Chief executive officer Yaron Ben Shaul originally launched Hometalk as an engagement platform for customers of Networx, his lead generation business for..
Chief executive officer Yaron Ben Shaul originally launched Hometalk as an engagement platform for customers of Networx, his lead generation business for home contractors.
That engagement platform, with offices in New York and a research and development center in Israel, has since grown into a social network for the “do-it-yourself” community.
“Technology has caused people to lose the competency to work with their hands, ” says Ben Shaul, “Hometalk is trying to use technology to re-teach those skills.”
People who love to improve their home through DIY go to Hometalk to post their projects, get feedback from likeminded DIYers and ask questions on the community boards. The result of the user generated content is a Pinterest-like site where anyone can go to search for ideas on how to improve their home through DIY projects.
DIY may sound like a niche audience, but Hometalk has over 15 million active users and over 300 million monthly page views, including 600 million organic video views since July. Yaron confirmed that the company made millions in revenue in 2016 and will make somewhere between $15-20 million in 2017. Currently the company’s revenue streams come primarily from programmatic advertising, but Hometalk has plans to expand into sponsored content and e-commerce.
How did Hometalk bootstrap their growth and what is the future of the company and the DIY industry?
