Mick Dillon founded TrustedPeople.ie shortly after he renovated his home. The project gave him his light-bulb moment which he then turned into a business.
TrustedPeople.ie is a website for homeowners where they can view the portfolio work of builders, interior designers, landscapers, roofers and 20+ other categories of home professionals.
“I had difficulties finding competent and capable people to work on my home, and I felt a website showcasing the previous work of builders, carpenters, landscapers and other tradespeople would be a useful resource,” says Dillon.
What is your USP?
We help homeowners find and assess the most suitable tradespeople for a project. The fact that we’re now showcasing over 50,000 photos of completed projects from tradespeople based in Ireland is our main unique selling point. We also detail how many years a tradesperson is in business, their legal status, qualifications and professional memberships.
How did you fund the business?
We started the company out of blood, sweat and tears and the business is self-funded. We hope to launch in the UK within the next 12 months.
“We help homeowners find and assess the most suitable tradespeople for a project.”
What were the unforeseen challenges?
The biggest challenge is having the discipline to prioritise the user experience of homeowners, over short-term commercial opportunities. This requires saying ‘no thanks, we don’t want your money’ to tradespeople we feel don’t fit the ethos of the TrustedPeople.ie website. Also, staying focused on developing features that are the most important to the user, and not getting side-tracked by sexy, glamorous tech and features that ultimately do little to improve the user experience.
If you were to do it again would you do anything differently?
I wouldn’t do too many things differently if I was to do it all over again. I made enough mistakes in my first business to last a lifetime. Away from work, my two
