Mhelpdesk, a local startup that provides an online platform for field service employees to track jobs from lead to payment, is growing by leaps and bounds. In the last year, the company has grown from
8 employees to 40 and has moved from AOL's Fishbowl Labs into
Custom Ink's office space in the Mosaic District in Fairfax. Denver-based
HomeAdvisor, a subsidiary of Fortune 1000 company IAC, also gave the startup an infusion on the cash and business development side of the equation: two months ago, the company bought a majority stake in Mhelpdesk, but only just.
"I think of it as a Series A, with a large secondary purchase," says Ryan Shank, COO for Mhelpdesk. "We weren't acquired. HomeAdvisor bought a majority stake."
HomeAdvisor is a lead-generation platform that connects contractors with customers who have a need for their services. HomeAdvisor's interest in Mhelpdesk will help take the startup to the next level, according to Shank. "They have 700 sales reps that are going to sell Mhelpdesk. It's a relationship that just makes sense."
Shank says that alongside "channel partner" HomeAdvisor's efforts, Mhelpdesk will continue to pitch its services to small and medium-size businesses. "SMBs are super fragmented," he says. "We're a tool to manage leads through their lifecycle—from lead to schedule to estimate to invoice to payment." On the payment side, Mhelpdesk integrates with QuickBooks.
Currently, Mhelpdesk has 10,000 customers. Roughly 2,000 of those pay to use the service, which runs $150/month for five users, or $75/month for the first user and $25 for each additional user. The differential between paid and free is due to Mhelpdesk's free trial period. "We have 1,500 free trial signups per month," Shank says. "Obviously, we want them all to convert to paying customers."
While not hiring sales people, Mhelpdesk is looking for an in-house recruiter to hire developers. Shank anticipates high growth over the coming year. "We are expecting to be at just under 100 employees by December 2015, and no one [in the office right now] can focus on recruiting." The company is also
hiring for other positions, including .NET developers, a "finance person" and a "content marketing person."