Kwame Boler, left, and Claudius Mbemba, co-founders of Neu. (NeuPhotos)
Like many businesses entering 2020, Neu was riding a wave of optimism and growth. With its marketplace that connects Airbnb hosts with hotel-grade cleaners, the Seattle-based startup had found its niche.
Just as Neu was joining the 11th cohort of Techstars Seattle to further fuel its success, the coronavirus pandemic arrived and changed everything. The economic fallout was swift, and travel was among the hardest hit industries.
“It was a one-two punch that definitely knocked us down a little bit,” Neu co-founder Kwame Boler told GeekWire. “We had a lot of momentum going into February. We were developing a lot of wealth within the Airbnb community. And then all of a sudden, everything almost completely flipped upside down.”
Neu experienced an unprecedented number of cancellations within its platform in just two months, with business shrinking to less than 10% of where it was the previous year. It had to stop its work to address various pain points and re-evaluate what it would mean to run a cleaning business in a post-COVID climate, especially one in which travel would likely be impacted for some time.
But with the desire for on-demand cleaning and sanitizing suddenly skyrocketing, the startup rapidly accelerated its plans to look into cleaning beyond vacation rentals and taking on businesses, residential and commercial real estate properties.
“Those who enjoy or thrive in this kind of environment, in doing a startup or owning a business around this time, are those who are really in it for the long run,” said Neu co-founder Claudius Mbemba. “It just taught me that this is what I really want to be doing.”
GeekWire caught up with Boler and Mbemba to learn more about how the startup is faring in this installment of a special GeekWire Podcast series highlighting some of the finalists for the upcoming GeekWire Awards. Boler and Mbemba are among the finalists for Young Entrepreneur of the Year — celebrating startup founders in the Pacific Northwest who are 30 or younger.
Register here to watch the live virtual event for free at 4 p.m. on Thursday, July 23.
Listen below and continue reading for excerpts from our conversation:
Business plan on overdrive: “We had always seen ourselves as becoming the de facto leaders of cleaning and not the de facto leaders of vacation rental cleaning,” Boler said. “[The pandemic] just pushed us … where we started exploring opportunities in those other markets. We have already started talking with a lot of different customers and working through different pricing configurations.”
An entrepreneur’s big fear: “It was frightening,” Mbemba said. “There was a good three weeks where we were just in limbo, and for entrepreneurs that’s the biggest dread, not having a sense of direction, feeling that the world was so tumultuous and everything was so ambiguous. We had no idea where we were going to go. We knew that we needed to go back to the drawing board to figure out where our leverage would come from. It was very scary.”
Lessons on leadership: “My biggest values have always been transparency and communication,” Mbemba said. “It becomes even more important during times of crisis, because people want to know that they can trust you. And they can believe in what you’re saying.” … “We’ve learned that there’s definitely a need to be flexible,” Boler added, “and also the value on mental health, checking in on people privately and trying to see where they are. I’m trying to offer a lot more resources and support. These are incredibly trying times.”
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(Airbnb Image)