Hidrent

Hidrent is raising capital via a Crowd SAFE at an $8.5 million valuation cap. Hidrent previously raised $100,000 at a $3 million valuation in 2021 and $39,000 at a $3.5 million valuation in 2019. Its current $8.5 million valuation is extremely attractive. With $429,438 in 2021 revenue, the $8.5 million valuation represents a valuation-to-revenue multiple of 19.8x. This multiple isn’t necessarily a huge bargain at first glance. But when considered in the context of Hidrent’s phenomenal year-over-year progress since 2018 (particularly in terms of revenue and partnership growth), the company is clearly undervalued.

Hidrent operates in the US home services market, which stood at $657 billion in 2022. This market grew by 10.9% in 2021. Hidrent is targeting a huge total addressable market that is growing at a healthy pace. However, it is important to note that Hidrent’s main users are typically around 55 years of age and older. These are folks that are willing to pay more for a safer and more trustworthy experience. While a narrower audience may be concerning at first, Hidrent’s target demographic makes up more than 40% of United States adults older than 20. Therefore, the serviceable market is still quite large.

This space is very competitive, with the two core competitors being Angi and TaskRabbit. Angi reported 2021 revenue of $1.7 billion, representing just 0.3% of the total addressable market. Its success proves that Hidrent just needs to capture a tiny percentage of the total addressable market for investors in this StartEngine round to see a highly attractive return on investment. Additionally, even though the space is competitive, Hidrent has enough differentiation to continue taking market share from these competitors. The company could be targeted for an acquisition by one of these major players in the future.

Dave Heimbuch is the founder and CEO of Hidrent, as well as one of its two full-time employees. He spent more than 14 years in sales, marketing, and advertisement for other small companies like Shazam, YuMe, and Photobucket, all of which eventually went through nine-figure exits. While Heimbuch was not the founder of these companies, he played a key role in growing the brands and positioning them for an acquisition. He is clearly good at articulating the vision for Hidrent, having led a successful Shark Tank pitch. Heimbuch holds a Bachelor of Science in business administration from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. 

The second full-time employee is Dan Huvane, who serves as director of communications. He is responsible for public outreach, marketing initiatives, and customer service. Huvane previously held senior communication and public affairs positions in the Marine Corp for around a decade. He also served as director of communications for Team Rubicon, a nonprofit specializing in disaster response. Additionally, Huvane is a former wildland firefighter with the US Forest Service. Having a former firefighter directing public relations and communications for Hidrent is certainly a positive, as Huvane has the experience necessary to market this service effectively. He holds a Bachelor of Science in marketing from Villanova University. 

Kurt Becker is the chief operating officer of the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Financial Corporation as well as an investor in and board member of Hidrent. Prior to his current role, Kurt held numerous other positions within the IAFF, including district vice president and state staff representative. He is responsible for strategic acquisition and implementation of firefighters on the Hidrent platform. Having a direct touchpoint within the IAFF is key for Hidrent to continue marketing the app to this firefighter union and continue drawing in gig workers for its marketplace. Kurt has spent his entire career in public service, having served as a paramedic for 26 years and firefighter for 22 years in St. Louis. He holds a bachelor’s degree and MBA from Webster University. 

Overall, Hidrent is led by a highly capable CEO with prior experience growing small companies. Paired with a small team of current and former firefighters with direct connections to that community, Hidrent’s team seems up to the task of growing the company.

In today’s gig economy landscape, virtually all of the apps have two things in common: almost anyone can join, and customers really do not know much about the worker they are getting. 

Hidrent takes this saturated market of gig apps and spins the employee vetting process in a very unique way. Firefighters are considered local heroes and are trusted in their communities. They also undergo vigorous vetting processes to become firefighters, eliminating the need for Hidrent to conduct background checks. Using firefighters as gig workers creates a better user experience centered around trust that can’t be found on other platforms. 

Although the main business model is a two-sided platform, Hidrent’s business-to-business (B2B) side is actually making more money at the moment. For these jobs, Hidrent partners with businesses across the country that have the need for outsourced labor. The baseline is for Hidrent to pay a flat rate of $50 per hour to the firefighter and invoice the business at $60 per hour. In order to drum up demand, the company has sometimes invoiced businesses less than this baseline rate, leading to a lower profit for Hidrent on these transactions. However, the B2B side of the business is in its early stages, and the company will continue to optimize its pricing model to ensure strong profitability on this side of the business in the future. There is great potential on the B2B side, as Hidrent can potentially begin charging platform fees to compensate for giving businesses access to this workforce. Presumably, businesses would be inclined to use Hidrent because they know they are getting a reliable worker that will represent the business in a professional manner. 

Overall, Hidrent is not creating a drastic paradigm shift for gig work, and the differentiation of having a firefighter complete tasks is not necessarily a “must have.” Therefore, Hidrent has a slight defensibility issue when compared to other gig apps that may offer cheaper services. However, Hidrent is capitalizing on the valuable trust factor behind having a neighborhood hero like a firefighter completing these tasks. The market has responded positively, and the company’s strong traction has shown that users are willing to pay a premium for this optionality.

Hidrent’s most high-profile success to date has been its Shark Tank appearance. All of the cast members loved CEO Dave Heimbuch’s pitch. Heimbuch secured a $300,000 investment from sharks Lori Greiner and Robert Herjavec, and Hidrent received nationwide exposure to the Shark Tank community in the process.

