How Angie’s List Started, Went Public, and Sold for $500+ Million with Angie Hicks

from America's Heartland in Indianapolis Indiana this is get in the podcast focused on the unfolding stories and extraordinary Innovations happening right now in software hard tech AG Tech Sports Tech med tech all the techs and today's guest is Angie Hicks like no one answers their doors today they still they didn't answer their doors in 1995 for me it was it was a numbers game I had to commit myself that I was going to knock on so many doors I was like I was a believer in process I was like I think if I knock on 20 Doors I might sell one so if I just keep my script knock on the door I might sell one you know and so that's how I would get through it you know and it was but it was it was much more character building than sales generating Angie Hicks is the co-founder of Angie's List which is a company that helps you connect with vetted Pros read verified reviews and get fair pricing for all home projects and services she was raised in Fort Wayne Indiana and attended all University in Greencastle Indiana for undergrad then went on to get her MBA from Harvard Business School and Angie has been with Angie's List now called Angie for almost 28 years she's been a catalyst for change in the Indiana Tech Community and in 2017 when the Trailblazer award which recognizes Visionaries who contributions have had lasting and significant impact on our technology ecosystem it is my pleasure to sit down here today with Angie Hicks foreign thanks so much for being here with being toast oh thank you for having me this is very very exciting it's really exciting for me too I would not be in Indiana today probably if not for you Angie's List is a big reason why I stayed in Indiana after graduating and we can get into that later but figured I would I would start with how did you end up kind of staying in Indiana after graduating because I know you went to DePaul University but then did leave the state for some period of time yeah there is a little secret I actually did leave right after graduation so but I always you know my my heart was always in Indiana so I started Angie's List in Columbus Ohio my co-founder bill osterly was living there at the time and was trying to rehab a house and he was familiar with a company that he used in Indianapolis called unified neighbors that had been around since the early 70s and for those folks that lived in Carmel at that time they might recall Bill Corbin going door to door selling unified neighbors memberships and it was just a newsletter that kept track of who were good contract actors and who weren't Bill thought you know Bill owned his first house here in Indianapolis and was like hey this is this makes it so much easier and then when he moved to Ohio realized there was nothing there and had a real Fixer-Upper and some bad experiences and then we started looking around and there wasn't anything like unified neighbors anywhere so we decided to start our own in Ohio and then a year later acquired unified Neighbors in Indy how did you meet Bill originally how did you become co-founders yeah so Bill and I met when I was in undergrad at DePaul I was a management fellow and as part of that program we do a semester-long internship so I ended up interning for Bill at CID Equity Partners here in Indy and then and then when I was getting ready to graduate I wanted I was an econ major as a math minor I thought I was probably going to be a consultant of some kind in fact had a job offer to go be a consultant in Washington DC but I really wanted to work for a small company I'm pretty quiet and shy and I just thought a small company would be a better fit for me so I was so bills gave me suggestions I was sending out resumes in the mail and not hearing back and then you know one day he comes to me and says hey I've got a crazy idea why don't we start a business and it you know at that point it was just a business it wasn't even that we were going to start what became Angie's List it was just a business he's like it's a crazy idea your parents are gonna hate that you know but I'll raise enough money to to pay you for a year and the worst thing that happens is you you know we fail and you have a good resume for business school was that a heart was that a hard pitch it was a horrible garbage I am like so risk-averse mad I mean it was like there was like there was no there was no convincing me at the time I I had interned after I interned for Bill I actually interned for Bob Orr he had a small consulting company after he was back from being Ambassador I called him up to ask him whether he thought it was a good idea and then I finally asked you know my parents were like I don't know Angie I and then I had to talk to my grandfather who he was a very conservative guy he lived during the Depression he you know he he paid cash for everything but you know he lived very frugally and he's like Angie what's the worst thing that happens here you know it's like what's the difference between being 21 and looking for a job or being 22 or being 23 and looking for a job so so I went ahead and said yes not knowing what I was getting into that was kind of a theme of my early career it's just like you don't know what you don't know and I encourage young people to remember that sometimes doors open and you don't know and maybe you should maybe your your bias should be toward yes because you'll miss opportunities I think all too often we have this kind of I have my I have my seven year plan I have my three year plan and we're so focused on the plan that we forget the moments that happen within everyday life that could change that plan speaking of doors can you tell us how you got your first couple customers well well you know we didn't so when we looked at unified neighbors unified neighbors was a great model you know we understood the entire model but by the time we were exposed to unified Neighbors it was basically an annuity they had enough people joining in Word of Mouth that it was kind people just stuck around the renewal rates were so high that it was just like there was no marketing for unified neighbors so their only marketing was back when Bill Corbin went door to door so so we decided that I guess that was the model we had to try so I also I went door to door in Ohio as an incredibly shy person that it was very introverted so sales was not my strong Zoo but yes we went