Episode 17 – Nancy Bocken of Homie

What we talk about

[02:50] After a quick recap on how we met a few years ago, at the Institute for Manufacturing conferences at University of Cambridge, Nancy tells us how the idea for pay-per-use came up from the research she was doing on circular economy business models. She was frustrated that, despite all the evidence on how circular business models could work, there were few real examples.  Some seed funding from TU Delft helped get the project going, and they realised the pay per use model could change behaviour too.

[06:05] The next stage was to look at how to commercialise the idea, and more funding helped with that. Nancy explains how pay-per-use works, with wifi tracking technology added to the appliance and what it tracks, and what kind of behaviour changes people make.

The Homie team wanted to make the charging scaleable, so you pay more for hotter washes etc. It found that customers changed their clothes-washing habits, washing at significantly lower temperatures and on average 30 per cent less than before.

Homie pays for washing machine and its ongoing maintenance. Homie’s competitors tend to rent the machines and don’t have the tracking for how it is used, so there is no incentive to wash less, wash more economically etc.

The business model

[10:25] Catherine asks how the business model works for Homie – are they able to benefit from the energy savings?  Nancy talks about some of the ideas for working with appliance manufacturers and energy suppliers.

[14:05] Nancy talks about the challenges they’ve faced, including getting the first batches of suitable washing machines, establishing a business case, sorting out the technology, getting longer-term funding. Nancy’s advice to others is to experiment and try and get it going.

[15:35] Ecosystem of suppliers and partners around the business, helped by being at TU Delft, and having colleagues working on the Internet of Things, behaviour change etc so Nancy and her team could tap into lots of new thinking and research.

Customer needs

[16:33] Nancy explains the motivations of the first customers – those interested in sustainability, those on low income and interested in more flexible models rather than having to own a washing machine.  The extent of word of mouth marketing has been surprising, and very helpful.

We hear how Homie gets closer to the customer, supporting behaviour change etc. Homie offers customers a free 90-degree ‘maintenance wash’ to help keep the machine in good condition.

[21:09]Nancy explains more about how the customer communication channels work, and how Homie tries to act as a ‘service provider’ and has a new slogan focused on ‘worry-free washing’

Pay per use vs linear models

[21:42] Catherine asks about the washing machine itself – how did Homie decide which brand to use?  Nancy explains the criteria, and how they researched possible options. Catherine shares her ideas for the ‘circular economy’ version of the Which? Reports.

[25:59] We talk about how government policy could help with this, and the ‘planned obsolesence’ model for home appliances.  Homie realised that it is difficult for people to work out the full life cost, and think more about the purchase cost – perhaps forgetting to check how long it is likely to last, how repairable (or not!) it might be.

Nancy explains that Homie offers a replacement machine within 24 hours in case of a breakdown.

Circular economy start-up tips

[29:10] Nancy’s top tip for start-ups – get started! She hears from lots of people with great ideas that they had a couple of years ago, and haven’t started. Talk to people (and find some honest people who will tell you what they really think), test your ideas, experiment.  Don’t wait for the perfect scenario – work out how you can test the concept. Do your homework on the competition, so you know what is unique about your model – this worked well for Nancy when one of the possible funders said ‘this has been done already’ – but Nancy knew the competitor and what was different.