HourTown raises $1M for small business scheduling

August 19, 2008 | Anthony Ha | Comments | |

A new startup called HourTown is entering the crowded market for scheduling websites, and it just raised $1 million to improve its product and promotion.

We’ve been a bit skeptical about whether companies can get much traction in this area, even if they offer a smart, simple interface like newcomer Presdo. But HourTown targets a different audience, because it focuses on helping service providers — basically, small businesses ranging from doctors to yoga instructors — schedule their appointments, and also promotes the businesses and specific openings through search engine marketing.

It’s a combination that makes sense. In my experience, I’ve found that I usually Google whatever service I need, visit the website and then I have to pick up the phone to actually make the appointment — not exactly arduous, but not ideal, either. Palo Alto, Calif.-based HourTown allows businesses to bring that whole process online for much less effort than building their own appointment tools on their webistes. With a basic version that costs only $20 per month, HourTown probably pays off in saved time alone.

Since launching in April, founder Ryan Donahue (who left PayPal to start the company in 2006) says HourTown has processed 40,000 bookings. One of the next steps is adding mobile compatibility for businesses that do most of their work remotely, such as pet grooming services or pool cleaners.

The funding comes from Baseline Ventures, Hatch Ventures, NBC Universal and several angel investors. ZocDoc, which provides a similar service but focuses on doctors’ appointments, announced a $3 million first round yesterday.

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About the Author, Anthony Ha

Anthony is VentureBeat's assistant editor, as well as its reporter on enterprise technology, cloud computing, and tech policy. Before joining VentureBeat in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.

  • Zarate
    So, for the Small Business market- how will these guys differentiate themselves from an existing online email provider like Gmail, Yahoo, etc who already provide online calendaring. Add Microsoft Hosted Exchange,Webex to the mix...and you have a crowded market.

    Add to the mix that most cell phones offer calendar services...

    I understand the deep focus on calendaring and drop dead easy to use interface..Not sure if that by itself is enough to differentiate and sustain as a standalone entity. Also, Go To market approach is not clear...Small Business actually buy more from Resellers /Retail than direct.
  • Scott
    I think that the previous comment doesn't understand HourTown's business model. They are not trying to compete with Gmail, Yahoo, and Hosted Exchange to provide personal or internal to the business calendars. What they do provide is an ability to extend their calendar to customers who want to make an appointment in the same way that OpenTable exposes "calendaring" for reservations at restaurants. It's the same idea.

    What the blog above misses is that their real business proposition is driving new leads to these businesses as new business is their lifeblood. Online booking makes it easy to drive new leads to the business in the same way that OpenTable does for restaurants.
  • I agree with you Scott
  • I could see this working for so many kinds of business where clients need to schedule time - hair salons, chiropractors - the list goes on.
  • HourTown will be good for Small Businesses but thank God they got their funding before the marketing crashed.
  • Completely agree with Dean, software such as this has such a variety of uses. However, I'm sure that soon we will see a desktop software that could do the same thing without the monthly fee.