door to door or I went door-to-door and I would measure my sales in one or two sales a day and that would be a lot that's amazing when you first launched because unified Neighbors in they didn't even have a website right when they were released we didn't have a website it was 1995 our first email address was an AOL email address [Laughter] people either called in and talked to me or I would fax them the list I love it unified neighbors used to print out they would do a printout once a month of the of the of the list back then back you know once I'm on a dot matrix printer and then you know Gene who was one of the gals that worked in the office she'd sit there and she had this dog-eared you know kind of dot matrix big pile of a ream of paper that she would okay you want plumbers all right here's the plumbers that's amazing we'll definitely have to get some like b-roll footage of a dot matrix printer so all the Jen's ears know exactly what we're talking about yeah exactly that's incredible do you remember how you talked yourself into going door to door were there any kind of things that you learned in knocking on all of those doors and making those sales because I imagine you had to knock on more than one or two doors to get one or two sales Horrible no one like no one like no one answers their doors today they still they didn't answer their doors in 1995 either you know so for me it was it was a numbers game I had to commit myself that I was going to knock on so many doors I was like I was a believer in process so I was like I think if I knock on 20 Doors I might sell one so if I just keep my script knock on the door I might sell one you know and so that's how I would get through it you know and it was but it was it was much more character building than sales generating how do you think that served you later on in the company's higher growth period because it just teaches you I mean you're always going to do things that you don't enjoy or that's maybe not your strongest suit and I would always encourage us to think about you know not not toiling away at the things that were maybe not good at and maybe find people that are for those tasks but I think there's value in being able to say yes I've done it yes I know how and yes I I can figure it out because you don't know what the next thing is that you may not be that great at or you may not enjoy I mean I tell people I was like I usually do things that I don't enjoy early in the morning because it's easy to get distracted right it's easy to like I'm like oh I'm gonna just check email or I'm gonna do this I'm like okay if I just get up and jump in and do the stuff that I got my least favorite things and then I'm Gonna Save the fun things for later in the day it's kind of a reward I love that it's like downhill downhill to-do list yeah yeah it's great well so the early days were actually kind of in Columbus Ohio yeah so here in the Midwest but the acquisition of unified Neighbors in Indianapolis is that kind of what brought you back yeah yeah so I'm trying to think what did I do so I I was in Columbus for a year and then maybe I was in Columbus two years and then I was back and forth between Indy and Columbus a year before I then went off to Business School did you listen to anything on those drives back and forth It's like a three-hour drive right it is a three-hour drive and it was pretty cell phone times Matt stop at the rest area at the state line and call into the office and with a pay phone Angie you didn't have a bag phone I did not have a bag why don't you give it back to like I'm like too Frugal I was driving my Ford Escort you know it was I love it so yeah I actually miss I love technology but I also I have a love-hate relationship with technology right you know it's like there are a few times in life that you get to kind of like just be and like maybe those car rides those early car rides are doing like the Ohio and Indiana in those early days where I'm like I could just listen the radio and sing along and it was just me where maybe some of my favorite times I still I'm still kind of sad that we have Wi-Fi on airplanes which I better do some of my best moments that you can actually unplug that I just was just like okay let's let's not kill them all I find myself today even driving around between meetings Etc a lot of times in silence they just give me a moment to decompress and think yep yeah yeah it's hard are there things you do Angie today that help you kind of find make that silent space yeah your phone and your computer are probably not gonna allow that I made a decision a while back ago and some days I'm better at it than others but I basically set a time in the evening that I put my phone away and I keep it you know like well a lot of people think like oh my phone's my alarm clock oh my phone's this my phone stays in the kitchen after a certain point at night because I would get to the point that I could even hear it vibrate like even if it was on silent like that would wake me up so you have to be able to kind of put it down otherwise you know you end up thinking you're living you know running the ER and that you can't run the ER forever yeah absolutely well I have to ask just because I'm curious in those sing-along days when you're singing along to Tunes between Columbus and Indianapolis what songs do you think you were singing Back Then are there any ones that you remember in particular I'm trying to picture it this is kind of funny so I I would guess that during the time that we were driving between Columbus that I was driving between Columbus and in Indianapolis we had just started advertising on radio and so I was a stickler that we looked we we looked at or heard or saw every ad that we were running so I am going to and and so we each divided up in the office you know there were like three of us so one got the Talk Radio One the the the the current hits I got the country station and I had no I was never a country fan but I have to admit now I'm a country radio fan so I was probably listening to country music at the time I love that probably some Garth Brooks probably that's wonderful make sure to mark your calendars for August 29th through 31st for rally the world's largest cross-sector Innovation conference featuring pitch competitions demo Arena interactive experiences and a whole lot more join us on August 29th through the 31st in Indianapolis and visit rallyinnovation.

