Angi chief executive Oisin Hanrahan told CNN Business that the name change is meant to highlight the fact that the company has other housing-related services, especially HomeAdvisor and the Savings Market. (Hanrahan is a Handy co-founder who joined Angi in 2018 after the company bought his startup.)
“The Angie’s List brand is well known and loved … People understand what it means and trust it,” Hanrahan said. “The challenge is that we are no longer just a list. Customers have been limited and constrained by the literal nature of the name.”
He noted that Angi focused on all aspects of the home improvement business, offering customers an easy way to find entrepreneurs, book them and pay them – not just a place to review them.
This strategy has paid dividends in the last year, when millions of people stayed home during the Covid-19 pandemic or fled to the suburbs for more space. Wherever they live, many people have sought to improve their homes or undertake large projects, such as moving to a new home.
Angi is part of the Barry Diller IAC network of public companies
Angi shares have risen by almost 25% this year and have risen by about 250% in the last 12 months.
But what will happen to Angi now that many people stuck at home in the last year are looking to travel more due to the greater availability of vaccines and the reopening of the economy? You may not focus as much on trying to find painters or people to repair a broken closet door.
Hanrahan admits that Americans want to go out and start doing things. But he believes that people’s broader tendency to improve their homes will not change – and they will increasingly want to use services like Angi on their phones to find, book and pay professional businessmen, he said.
“Of course, as people start to travel again, there will be a change in the way people spend. But the much bigger change is from offline spending to online spending in general,” he said.
As for Angie of Angie’s eponymous list, Angela Hicks Bowman is said to be cool with the name change. In fact, Hicks is still in the company, serving as both Angi’s client director and board director.
“She is incredibly excited about the company’s evolution and mission,” Hanrahan said. “Home is the most important place on Earth and we want to help people love where they live.”