In 2021, Hidrent generated $429,438 in revenue, up 64% from $261,786 in 2020. Even better, Hidrent is now projecting 74.8% revenue growth for 2022. Overall, Hidrent has shown very solid traction and sustainable revenue growth — with just two full-time employees and five contractors.

Additionally, the company has entered into a three-year marketing agreement with the International Association of Fire Fighters, so the supply of firefighters for the app is in good shape. Now, Hidrent can simply focus on building customer demand through robust marketing initiatives.

Overall, Hidrent has shown remarkable performance. The company has established a solid foundation that will allow it to focus fully on growing its user base and further increasing revenue growth. 

At the moment, Hidrent has more workers than jobs on the app. The key to this next phase of growth is building worker demand quickly enough to avoid substantial firefighter churn. Additionally, Hidrent has very few reviews on the App Store. with one of them complaining about a poor experience with a firefighter. The company will need to find a way to generate more positive customer reviews in order to attract new customers. 

Additionally, the company needs to overhaul its business-to-business (B2B) operations. In an effort to grow this side of the business, Hidrent has sometimes charged businesses lower-than-usual prices, leading to a 78% increase in costs of goods sold in 2021. Margins like that are unsustainable and indicate the need for a complete revamp in the distribution of this service. If unsuccessful, the B2B side of Hidrent may stagnate and hinder the overall growth of the company. 

The company has risk associated with COVID-19 or a similar outbreak given that the majority of this gig labor takes place inside customer homes. Although this risk has gone down substantially, another outbreak would disproportionately affect companies like Hidrent.

Finally, Hidrent’s relationship with the International Association of Fire Fighters is solid. But it’s such a key piece, Hidrent can’t afford for the partnership to go sideways — especially since there’s no obvious plan B. So it’s also part of Hidrent’s risk profile. 

Altogether, Hidrent is a medium-risk company. It has sustained solid growth in all years of existence. However, the company is now moving into a new period of expansion as it looks to build demand for the app. While it remains to be seen how successful Hidrent will be in expanding, the company has shown clear evidence of success and competence in the past. 

Hidrent has raised two previous Regulation Crowdfunding rounds. Most recently, the company raised capital on Republic at a $3 million valuation in 2021. Since that raise last year, Hidrent reported 2021 revenue of $429,438, up 64% from 2020. During the company’s 2021 raise, Hidrent had reported just $22,059 in 2019 revenue. Given this strong revenue growth, the valuation increase from $3 million to $8.5 million is absolutely justified. 

Additionally, the company’s partnership with the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) means Hidrent’s supply of firefighters is in good shape. This partnership marks the most significant development to date and is further justification for the valuation increase from $3 million to $8.5 million. The IAFF has also acquired a 5% equity stake in Hidrent, which aligns the incentives of both organizations. During the company’s last raise, Hidrent had to go neighborhood to neighborhood to acquire new firefighters. Through this partnership, the company can now market directly to the nation’s largest union of firefighters.

Finally, the company has had a successful Shark Tank appearance since its previous raise, increasing nationwide exposure and creating free advertising every time the pitch is rerun on television. 

Overall, Hidrent has made substantial progress since the company’s last raise in January 2021, both in terms of partnerships and revenue growth. 

Since Hidrent’s workers are required to be firefighters, there is a ceiling on how many workers the app can offer. For context, Angi has more than 240,000 gig laborers on the platform. There are about 1.2 million full-time and part-time firefighters in the United States. To get to the same level as Agni, Hidrent would need to capture 21% of the entire firefighter workforce. This is an immensely difficult goal that would take a very long time to reach — if it is even reachable. 

Finally, Hidrent is currently experiencing a demand issue. At this point, the company has 6,000 firefighters on the app but not enough jobs. If the company does not begin to quickly drive more jobs to the app, the firefighters may look for side jobs elsewhere. 

Hidrent has seen extremely steady growth since its 2019 inception. Investors may be tempted to chalk up the company’s success to Shark Tank. However, the company had been growing quickly far before the Shark Tank episode hit the air. CEO Dave Heimbuch has achieved remarkable success running the company with just one other full-time employee (who didn’t join until mid-2020). With more resources and increased headcount, Hidrent stands to continue its healthy growth trajectory. 

Additionally, the company has solved the supply — or gig worker — side of the equation through its partnership with the International Association of Fire Fighters. This partnership gives Hidrent direct marketing access to the largest firefighter union in North America. 

Perhaps the most appealing aspect of Hidrent is its reasonable valuation of $8.5 million. As long as Hidrent is acquired at a valuation north of $150 million, investors in this round will make a healthy return of 10x or higher. Hidrent does not need to become anywhere near as big as Angi or TaskRabbit for investors in this round to be successful. 

Hidrent is a two-sided gig worker marketplace where consumers can hire off-duty firefighters to perform handyman household tasks. Hidrent has seen very steady traction since inception in 2019. In 2021, it recorded revenue of $429,438, up 64% year-over-year. CEO Dave Heimbuch pitched on Shark Tank in the same year and secured an investment deal, increasing nationwide exposure for the company. Because it partnered with the largest firefighter union in the country, Hidrent can easily secure firefighters for the app through direct marketing. Now, the company is entering its next phase of building out the B2B side of the business, which grew 108% last year. Additionally, the company will be rolling out a robust marketing campaign to continue to build out the demand side of the marketplace. All considered, Hidrent is a Top Deal.

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Analysis written by Teddy Lyons, August 9, 2022.