It’s supposed to snow in DC tomorrow.
Two days ago it was 73 degrees.

It’s been a really cold and wet winter here in DC, and it’s caused me to spend a lot of time cleaning off my car in subfreezing temperatures. Whether it be a few inches of snow or a quarter inch of ice, no one enjoys leaving the house early to use a scraper, broom, or arm to clean off their car. A little while back I was driving to work and I started brainstorming. I came up with two solutions to my problem:

1. Move
2. “Uber for…”

When I got to work I brought it up and started throwing around possible names. It was one of those things where I knew it was a joke, but when it came down to it, on-demand snow removal is something I would probably use. I haven’t been able to shake the idea — which brings me here.

When it comes down to it, I think I’ve got a viable business model, but it is way too seasonal. For a company like this to survive, it would need to take on work in the warmer months — most likely landscaping. The on-demand mowing space is pretty crowded but no one owns it, so I was thinking of providing mowing & landscaping once the season turns. I was only able to find one competitor that provides on-demand snow removal (Plowz & Mowz), but their app sits on top of existing snow plow fleets, and they don’t do any shoveling or digging cars out. My target customers for this business are people who live in the city. Here are a few use cases:

Sally wakes up and sees it has snowed a few inches overnight. She opens up the app and sets her car’s location. She notes what make/model her car is and the license plate. She sets a completion time of 7:45am and presses the request button. We get that request and the closest person out in the field with availability accepts. The contractor gets to her car before 7:45am and has it cleaned off and has shoveled around her vehicle so she can get out.

Ben wakes up and sees a few inches of snow, but luckily he has a garage so he doesn’t need to clean off his car. He is legally held responsible for shoveling his sidewalk, but doesn’t want to go through the trouble before leaving for work. Ben sets his address and jots down what he would like shoveled/plowed… you get the picture.

Great idea? Terrible idea? I don’t know. You tell me.

Here’s what I do know.

The name Shovely is perfect for this business and
Shove.ly is available for $75.

It’s sad because if the domain was $50 less I would buy it and just sit on this idea for a year before I gave up on it. If you want to take this on, consider me your closest advisor (I want a 3% equity stake) and biggest fan. I think it’s possible, but the seasonality of it scares me away. With the way East Coast winters have been lately, I could see this being huge in Boston, NYC, and DC in the winter — but who knows how the warmer months would pan out.