com to secure your tickets today so with the acquisition of unified neighbors how did that change the business in its early years I mean you know what it's fundamentally changed the fact that we had to figure out I had to figure out how to run multiple locations so we believe that understanding local Home Service required being local but you had to know that you know the plumbing company was located down this road and all this kind of stuff and and so we we looked for people you know so we so we ran little call centers in each of our cities and we did that for the first probably six cities I think it might have been where you know we'd have part-timers we'd advertise in our little magazine our little newsletter for and we a lot of times had you know kind of stay-at-home moms or or folks that would work part-time in our call centers they'd come in the call centers you know they weren't by themselves I kind of think back on this and I was like I don't know that too many people do this today I've had two part-timers in each City one worked in the morning one worked the afternoon and they would trade off you know like they pass the Baton I would only be in one of the two cities so effectively the city would be closed if one of the part-timers failed to show up needless to say had some really good folks that worked for me that were that were amazing you know Maggie Mahoney which is like what's a gal here in Indianapolis that worked for us like she was one of my first interviews so think about Angie is is 22 or 23.

Maggie was semi-retired oh wow yeah and she and Maggie is a is a is a very straightforward gal and I love her to this day and she you know I was talking to her and I I didn't really know how the interview should go and so I get to the end and I was like okay well I'll let you know if I'm you know if we're interested and she's like and she looks at me in the eye she said well you're gonna need my phone number if you're gonna call me back [Laughter] for me I'm trying to think she probably said that she probably we probably hired her in 96 and she she might have officially retired in 2016 maybe or something like that 2015 I don't know forever so she she's awesome and you know it's fun to it's fun to think about her especially her birthday is St Patrick's Day so this is always a week coming up yep so how did it how did it work out I think you mentioned that you you went you came back to Indy for a year and then you went to get your MBA but then at some point you also had to transition onto the web onto the www yeah yeah and so how which came first or how did that work and when you went to the NBA school so when I left for school bill came into the businesses CEO at that time prior to that he was still at CID and then Scott Britton here in Indy was a year ahead of me at business school his wife had worked for me worked at Angie's List for a long time Scott Scott had interned or done a fellowship with Bill at CID after I interned like it we're all so connected right so when Scott graduated from business school he came back and came in as the Chief Operating Officer and he was the one tasked with doing two things putting putting up a website as well as the only and he looked it up he looked at bill and I was like the only way I could put up a website is if we consolidate our databases we were actually running a database in each City back to the we have little call center so oh wow Cleveland was its own little thing Indie visits yeah it's like I can't build a website with all this data distributed so so he's like we need to bring the call center together too so I I think Scott got maybe two weeks to test putting a call center together we before we were like we'll give I think it was two weeks and we got and you know we get there was no investment in any great you know system or anything and it was it was touch and go but we did realize finally that we were able to consolidate the call center and be able to replicate it then I think we might have spent a thousand dollars and hired some a couple of guys in Broad Ripple maybe some fresh College grads to build the website tracks yeah and then and and it was a it was a marketing based email I mean if you go back on the way back machine you can kind of you can see that first website it was it was it was good and it was email based because it would have been in what 20 in 1999 probably and and so you know it was probably a couple of months in Bill asked Scott hey how how's that website working out and Scott said oh let me go look well it looks like about half of our members sign up via the website wow it's like maybe we need to build a website but then it became you know and then I I came back and we were like working on the website and I think one of the biggest challenges we had was kind of figuring out how how to share the information and how to think about the website you know it's like do we want people do we want people to be able to do all their searches and not be you know kind of never interact with the team and things like that it was you know it's interesting back in at that point in time you know we viewed the website as another way to access the content not the way and I think that helped us a lot because it made the business it kept the business very human you know which is like yes you can go online and look at the stuff but there's always someone here willing to help you you can call in you can ask questions you can do things and it just kept it that human connection which I think served us really well even to this day right you you have a whole team of people on the phones you can yeah you can still call