Aaron Montgomery (left) and Will Boland (right) have co-founded Henry. The two previously co-founded CarLotz with Michael Bor.
Two longtime colleagues in the Richmond startup scene are teaming up on a new venture, this time geared toward homeowners.
Aaron Montgomery and Will Boland have just launched Henry, a web-based home assessment service.
The concept involves dispatching an assessor to customers’ homes who looks at around 150 factors like fire hazards, air quality concerns, slip and fall risks and other potential problems.
The assessment is uploaded to an online dashboard, which gives homeowners an action plan for what might need to be fixed in their homes. Henry then refers customers to tradespeople who can work on those issues.
“The biggest [thing] for us was trying to change the way people think about homes from being something that you react to once a thing has broken, to being more proactive,” Montgomery said. “We show up before things break, but also to be there as things break, to be able to make sense of all the things that might confuse you.”
The action plan page on Henry’s application dashboard.
No strangers to working together, Montgomery and Boland were co-founders, alongside Michael Bor, of Richmond-based CarLotz. The used car consignment retailer grew to nearly two dozen locations ahead of going public in 2021, before its stock fizzled and the company merged with Shift Technologies before going bankrupt.
Montgomery and Boland left CarLotz in 2019, prior to its going public, and went on to work together at local credit card startup Mission Lane for several years. But it was during the COVID-19 pandemic when, stuck in their homes, the two came up with the idea for Henry.
“We were spending so much time at home during (COVID), and those maintenance-list things you’d normally not notice…when you’re home everyday, they just magnify in importance,” Montgomery said.
The two lamented the lack of a service that could “manage the asset” of the home and all of its ongoing maintenance needs, Montgomery said. Out of that thought, he and Boland formulated the seed for Henry.
With the median square-footage of homes rising and the systems to run those homes becoming increasingly complicated, the startup aims to simplify the process of keeping customers’ homes safe and well-maintained, Montgomery said.
The dashboard catalogues appliances and major systems in customers’ homes for when work on the appliances is needed.
Henry customers also have 24/7 access to an AI assistant called Hank. The assessment of each home is fed to Hank, which answers questions and gives customers DIY advice and maintenance tips for their specific needs via text message.
“Those things that used to be combing through Reddit or YouTube videos, or bringing your Uncle Bob who used to be a contractor, you can now do that with Hank,” Montgomery said.
The full Henry package currently includes the 150-point assessment, the dashboard’s inventory of home systems and appliances, an action plan with cost estimates and connections to tradespeople and one year of Hank. The package costs $500, while other pricing models are still being developed.
Montgomery declined to share names of tradespeople they refer customers to, but said they are all vetted by Henry prior to being referred.
Henry launched April 15 and currently has nine employees, including Steve Osberger, who will lead in-home assessments for the startup as head of field operations. The company is based out of the Short Pump location of co-working space Gather.
Montgomery declined to share how many people have invested in Henry and how much startup capital has been put into the company thus far.
Montgomery said Henry is focused on the Richmond market presently, but that the team aims to design it with potential growth to other markets in mind.
With Boland and Montgomery off and running on their new venture, Bor, their former CarLotz co-founder, has since gone on to launch the Endowment Project, a startup that looks to help raise and manage endowment funds for public high schools.
Aaron Montgomery (left) and Will Boland (right) have co-founded Henry. The two previously co-founded CarLotz with Michael Bor.
Two longtime colleagues in the Richmond startup scene are teaming up on a new venture, this time geared toward homeowners.
Aaron Montgomery and Will Boland have just launched Henry, a web-based home assessment service.
The concept involves dispatching an assessor to customers’ homes who looks at around 150 factors like fire hazards, air quality concerns, slip and fall risks and other potential problems.
The assessment is uploaded to an online dashboard, which gives homeowners an action plan for what might need to be fixed in their homes. Henry then refers customers to tradespeople who can work on those issues.
“The biggest [thing] for us was trying to change the way people think about homes from being something that you react to once a thing has broken, to being more proactive,” Montgomery said. “We show up before things break, but also to be there as things break, to be able to make sense of all the things that might confuse you.”
The action plan page on Henry’s application dashboard.
No strangers to working together, Montgomery and Boland were co-founders, alongside Michael Bor, of Richmond-based CarLotz. The used car consignment retailer grew to nearly two dozen locations ahead of going public in 2021, before its stock fizzled and the company merged with Shift Technologies before going bankrupt.
Montgomery and Boland left CarLotz in 2019, prior to its going public, and went on to work together at local credit card startup Mission Lane for several years. But it was during the COVID-19 pandemic when, stuck in their homes, the two came up with the idea for Henry.
“We were spending so much time at home during (COVID), and those maintenance-list things you’d normally not notice…when you’re home everyday, they just magnify in importance,” Montgomery said.
The two lamented the lack of a service that could “manage the asset” of the home and all of its ongoing maintenance needs, Montgomery said. Out of that thought, he and Boland formulated the seed for Henry.
With the median square-footage of homes rising and the systems to run those homes becoming increasingly complicated, the startup aims to simplify the process of keeping customers’ homes safe and well-maintained, Montgomery said.
The dashboard catalogues appliances and major systems in customers’ homes for when work on the appliances is needed.
Henry customers also have 24/7 access to an AI assistant called Hank. The assessment of each home is fed to Hank, which answers questions and gives customers DIY advice and maintenance tips for their specific needs via text message.
“Those things that used to be combing through Reddit or YouTube videos, or bringing your Uncle Bob who used to be a contractor, you can now do that with Hank,” Montgomery said.
The full Henry package currently includes the 150-point assessment, the dashboard’s inventory of home systems and appliances, an action plan with cost estimates and connections to tradespeople and one year of Hank. The package costs $500, while other pricing models are still being developed.
Montgomery declined to share names of tradespeople they refer customers to, but said they are all vetted by Henry prior to being referred.
Henry launched April 15 and currently has nine employees, including Steve Osberger, who will lead in-home assessments for the startup as head of field operations. The company is based out of the Short Pump location of co-working space Gather.
Montgomery declined to share how many people have invested in Henry and how much startup capital has been put into the company thus far.
Montgomery said Henry is focused on the Richmond market presently, but that the team aims to design it with potential growth to other markets in mind.
With Boland and Montgomery off and running on their new venture, Bor, their former CarLotz co-founder, has since gone on to launch the Endowment Project, a startup that looks to help raise and manage endowment funds for public high schools.
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Tradespeople are all “vetted,” huh? What exactly does that mean? And if you read state code carefully, you’ll see that “contracting OR OFFERING” to perform work requires a license. Where’s the line between advising and offering, when you’re recommending someone? In the case of substandard work, which party would be responsible here? This concept is only geared to chasing money, and skirts the edges of the law. My bet is these 2 have zero knowledge of or experience in preventive and predictive maintenance. If you really don’t know how to do basic home maintenance on your major systems, just hire… Read more »
Spot on
Or ask a realtor, or a home inspector. Any realtor probably knows all the tradespeople you would ever need, and home inspectors have a lot more experience than these guys
Also, this seems like you’re giving up a lot of data to people that don’t have the greatest track record.
CarLotz Securities Litigation – Home
CarLotz….woof. Even if they got out before the IPO, hard to wash that stink off
CarLotz was an unmitigated colossal failure of epic proportions losing hundreds of millions of dollars. To invest with or do business anyone that touched that company is any new startup is the definition of insanity.