Is there such a thing as too much growth? Lessons for startups

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Homejoy is the home cleaning startup that recently shut down in spite of raising millions in venture funding.

Their model was interesting - they helped you book cleanings with cleaners on their platform and collected a commission on fees. They claim they shut down when a recent court ruling said Uber’s drivers were staff of the company, not independent contractors - which basically meant higher taxes, pensions, healthcare etc

But it seems they did a lot of other things wrong according to this article:

  1. They were so focused on growth that their strategies didn’t create an environment where they created loyal customers
  2. They didn’t train their contractors, so the cleaning quality was very wonky
  3. They expanded too fast

Which makes me wonder, is there anything such as too much growth? Full article here:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ellenhuet/2015/07/23/what-really-killed-homejoy-it-couldnt-hold-onto-its-customers/?utm_campaign=ForbesTech&utm_source=TWITTER&utm_medium=social&utm_channel=Technology&linkId=15808483

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This really shocked me. This is just me. I don’t think there is anything such as too much growth. But you have to estimate your TAM/SOM/SAM correctly. I believe if you are tackling the right opportunity, and there is a legitimate need, there will be room for self-correcting.

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i just went through the article on forbes now.i must admit i was surprised HOMEJOY close down by 31th of july . what.i deduced from story is that lack proper of structure to maintain their growth and scaling(Despite funding).Also,they chewed more than what they can bite without not taking into consideration the size of their mouth.For me,there re lot of lessons to be learn from homejoy experience in terms of training of contractors and retention of customers because am flirting with idea of home cleaning services in LAGOS.There are many industry cleaning services company around but very few for home services.

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