you absolutely still can call in today because sometimes you know I think about this it's like Home Improvements are a lot of times projects that are big a lot of times our projects that aren't necessarily something that you as a homeowner are terribly experienced in I mean I just I remodeled my kitchen recently you know I hadn't done a full remodel before I you know it's like and as much as I knew and I knew a lot you know until you kind of walk the walk you don't really there's there's something about living in it it's something about having a major project done at your home that you know sometimes you just need a little you need a little extra support and advice and support in that process you know to make sure that your project goes as you're hoping so in those first kind of six years are there any are you having any flashbacks today we have some macro economic Trends happening right in the recent news with sdb and Signature Bank and others were there any you know in in the life of an entrepreneur as Ebbs and flows Peaks and valleys right you're on top of the world oh what I do our credit card processor stopped working right what are what are some things that that maybe some flashbacks of of in those first three to five six years moments where you're like oh my gosh we are going to the world and and maybe moments where you're like what did we get ourselves into how are we going to actually make this happen yeah I mean I think one of my favorites what have we done kind of moments was probably when we decided to open in Cleveland and you know for us our biggest expense to open a market was to was to advertise and we had found that the Daily Newspaper was a place we would advertise we had this lovely little clip art ad that we ran that said tired of lousy service it was a little two by three ad um and we didn't we didn't have our office maybe we did I think we were actually taking the calls in Columbus for that when we first started but I remember going to pick up the plane dealer back to my rule I have to see the ad every time so I was in Columbus at the time so I went down to the The Bagel Shop to look for the to look for the the paper I run into Bill there because he it was before he was working all the time there and I like I'm like yeah I'm just picking up the Plain Dealer I'm like look here's our ad and we both looked at each other like what are we doing you're like here we go we you know this is our second from scratch market and I think I think you have that and I think you know I think we danced around opening big cities I mean Cleveland's a big city but we danced around coastal cities we danced around Chicago for a long because we knew it was going to be expensive to open but you know there's a reason that companies you know back in the day open on the coast because there are a lot of people there yep you know absolutely but but on the flip side we were like hey we figured out how to open Middle America which is sometimes where companies would stumble at that time it was like you know that you'd have ideas that would work on the coast but you couldn't get them to work in Middle America well we figured out how to get it to work in Middle America and then we could take it to the coast where you know we always knew that you know Columbus was the 50th largest city at the time it's hard to find a plumber there it's much harder to find a plumber in a bigger city and you know that was and that was the logic that carried our strategy when you came back Angie you came back to run marketing yeah what were so what were some of the things that you were most excited about going from your two by three ad strategy to much more complex marketing campaigns as you you know proliferated the U.

S well it's kind of funny so I I I came back as Market man I didn't specialize in marketing in business school you know I took a couple of Mark of course but I was very much kind of General management so I would not say that my chops were like hey it's marketing and I was incredibly Frugal about how we spent our money you know I mean it was just one of those like I was I didn't have a passion I mean I'm not a creative Soul so it wasn't it wasn't driven by a I have this long-term creative brand strategy that's going to drive us to this point if we invest you know this many millions of dollars it was like every dollar was a hard-working dollar every dollar was measured on what it delivered and it had to deliver every single day so so when I came back on her to think I mean if we were still advertising absolutely in Daily newspapers buying local NPR stations we were still buying local so it was a pretty and we and we continued that for probably five years I think after I got back from business school it wasn't until we got to about 20 cities that we finally passed the point where we could actually start advertising nationally because it's still even then I mean if you think about 2005 even then digital marketing wasn't wasn't anything as it is today so I mean it was all you know vast majority offline marketing and so I was getting ready to buy our NPR contract and you know I was talking you know Bill and I were chatting about I was like yeah it's going to be about you know you know it's like I gave him the amount and he's like you know what why don't you why just go see what NPR is nationally and they're like all right I'll go figure that out so I go out you know I talk to him I come back and I was like well good news you know it's it's it's 20 less to buy it nationally and he's like gosh I bet you get a lot more I bet you get a lot more markets and I was like yeah we get we get 700.

