South African entrepreneur Shaheen Price is the brains behind GoodApp Home Services, a Cape Town-based company making a positive difference through an innovative platform that connects homeowners with maintenance and repair professionals.
Through their widely used app, GoodApp is committed to simplifying the process of booking and scheduling home services by directly connecting homeowners with licensed professionals such as cleaners, handymen, electricians, plumbers, and many more.
Shaheen, who was born in Cape Town, says the idea of establishing GoodApp came to him after he realized that many homeowners were struggling to access reliable and professional service providers for the challenges they faced regularly.
“We knew we had the ability to create a platform that would assist South Africans in reaching professional partners and secure them in the process, creating an end-to-end solution that guarantees a good customer experience,” Shaheen explains.
Since its inception in 2023, GoodApp has become the go-to platform that provides the highest standards of quality and professionalism. They are fully committed to their objective of providing transparent pricing and clear communication throughout the entire process.
A Good Education
Looking back, Shaheen is extremely grateful for the good education he received and the financial and moral support from his parents. He says growing up in a stable home gave him a good start in life.
“I was born in Cape Town and spent most of my schooling life in Johannesburg. I have also lived in Durban. I grew up in a very content home. My mom is a hairdresser, and during my time at school, my dad worked in recruitment.
“I believe my parents gave all they could to give my sister and me a good education and a good platform to pursue life. I attended Sandringham High School in Johannesburg and had bigger and better dreams than wanting to work in a corporate setting,” Shaheen explains.
Seeds of Entrepreneurship
After securing employment in the South African legal space, the determination to establish his own company grew into a burning passion within Shaheen.
“I worked in both the legal and finance fields for more than seven years before starting my first company. I set up Inception Africa as a software development and consulting business.”
Through this initial entrepreneurial venture, GoodApp Home Services was eventually born.
“We started GoodApp Home Services after discovering the challenges many homeowners were facing. We knew there was a market for the services we offer. During our journey, we encountered the difficulties many people experienced whenever they needed services at their homes.”
Financial Strategy
As both founder and chief investment officer of GoodApp Home Services, Shaheen plays a pivotal role in shaping the company’s financial strategy and ensuring its investments align with its growth objectives.
“My key duties include overseeing investments, financial strategy and management, fundraising and stakeholder relations, strategic leadership, risk management, and many other related responsibilities.
“GoodApp operates as a tech-driven platform connecting homeowners with vetted service providers for maintenance, repairs, and home improvement.
“Our daily operations include facilitating bookings through our mobile and web platforms, managing a network of service providers, and ensuring quality control. The platform also handles customer inquiries and resolves issues while the company continuously improves its technology to streamline operations and enhance user experience.”
Solutions to Challenges
Building trust with both customers and service providers during the early stages of the business was one of the major challenges Shaheen and his team faced.
“We implemented a rigorous vetting process for providers, a satisfaction guarantee for customers, and a transparent rating system as a solution to this challenge. We also faced the challenge of managing operational scalability as the demand for our services grew.
“As a solution, we invested in AI-driven scheduling tools and automated systems, which improved our efficiency and increased our ability to handle logistics more effectively.”
To attract the right talent to build the business, GoodApp Home Services focused on building a strong company culture appealing to passionate and highly skilled individuals.
Successes and Stepping into the Future
Shaheen is excited by the successes GoodApp Home Services has achieved in a short time. He believes their milestones have given them the impetus to forge ahead and achieve their other goals and objectives.
“We have built a customer base of 7,500 users who rely on GoodApp for their home service needs. We have enabled more than 200 partners to earn an income from the platform, and this number is still growing.
“We have completed over 150 bookings in just three months, and we are happy to report that our customer satisfaction is above 95%, which is a very good statistic. This is very encouraging and gives us the strength to continue on the same growth trajectory.”
Currently, GoodApp employs eight people, and Shaheen says the plan is to expand into new regions by scaling up operations.
“We plan to hire additional talent, particularly in technology, marketing, and customer success roles. This will help us maintain quality and continue improving the customer experience.
“Looking to the future with optimism, the plan is to expand GoodApp’s presence into different regions, triple the size of our customer base while maintaining high service standards, and introduce new services and subscription models to add value for our customers.
“We aim to achieve operational sustainability by leveraging AI and automation and become the go-to platform for home services. We aim to be recognized for reliability and innovation,” Shaheen concludes.
