Houzz is a Pinterest lover's dream for remodeling their home. Unlike Pinterest, however, Houzz doesn't leave you confused with an unfiltered ocean of choices. Instead, Houzz is a direct source to the contractor, landscaper, interior designer, or exact product that you are looking for. It combines every aspect of home remodeling by bringing together home professionals and homeowners in a visual community that allows users to learn from one another. Today, Houzz is in over 197 countries, has a network of over 600,000 home professionals in over 63 categories and helps over 25 million people. The company is worth over $2 billion.
Houzz's success can be credited in great part to the cofounding husband-wife pair Alon Cohen and Adi Tatarko. The couple came up with Houzz when they discovered how challenging it was to remodel their own home. At the 2015 Startup Grind Global Conference, Adi discussed with the COO of Zenefits David Sacks the frustration the duo felt during remodeling and the time and money they wasted money getting plans that they hated. This inefficiency lead them to create their own solution -- and led to the service that helps millions with remodeling today.
What's Houzz's Secret to Success?
The company's number one priority has been to create a product and user experience, and worrying about monetization has always come second. By waiting to monetize, Houzz received direct feedback from their community on what they wanted to see on the platform and it allowed the monetization process to happen organically. Houzz strictly stays within their domain of merchandise by refusing to allow brand advertising be unrelated to home remodeling and design, such as Houzz's first brand to use their advertising service was IKEA a natural fit that completely relates to the same market. By staying focused and having all aspects of the website including ads relate to the market, they maintain the integrity of this visual community of homeowners and home professionals.
Houzz thus had a simple equation for success. In true entrepreneurial style, they created a solution to a problem the co-founders struggled with themselves: a simple way to connect homeowners and home professionals. Then they focused on the product and the users experience, instead of heading towards the races to become profitable right away, allowing them to grow their business and allowing the community to communicate exactly what they wanted from the service. Whether in the field of home remodeling or not, all entrepreneurs can use the story of Houzz as an inspiration to get their business booming.