wow so all of a sudden the thing that was our constraint became became our our motivator so we went from 20 markets to 100 markets in about 18 months because the cost to open those markets had been marketing and when we could fund the marketing off of 20 cities all of a sudden it was just a race to open was that your first growth spurt in terms of growing the yeah I mean we we were pretty steady at opening markets you know one or two kind of every year I mean we were always kind of growing well it probably was I mean that's probably when we kind of we were probably at around 200 people at that point and then kind of went up from there well when I moved to town a decade ago over a decade ago now Angie's List had an entire campus in Indianapolis and some of the smartest people I met in Tech worked at Angie's List so you had to have done something right in terms of attracting the right talent in those early stages what were some of those early lessons that you learned in finding those right people early on and I think I think it is about you know spending time investing and making sure you're you're finding great people to begin with I mean you're you're never going to be perfect at hiring but I think a lot of times we are quicker to higher than we are to fire we take more time to Fire and you know and it's like I I think those are maybe mistakes and I think investing and spending time getting to know people really matters and we were you know we were we were we spent a lot of time recruiting and networking in the city and trying to find that talent I think we were here at a time where you know it was us an exact target right I mean it was you know there were two you know and we duke it out with them over talent trying to have a little agreement come on Scott quit hiring your people away right but you know that just makes it fun it's our job to make sure we keep them attracted and entertained and like what they're doing so that's our job but I think it's it's about building a culture as well of of people that want to work hard together because you know there are times you need people that are going to kind of really go the extra mile and I think that's that's what we that's what we work to form what were some of your favorite aspects of the Angie's List culture early on that have kind of stayed with the company until today there is there is a there's a flesh about the organization you know there's not there's not a lot of Tears you know they you know I I think one of the hardest things for me was when we got to a point that I didn't know everyone by name when we had to go to key cards and I was like okay it made me sad when I had to look at the picture that that that was hard for me and I had to figure out how I was going to get to know people and so I had I was I'd read a book by Adam Bryant about he had written the he wrote the coroner office for the New York Times and he and he wrote a book then of a of a bunch of stories about some of those columns he had written and one of the things that I really liked was one of the executives had office and in in the office hours it was just like yeah come and visit me the person had been a professor before and they thought that was interesting so I introduced that I was like I dedicated an hour each Friday and anyone could sign up for a 15-minute slot to talk about anything and you know and I what I learned was like hey I got more out of those than they did for sure I mean it was like it was made it was incredibly rewarding to me I think the offer is just as valuable as the interactions and you know I always left people with something so if you came to me and wanted advice I'd introduce you to someone if you had a business idea we'd talk it through if you had a complaint I'd go run it down and figure out what was going on and I think that accessibility is an important part in an organization because I think people um you know people don't people work for people people don't work for Brands so if they believe in the people and they can hear the passion then that's going to matter I had a sales rep one time and and she's and she came up and and she was relatively new and she's like hey can I talk to you for a few minutes I was like sure and she's like I just I need you to sell me they should just sell me on what I'm selling yeah so I'm like okay I'll give you this feel and and it was you know and she and she walked away and she's like that's all I needed I can sell this I just had to hear it directly from you I had to hear it directly from you and she turned out to be one of her best sales reps so I think it's one of those where and it's something that I probably didn't always figure out myself was that as the organization got bigger kind of how I spent my time was important that it changed and I needed to make it change but I had to kind of figure it out like I was still a doer I was probably still you know running all the day-to-day marketing at that point but it was like you forget that time spent with the team can actually be more valuable than what you would you know give someone else the tasks that you were saying go and go spend time with the team because you're going to leverage a lot more you know and I and I'm actually it's kind of fun I I introduced I introduced effectively office hours for so I'm the chief customer officer at Angie now and so I have introduced office hours effectively for our Pros so now there's an open offer to the pros where they can you know sign up and we'll just talk one-on-one and you know it's in it and it's it's again I would say the exact same things about those conversations with those Pros as I did with the conversations about with the team it's like I get I get so much out of those get ideas you understand Nuance of things that we may not have you know at a hundred percent and and it gives me it and it gives them a chance to feel like they have the accessibility they're like that's you