Chiirp nabs investment from A1 Garage’s Tommy Mello

Chiirp, the fast-growing startup that helps contractors automate follow-ups, landed an investment from A1 Garage founder Tommy Mello, Homepros is told. Deal terms weren’t disclosed.

Why it matters: Over the past 5-10 years, technology has shaken up how business is done in the home service industries — first CRMs, now AI.

• A report by investment bank Houlihan Lokey shows well over 50 technology vendors serving the field service industries, including HVAC.

Background: Chiirp helps contractors close more deals by blending the strength of a sales team with automation — for example, by automatically sending text messages to new leads within 30 seconds.

• Contractors can set automatic follow-up campaigns for unsold estimates and canceled jobs, preventing them from slipping through the cracks.

“Usually, a salesperson calls leads, and for the very best companies, that may be 5-10 minutes afterward… Salesforce did a study of over 2 million lead form submissions and found that if you respond to a lead within 1 minute, you’re 391% more likely to convert that lead,” Justin Judd, Chiirp’s Head of Partnerships, told Homepros.

What’s next: In a LinkedIn announcement, founder Ryan Fenn said, “With Tommy’s vast knowledge of home service strategy and Chiirp’s ability to automate those strategies, we expect to see really big things for hundreds of home service companies across the country.”

• Mello has built A1 into a $200 million behemoth over the past decade.
• We’re told the company plans on investing the funds to grow its team, offer great support, and enhance the product based on customer feedback — with speed, as hinted at in Fenn’s post.