Angie Hicks
Chief Customer Officer & Co-Founder, Angi Inc.. On 1 show, 3 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderexecutiveLinkedIn ↗angi.com ↗Wikipedia ↗
In 1995, Angie Hicks co-founded Angie's List (now Angi), growing it from a local directory into a publicly traded digital home services marketplace. She has spent three decades serving as the company's customer advocate, previously acting as Chief Marketing Officer before becoming Chief Customer Officer following its merger with HomeAdvisor.
1shows
3appearances
24statements
8resolved
8supported
0contradicted
100%fully supported
Everything Angie Hicks said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Angie Hicks: Allocate 10 to 20 percent of marketing budgets for testing
“I never give up on something that works, but you should always be testing into the next thing. So, you know, so if it's one of those where it's like, hey, this really works, so maybe you're spending 80 or 90% of your marketing dollars there because you can jus…”
Bill Oesterle warned Hicks the company might not afford her MBA return
“By that point Bill had hired a chief operating officer Who had conservatively modeled the business in such a way that after I had agreed to come back, Bill had to call me and say we may not be able to afford you.”
Occasional complaints reveal more about a business than perfect glowing reviews
“I honestly believe you learn more when you can see a company that has a couple of complaints here and there than you do about a company that has all glowing reviews.”
Angie's List almost couldn't afford to rehire Hicks after business school
“Bill had hired a chief operating officer Who had conservatively modeled the business in such a way that after I had agreed to come back, Bill had to call me and say we may not be able to afford you.”
Consumers pay for reviews on high-cost-of-failure home improvement decisions
“And if you think about the kind of decisions they're making around your home, I mean, these, you know, I call these like the high cost of failure decisions, right? I mean, it's a time when you probably know the least about what you're buying. You're spending a…”
Angie's List realized half of early signups came via basic website
“Bill asked, so how's that website working one day? And we realized it was like, you know, half of our signups were coming in over this little website.”
Home service hiring is a high cost-of-failure decision for consumers
“I call these like the high cost of failure decisions, right? I mean, it's a time when you probably know the least about what you're buying. You're spending a lot of money and if it goes wrong, it could potentially ruin your largest asset. Your house.”
Hicks likely wouldn't have stayed without her business school break
“You know, for me, if I hadn't kind of taken that time, I probably wouldn't have stayed.”
Half of early signups came through the first basic website
“And Bill asked, so how's that website working one day? And we realized it was like, you know, half of our signups were coming in over this little website.”
Angie's List opened 100 new markets in about 18 months
“So in about 18 months, we opened a hundred markets.”
Angi lets any network contractor book direct Zoom office hours with co-founder
“About a year and a half ago, I decided to open that up to our customers. So now, Any pro in the network can sign up to chat, and we'll do a Zoom call and talk about whatever they want to talk about.”
Co-founder Bill Oesterle funded Angie's List's first year via friends
“He said, like, why don't you move to Columbus and we can start a business. I'll raise a little bit of money from, you know, friends and enough to get you through the first year, but I want you to commit for a year.”
Angie's List was modeled after Indianapolis service Unified Neighbors
“But in Indianapolis, he was introduced to a little business called Unified Neighbors that had been around since the early seventies, which was basically a list of who was good and who wasn't in the city for home improvement. And so when he moved to Columbus, h…”
Angie's List launched in 1995 with a $19 call-in membership
“19 dollars. So 19 bucks for the year. We were a magazine and a call-in service. So during the day, you'd call in, and you could ask me for the name of a plumber or an electrician, and then in the evening, I would go out door-to-door and also ask for reviews.”
Angie's List acquired 1,000 members in its first year
“We ended up signing up a thousand members in the first year”
Oesterle offered Hicks seed funding for a one-year startup commitment
“He said, like, why don't you move to Columbus and we can start a business. I'll raise a little bit of money from, you know, friends and enough to get you through the first year, but I want you to commit for a year.”
Angie's List began as a call-in service and door-to-door operation
“We were a magazine and a call-in service. So during the day, you'd call in, and you could ask me for the name of a plumber or an electrician, and then the, in the evening, I would go out door-to-door and also ask for reviews.”
Selling two Angie's List memberships was considered a banner day
“I used to measure success by one or two memberships a day. Like, if I sold two memberships in a day, it was a banner day.”
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Angie's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 HOW I BUILT THISLEDGER | Chief Customer Officer & Co-Founder, Angi Inc. | 3 | 24 | 100% 8/8 | full record on How I Built This → |