don't have that you know especially as a customer you don't always have that in this day and age so to have that offer is valuable how often do you do office hours so I dedicate time each week so you know some weeks I might talk to 10 Pro some weeks I might talk to 20 Pros it just kind of depends and Ebbs and flows on the week are there some favorite things that you've learned in those conversations even specific examples or maybe more kind of trends that you've seen over time that have actually been implemented those learnings into the business yeah I'm trying to think so I've I've the using kind of a formalized kind of pro conversation is is newer I've you know I've always been accessible and you know I think I think it's been one of the luxuries of being you know kind of the namesake is that people would seek me out so I would get a ton of feedback over the years but you know now it's just you know understanding you know kind of what's going on in the trades understanding what's going on in companies businesses what things can we what things can we help with where's where are their pain points you know it's like it's not necessarily stuff that we will that that you pivot and kind of resolve necessarily today but it helps to it helps to kind of fill our our product roadmap right so when we think about like hey here's an opportunity here's a little opportunity for differentiation that we can slide it's useful and then we can point back to it and then you know it just kind of it becomes a real reinforcing activity I love that talk a little bit about the so I I find it awesome that you're collaborating with your co-founders and you're like well let's go back and ask the question you know what would National look like right and you find out it's actually more economical so uh in the net integer hyper growth years you ultimately went public you ultimately exited talk a little bit about that part of your journey what were the different types of of pains and challenges or or organizational changes Etc that you that you experienced and what was that part of the journey like yeah yeah I feel I said as I'm like I've I've seen you know probably every type of business kind of cycle at this point every time I mean I've been around doing this long enough right you know we were able to you know we were able to raise capital for the business for a long time privately I mean so if you think about that we ended up taking the business public in 2011.

so we were whatever 14 years into the business right am I doing my math right so which was awesome which was awesome and you know and then we we never necessarily thought that we would go public you know but it turned out it was one of those where we realized that we could scale marketing more than we ever thought we could remember when we were pitching to one of the VC firms at one point to raise money um you know we were like hey if we could just spend 25 million in marketing that just like that is awesome yeah and you know and over the years we far exceeded that and then we realized was like hey let's go let's go continue this growth trajectory and took the company public which is which is fascinating I mean it's fascinating to be a public company it was fascinating you know especially a high growth public company and there's a lot of what you realize is you know kind of people would ask me like how the business changed when we went public I think you know I think the ultimate goal is that you manage to keep the team focused on what they're doing keep the team focused on their growth don't you know kind of don't get you know it's because you hear it all the time like you don't want to manage to the street you've got to manage to what you're actually trying to accomplish otherwise you will be chasing your tail managing to a 90-day cycle or whatever it is you know so so we so I think we we were successfully you know we were successfully doing that part you know it's like I think you know there were some things changed in the environment I mean you know kind of it came to a point where people were unwilling to pay consumers weren't willing to pay for information that was a that was a a primary thing for us over the years and so we shifted and we went to a a freemium model which is great we were we were toying around with kind of how consumers just buy Services directly online like we buy a lot of things you know Groupon had come onto the scene we're like well if I could buy a Nails getting my nails done why can't I buy having my gutters cleaned you know so then it was just like how do we figure that one out that one seems really interesting and I think that you know when we look at the the industry as a whole I still think that the home services industry is you know it's a nearly 600 billion dollar industry and still you know a small fraction of it is online at this point there's still a lot to go we know it's gonna go there we know it's going to end up there but still there's still so much opportunity and kind of figuring out and it's probably this is what gets me excited about being you know on year 28 is that you know there there figuring that out will be pretty awesome you know kind of helping people because helping people care for their home there's nothing more special to people right it's like it's where you live it's where you raise your family and like making sure and it's for most Americans it's our largest investment you know so how do you take care of it and how do we help them take care of it in the best way possible and that's about finding Pros that can do a great job and you know and and I think about the day when kind of caring for your home becomes something you don't even think about right that it's just like oh maybe you know maybe my smart thermostat tells my HVAC company through Angie that that it needs tuned up right right instead of me waking up one day I was like when was the last time I tuned the air conditioner