Bundl Home - Founder Story
3/18/2021
The Bundl Home Journey
Jay Sachetti has been a homeowner for over 15 years, and in that time he experienced the pain of taking care of a home. It was time-consuming, confusing, and expensive. While he did enjoy doing some of the work, he just didn’t have the time to do all of it since having a family. He looked into hiring service contractors for some of the tasks around his home, but the contractors he contacted indicated they weren’t interested because the tasks were either too small or too big. It was a whole new learning experience for him from going from the questions he had to ask as a home buyer to the questions he had to ask for his home services. Jay found that there wasn’t the cohesive customer experience that he expected from the home service providers.
In December 2018, while living in Georgia, he thought there was a great opportunity to create a new solution for other homeowners for how he wanted his home services problems solved. At the time, he had his second daughter and he and his family knew they wanted to come back to Minnesota to be near their extended family. Starting a business once he moved back home to Minnesota seemed like a good option.
Over the next year and a half, Jay explored different ways to approach this home service solution he came up with. He asked for feedback from other homeowners and business people he knew, researched the home service trades and business models, and developed a better picture of what a service offering would look like.
In 2020, he joined the Bunker Labs Veterans in residence 2020b cohort. Bunker Labs is a national non-profit, Veteran-focused accelerator program for small businesses. Through Bunker Labs, Jay gained access to online courses, an ongoing speaker series that included subject matter experts, mentorship, and other Veterans who were entrepreneurs and small business owners. The weekly check-ins provided the accountability and support he needed. Each week, the group was asked a critical question and as a group they brainstormed solutions. These weekly interactions helped him get through the roadblocks he was encountering while formulating his startup idea.
As 2020 was coming to an end, Jay felt like there was an end in sight for the COVID-19 pandemic and that home services would be able to be delivered safely soon. It seemed like a good time to get a technology solution in place to help homeowners.
In December 2020, he sourced and started working with local, startup-focused consultants to help him get his idea off the ground. He recognized that for this concept he wouldn’t be successful being a solo entrepreneur - he needed a team. Over the next 3 months, Jay and his team breathed life into what is now Bundl Home.
Challenges Jay Overcame
So far, the biggest challenges for Jay in building Bundl Home have been the decisions that needed to be made in finance, business model and structure, technology, operations, and service delivery. Figuring out the best way to bring those together has been quite the feat. To help him get through the challenges, Jay learned valuable information through the Launch Minnesota Value Proposition Design course and used the Lean Canvas to work through his business plan.
Why Jay Believes He is the Best Person to Start a Bundled Home Maintenance Subscription Company
Jay came from humble beginnings in Minnesota. He paid for his undergrad degree at the University of Minnesota by running a painting business. Through that experience, he gained an understanding of homeowner services and learned how to create workflows that would deliver a great customer experience. He spent over 15 years working in the military and a corporate environment, gaining experience across the whole spectrum of business functions including operations and logistics, finance, program management, product development, marketing, and business development. During his career, he learned how to use technology to solve problems in new ways. One of the largest problems he helped solve with technology was when he was deployed in Afghanistan in the military and needed to figure out how to deploy a wireless-based technology. While he was working at Eaton, he helped to implement new tools to solve problems in the lighting industry. Jay feels like he is coming home now in working on solving problems in the home services industry.
Being a Veteran Helped Jay Become an Entrepreneur
Jay’s military experience prepared him for entrepreneurship in ways he couldn’t imagine. The military decision process is closely related to how entrepreneurs make decisions. In the military and in entrepreneurship, you need to be prepared so that you can ultimately win. Processes need to be put in place in the military and in a startup to carry out the mission, but you must also be reactive. Just like in the military, decision making and responsiveness can make a small business successful.
His advice to other Veterans who are thinking about becoming entrepreneurs is, “do it because you are already equipped with many of the necessary skills from your experience in the military that will help you succeed as an entrepreneur, and you should reach out to other Veterans who have come before you for assistance and mentorship throughout your entrepreneurial journey.” Veterans are underrepresented in the entrepreneur population and Jay would love to see more Veterans thrive as entrepreneurs.
What Excites Jay the Most About Building Bundl Home
Jay is most excited to make homeowners happy and use technology to enable homeowner happiness in ways others haven’t. He is also excited to build a culture at Bundl Home that is centered around employee empowerment and ownership. At Bundl Home, he wants employees to show up every day caring about the homeowner experience. His role as a leader is to equip employees with the tools and resources they need in order to make that happen.
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