This week’s 1 Million Cups at the Kauffman Foundation featured pitches by a local company that helps homeowners find qualified contractors and Kansas City’s only (and the nation’s largest) open-admission/no-kill animal shelter.
JoeBid.com founder Andrew Chapman said that his online startup is where homeowners can find profiles, ratings and reviews of more than 40 area contractors for improvement and maintenance projects. Contractors are contacted by homeowners on the site and then place bids for jobs.
“With JoeBid, the homeowner pays nothing,” Chapman said. “And the contractor only pays if they actually get the job.”
Chapman launched JoeBid.com in September 2013. He personally vets all contractors on the site and charges them a fee of 10 percent of their total invoice price, with a $300 cap.
“The feedback from contractors is that it’s a pretty good deal,” Chapman said.
Contractors on JoeBid.com who do not return calls to homeowners or otherwise fail to act professionally are removed from the site, Chapman said.
“We’re trying to seek out contractors with integrity,” he said.
KC Pet Project at 1 Million Cups
Next up was Tori Fugate, manager of marketing and development for KC Pet Project. The open-admission/no-kill animal shelter has been under contract to the City of Kansas City since January 2012. Half of KC Pet Project’s $2.5 million budget is paid by the city, Fugate said, and half is made up of donations, grants and fees of service.
The shelter is actively seeking on-site volunteers, Fugate said, along with foster caregivers that can temporarily keep pets in their homes until adoptions can be arranged. KC Pet Project also wants to move its central facility to a newer and larger building than the one it occupies near the Truman Sports Complex, where the shelter has been located since 1972.
KC Pet Project will take any animal in any condition that’s brought in by Kansas City tax payers and animal control workers. It cares for 9,000 or more pets a year. Since accepting the city’s contract, the shelter has significantly increased pet adoptions and reduced euthanasia rates, Fugate said.
“We’re saving lives every day,” she said.