right like right now it's still very old for this ring yeah it's still a very homeowner there's a lot of homeowner work and homeowners you know so I think there is a time when some of this stuff could just become really fascinating and you know and I think it's you know it'll be fun to watch it evolve now this is not don't give away any secrets but I'm just curious about like expansion like so with your Pros are there are there additional services that they're asking for such as you know automated scheduling or some type of you know lightweight accounting for certain size Pros you know automated estimate you know scheduling Etc like any of those types of things that you're already doing or thinking about yeah you know I think part of it is so I think we've got a couple of things that we do for pros it's really about how you can help them spend more time painting less time driving more time painting yep and and so by the way I had a painting company in college so that struck a chord with me yeah exactly because when you're painting you're earning money when you're driving around you're not earning money right so how do we maximize the amount of time they're doing they're they're their craft that's what we want to do and how do we make it as easy as possible because a lot of these companies are small there might be three or four people you know it's like I when I to do these calls with Pros It's Not Unusual that they're sitting in their truck my only rules that they're not driving yeah please don't be driving right now you know so so it's really about that's how we're thinking about how do we make it easier to maximize the time that they're spending so that whether that is how do we think about driving the best quality you know homeowners and most you know qualified homeowners to them to and and that could take on a number of Fashions whether it's you know kind of like hey I want a directory experience because I'm exploring and figuring things out if you think about kind of the the olanges list experience whether it's like hey I'm ready to hire match me up or it's like you know today we do offer an opportunity where you're just like three hundred dollars I want my gutters cleaned I'm buying it right on Angie the person's gonna show up maybe even when I'm at work and they're just gonna take care of it yeah and so we're exploring kind of that whole gamut and you know and there could be different points different tasks different Pros that might fit in across any of those and they might jump and they might run the entire gamut as well which is fun which is fun so so really it's about how do we think about maximizing kind of their biggest their biggest resource constraint is their time well one of the things that that strikes me Angie and having this conversation is that you and Angie has helped millions of people take care of and improve their home and for decades Angie has called Indianapolis home and in a lot of ways the business has taken care of this community and made this community a great place to live I I mentioned earlier in the show I would not be in Indianapolis if it weren't for Angie's List and that's because literally Scott Brenton and Mike rutz came to my campus in Bloomington you're coming to Indianapolis you should come check out the tech scene in Indianapolis so I I did they made a very compelling case to not move out to the Bay Area yeah and I never would have done that um but I think it's so cool just that this idea going door to door starting with a little literally a physical newsletter has turned into something that has compounded just amazing dividends for this entire community and of course all of your customers but you know yeah the impact that we have I mean I love the impact we're having on customers and I spend fast portions of my time thinking about that but when I think about over time it's in many ways it's the impacts we've had on kind of folks that we've touched kind of through working with them as well I remember coming in late into Indy one time on coming off an airplane and a young man stopped me and he was like hey I just wanted to say hi you know I worked for you several years ago when I was fresh out of college and I've moved on but you know because of that start I've really had a great career and like you know that that is the biggest compliment someone can give you know when I think about like all the orfellows that are out there today you know it's just kind of like I said in awe and it's like wow that little thing where we were like hey if we start with 10 maybe someday maybe someday this will be a thing of some really smart folks that are sticking around Indiana making it great and you know that's you know I'm in awe of kind of how it kind of took on and kind of got momentum on its own in that way it's fantastic can you tell us the quick story of just how that idea kind of came to be the the aura fellowship and your earliest memories of Ora fellows at Angie's List yeah and I think and I think Angie you mentioned Bob Orr earlier in the podcast right so tying that all together would be amazing yeah so so Bill worked for Bob Orr when he was governor and and and then and then I interned for Bob during probably I think it was my Jeep to my Junior and senior year in college I think it was yeah so I had a lot of exposure to him and then you know we got out I mean it was always like how do we kind of fight them you know it's like it's the queen is it how do you fight the brain drain in Indiana and what we realized and what we the the formula for which we thought was right was that you make great contacts early in your career and you know even if you go off and go you know even if you go out to Harvard or Stanford and go to school you know those connections still are connections that might bring you back and and you know like you know what you want to do when you're 25 and what you want to do when you're 35 and have kids might look very