Adora Cheung

Cheung and her brother Aaron spent more than three years testing ideas, including Pathjoy, a platform for therapists and life coaches. They struggled to find a problem they cared about and ran short on money, eventually earning income by rewriting entertainment news for traffic.

Aaron wanted an affordable, trustworthy cleaner and found a gap between expensive agencies and unvetted classified listings. After launching a website that got no bookings, Cheung offered cold water at a local fair in exchange for cleaning bookings. She and Aaron handled the first jobs themselves and learned how difficult professional cleaning was.

A 9,000-square-foot post-construction cleaning took the siblings five days, showing them they needed to understand the job before bringing professional cleaners onto the platform. Cheung took a job at a San Francisco cleaning company, where she learned both cleaning skills and how manual booking and scheduling limited the industry. They then built a platform with professional cleaners taking jobs.

After years of failed ideas, the company had little money and needed capital to expand. Cheung set two investor meetings before deciding to wind down: one with former boss Max Levchin and one with YC’s PG. Each invested $25,000, giving Homejoy $50,000 to continue.

Cheung describes Homejoy’s early years as a long struggle followed by rapid progress. At the time of the talk, she said the company operated in more than 30 markets, had 150 employees, and had raised about $40 million. Her advice is to respond to setbacks calmly, learn from them, and keep working hard.