Career

Adora Cheung first worked at a company called Slide.com. There, she was a group product manager. This job meant she helped manage different projects. Some of these projects included FunWall and SuperPoke!.

After leaving Slide.com, Adora and her brother joined Y Combinator. This program helps people turn their ideas into real businesses. They thought of many startup ideas together. One idea was Pathjoy. It was meant to connect people with life coaches or therapists. But they soon decided not to pursue that idea.

Instead, Adora started to focus Pathjoy on finding house cleaners. This idea came about because her brother was looking for a cleaning service. He found that options were either very expensive agencies or cleaners from Craigslist who hadn't been checked out. To show this new direction, they changed the company's name from Pathjoy to Homejoy.

Creating Homejoy

Adora Cheung and her brother started Homejoy in 2012. They were inspired by other companies that use a "sharing economy" model. This means people share services or goods, often through online platforms. Homejoy was based in San Francisco. Adora worked as the chief executive officer, or CEO. This means she was in charge of the whole company.

By 2013, Homejoy had raised $38 million. This money came from investors like Google Ventures and Redpoint Ventures. This type of money is called venture funding. By the end of 2013, Homejoy was helping people find cleaners in 31 different cities.

Learning About Cleaning

To understand the cleaning business better, Adora Cheung actually worked at a professional cleaning company. She wanted to learn about the problems cleaners faced. These problems included scheduling jobs and traveling efficiently.

Adora was even the very first cleaner for Homejoy herself! She cleaned houses to help the new company get started. Because of her own experience, new Homejoy hires had to do a test cleaning job. This was part of their hiring process. During this test, new hires learned how to clean well and how to talk kindly with homeowners.

Adora herself continued to go on cleaning jobs at least once a month. She had big plans for Homejoy. She wanted the company to expand into home repairs, like fixing electricity and plumbing.

Why Homejoy Closed

Homejoy closed down in 2015. There were a few reasons for this. Not enough customers kept using the service. It also cost a lot to get new customers. There were also some lawsuits from workers. They said they should have been treated as regular employees, not independent contractors. After Homejoy closed, about 20 of its employees were hired by Google.