different and if you don't have those connections we were seeing even people wanting to come back when they were 30s and 40s who were like I don't know how to break back in so we're like hey let's start to create some tethers early on so that's why it was a two-year experience in Indiana we knew we were gonna send them potentially off in the world at some point but some of them might may very likely stick around the whole time and we're going to create a much better opportunity for people to come back you know because of those early relationships with Bob Orr is focus on entrepreneurialism I mean we named the the fellowship after him I mean he was still living at the time the first I think the first couple of finalist days he came to finalist day wow wow that's so cool that's I really appreciate you telling that story obviously for me being an aura fellow and having or fellows now on my team um you know the program has just paid huge dividends for this entire Tech ecosystem yeah it's amazing what if you take you know kind of an ambitious smart person that's right and give them some guard rails what they can accomplish and I think that's that's exactly I think that's what bill and I say we had the you know the luxury Scott had the luxury of having and that's what we wanted to instill in the fellowship and and that program's doing what is there roughly 100 fellows a year now yes it's that's what I'm saying I'm like I am in awe of how it has grown is really really grown I I think I was a class of 12 and that was a decade a little over a decade ago yeah so it is really compounded and of course tons of orofellows running tech companies right everyone I mean I mean we have one we have one at Angie now and I'm like everyone I meet I'm like they're just as sharp as the last I'm just like oh gosh [Laughter] Well Angie I would love to just uh say one more time thank you for everything that you have done to contribute to Indiana and thank you for sharing your your story here today we're at my favorite part of the podcast which is called the lightning round are you down to do a two three minute lightning round all right none of these are gotchas so first of three questions outside of the amazing entrepreneurial ecosystem what is Indiana known for racing racing I love racing yes what's your favorite racing memory I took race car driving lessons what yeah that's awesome I did I grew up like going to the races when I was a kid and then and then when I was in college I did the Bondurant school when it came to Indy during during May one year you know so maybe maybe I should have gone through that door [Laughter] admit that like then years later I was out of the track Johnny Rutherford was was there and I got to ride in the pace car with them and I got in the car and realized it might have been the dumbest thing I had ever done because I was the mother of three and this is totally irresponsible I literally screamed the entire way around the track I saw Johnny a year later or two years later and he's like I will always remember you I've never had someone scream like that before so what I realized it's like it's all about control for me if I'm driving in the car I'm good if I'm not I'm not good I'm not good that's amazing all those hours in that Ford Focus between Columbus yeah all right second of the three three the lightning round questions what is a Hidden Gem in Indiana hidden gym in Indiana I always love Brown County we've not had that one yet surprisingly that is a good Hidden Gem last one who is someone that we need to keep on our radar someone who is doing big things here in Indiana gosh that was a good question now you're going to stop me besides Angie Hicks I like Maxi odor yeah me too yeah great cool but I love all the fellows so let's not let's not say I just played favorites okay [Laughter] absolutely absolutely I I think that's a great answer he's one of my favorite people one of my best friends and very grateful that the ore Fellowship brought us together he was my recruit from IU that's awesome I turned around and recruited him in so it's it's really cool just the network that that is built yeah and Angie thank you again for everything that you've done for Indianapolis for Indiana and for homeowners everywhere it's it's really being a homeowner now for the last you know five ten years it has been awesome to have Angie's List as a resource and to have had just like so many opportunities to have trusted people work on our house and know that it's actual reviews and not something that's being gamified yeah that's great I'm glad to hear it I'm glad to hear it yeah well thank you so much thanks for having me on the show thank you thanks we'll see you later thank you so much this has been get in a powder kick production in partnership with Elevate Ventures and we want to hear from you if you have suggestions for a guest or a segment reach out to Matt or Nate on LinkedIn or on email to discover top tier tech companies outside of Silicon Valley in hubs like Indiana check out our newsletter at powderkeg.

com newsletter and to apply for membership to the powder cake executive Community Check out powdercake. com premium we'll catch you next time and next week as we continue to help the world get in since you just listened to this podcast you might be thinking about starting one for your company lucky for you our partners over at cassid have you covered cassid is the first and only podcast in video marketing platform made specifically for B2B Brands I love this about them the platform makes it possible to publish Syndicate amplify and measure the value of your podcast and video content in fact we use it for our podcast here at Powder Keg and if you're a startup you should listen up because cassid for startups is definitely for you they are offering exclusive deep discounts of up to 82 percent off retail price for qualifying startups connect with casted at casted. us slash powderkeg