User:Churrupy/Adora Cheung

Adora Cheung was the co-founder and CEO of housecleaning business Homejoy.

Early life
Cheung grew up in a small town in South Carolina, and got a Bachelors in Computer Science from Clemson University.

Cheung got a masters in Economics from University of Rochester. She was working on her PhD when a friend asked for programming help with his startup, so she left her PhD program to help him. When that didn't follow through, she moved Silicon Valley.

After moving Cheung worked at Slide.com as a group project manager, overlooking multiple projects such as FunWall, SuperPoke!, and SuperPoke! Pets.

Homejoy
Cheung and her brother joined Y Combinator after she left Slide, Inc. Together they brainstormed several startup ideas, including Pathjoy. Cheung spent a year working on Pathjoy, which was a platform meant to connect customers with life coaches and therapists, but soon abandoned the idea.

Instead Cheung started to focus Pathjoy on finding house cleaners instead of therapists. The idea came when Cheung was looking for a cleaning service for her brother's apartment, but all offerings were either from expensive cleaning agencies or untested cleaners from Craigslist, and she decided that there needed to be an easier, cheaper way to provide home cleaning services. To further reinforce the company's new direction, the name Pathjoy was changed to Homejoy.

Inspired by other companies that participate in a sharing economy, Adora created Homejoy with her brother in 2012. For research, Cheung worked at a professional cleaning company so she'd learn the issues facing cleaners, including scheduling difficulties and inefficient travelling. Cheung was the first cleaner of Homejoy and cleaned houses herself as the startup got off the ground. Because of her experience, the new Homejoy hires are supposed to do a test cleaning job as part of the hiring process. During their test cleaning the new hires are taught how to clean in an efficient manner, and how to communicate with the homeowners in a friendly and effective way.

Cheung herself also went out on cleaning assignments at least once a month. She had plans for Homejoy to move into home repairs, including electricity and plumbing.

After Homejoy
After Homejoy closed Cheung started working exclusively for Y Combinator as a partner and works as an advisor to the startups that they fund. She also gives frequent presentations on building startups and running a business due to her experience with Homejoy and earlier projects.

Currently Cheung is contributing to a Y Combinator project to develop better cities. Currently the project is developing a program to test basic income in Oakland, California.

Philosophy on entrepreneurship
Cheung's philosophy on startups and entrepreneurship was developed over her time spent with startups, and participated in a lecture series delivered by StartupClass.co on developing and delivering products and building a customer base.

Cheung says that she's aware of making a more inclusive work environment that's inviting to all people to help combat the insular culture that Silicon Valley has been known for, and acknowledges that entrepenerual women face harassment and bullying. She challenges women to create their own companies, and to not use sexism as a possible crutch or excuse for failure.