Adora Cheung facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Adora Cheung
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| 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 well-known for co-founding Homejoy, a company that helped people find house cleaners. After Homejoy closed, Adora continued working for Y Combinator as a partner until February 2021. Y Combinator is a famous company that helps new startups get started.
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Adora's Early Life and Education
Adora Cheung grew up in a small town in South Carolina. She studied Computer Science at Clemson University and earned a bachelor's degree. Later, she received a master's degree in Economics from the University of Rochester.
While she was working on her PhD, a friend asked her for help with programming for his new company. Adora decided to leave her PhD program to help him. When that project didn't work out, she moved to Silicon Valley, a famous area in California known for technology companies.
Adora's Career Journey
Adora Cheung worked at a company called Slide.com as a group product manager. She managed several projects there, including FunWall and SuperPoke!.
After leaving Slide.com, Adora and her brother joined Y Combinator. They thought of many ideas for new companies. One idea was Pathjoy, a platform to connect people with life coaches. However, they soon changed their minds about this idea.
Starting Homejoy
Adora and her brother then decided to change Pathjoy's business idea. Instead of finding therapists, they focused 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 websites like Craigslist who hadn't been checked out.
To show this new direction, they changed the company's name from Pathjoy to Homejoy.
Homejoy's Growth and Impact
Adora Cheung created Homejoy with her brother in 2012. They were inspired by other companies that use a "sharing economy" model, where people share services or goods. Homejoy was based in San Francisco, and Adora was the CEO.
By 2013, Homejoy had raised $38 million from big investors like Google Ventures. This money helped the company grow quickly. By the end of 2013, Homejoy was available in 31 cities.
To understand the cleaning business better, Adora worked at a professional cleaning company herself. She learned about the challenges cleaners faced, like scheduling problems and traveling efficiently. Adora was even the very first cleaner for Homejoy when the company was just starting!
Because of her experience, new Homejoy hires had to do a test cleaning job. During this test, they 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 even had plans for Homejoy to expand into home repairs, like electricity and plumbing.
Why Homejoy Closed
Homejoy closed down in 2015. This happened for a few reasons. The company had trouble keeping customers, and it cost a lot to get new ones. Also, there were some lawsuits from workers who said they were not correctly classified as independent contractors. After Homejoy closed, about 20 of its employees were hired by Google.
