Home renovations never go as planned. With so many moving parts and a lack of transparency throughout the process, the glorious dream of beautifying your home often ends up being a hassle that you’d avoid at any costs. Block Renovation gives homeowners hope. It’s an all-inclusive platform that simplifies the home renovation process by providing an end-to-end experience fueled by technology and a focus on customer experience. This experience is built off of Blocks commitment to transparent prices, reliable timelines, and highly experienced contractors.
AlleyWatch spoke with founders Koda Wang (RentTheRunway and HuffPost) and Luke Sherwin (cofounder at Casper)to learn how their newly launched platform changes how people approach home renovations.
Tell us about the product or service that Block Renovation offers.
Block is an all-inclusive platform drastically simplifying the home renovation process for homeowners and contractors. It offers an end-to-end renovation experience with transparent prices, reliable timelines, vetted contractors, and quality materials.
How is Block Renovation different?
Painful, over-budget, drawn-out renovations have been a cliche for years. Block simplifies the convoluted process of a home renovation project by delivering a one-stop shop, all-inclusive experience that finally makes purchasing and completing a beautiful home renovation project intuitive and affordable.
Our generation has high expectations for customer experience – we like to know how much something is, when we’re going to get it, and how it was made. Renovations don’t tick any of those boxes and so we’re flipping the model to lead with a finished product with upfront prices, timelines, and communication around our construction standards.
What market does Block Renovation target and how big is it?
Block’s primary audience is homeowners who are looking to renovate but may be unsure of where to start and generally want a solution to the entire renovation process that makes sense. We are often appealing to busy professionals who prefer convenient solutions, as well as homeowners who love to browse Instagram, Pinterest and blogs for aspirational home goals.
In addition, we are open to contractors who can now grow their business with Block. We offer them work with clear designs and materials, with certainty and consistency on demand.
In addition, we are open to contractors who can now grow their business with Block. We offer them work with clear designs and materials, with certainty and consistency on demand.
Currently, our market is in the NYC-NJ area, with plans to expand in the future.
What is the business model?
Block guides the customer across an end-to-end process. Customers first browse available designs on our site and customize pieces to fit their needs. They’ll then receive a cost estimate, a free video consultation, and an optional sample box of materials. Our contractors then do a site visit to confirm measurements and site conditions. Block will manage the design, board approvals, and construction planning. Once construction starts, Block will help oversee the quality of construction and have the customer’s back throughout the process.
What inspired the start of Block Renovation?
We wanted to bring some of the tightness and clarity found in the best customer experiences to the otherwise uncertain world of home renovation. We do this by bringing certainty around cost, time, and design to the beginning of the customer journey. By starting with a narrow focus – the bathroom in our case – we have a greater ability to change the experience than other companies who have taken a shallow but wide approach.
Have you found it difficult to break into the New York City market with established relationships of building supervisors with contractors?
At times co-op and condo boards can be challenging for homeowners. In general, we help homeowners navigate this process with clear documentation and preparation, which make our board applications shorter and more successful.
What are the milestones that you plan to achieve within six months?
We’re currently focused on launching in NYC and New Jersey, ensuring our customers are happy and that we’re building solid relationships with builders and contractors. In the future, we’d like to expand to new markets, in addition to new home renovation projects.
What is the one piece of startup advice that you never got?
Clearly define what you need to do to “graduate” from each era of the company. We worked with our advisor, Niko Canner, on developing our own “graduation” milestones – and for each of the eras of the company, it will evolve.
If you could be put in touch with anyone in the New York community who would it be and why?
We’d love to be introduced to property managers who manager hundreds of apartments – we think we can help make their lives easier but we need that foot in the door.
Why did you launch in New York / NJ?
These markets have the benefit of being notoriously complex given a diversity of condos, co-ops, and single-family homes. We figured that the cliche applies – if we can cut our teeth here, we have a shot anywhere. As a secondary point, we live here.
What’s your favorite restaurant in the city?
Luke’s wife is the chef and owner of King on 6th Avenue, so we eat there at least twice a week.
