Angie Hicks: Co-Founder of Angi (Angie’s List)

Episode 777

On today’s episode, Kara welcomes Angie Hicks, Co-Founder of Angi — the groundbreaking brand formerly known as Angie’s List that helped define the home services space for the digital age.
Angie started Angie’s List back in 1995 as a recent college grad, going door-to-door to sign up new members. What began as a small directory in Columbus, Ohio has grown into a trusted national platform that connects homeowners with skilled home service professionals. Over the past 30 years, Angie has helped lead the brand through incredible growth — including an IPO, a major acquisition, a rebrand to Angi, and most recently, a new chapter as a standalone public company.
In this episode, Angie shares what it takes to build a legacy brand and keep it relevant through decades of disruption. We dive into how Angi is using AI and smarter matching tools to modernize the home improvement experience, why she believes the trades are among the most “AI-proof” careers of the future, and the leadership lessons she's learned from listening to millions of customers. From grit and reinvention to empathy and long-term vision, Angie’s story is packed with insights for founders, leaders, and anyone navigating change.

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Transcript

Kara Goldin 0:00
I am unwilling to give up, that I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be. I want to be you. Just want to make sure you will get knocked down. But just make sure you don’t get knocked out, knocked out. So your only choice should be go focus on what you can control. Control, control. Hi everyone, and welcome to the Kara Goldin show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world’s greatest leaders. We’ll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs and really, some of the most interesting people of our time. Can’t wait to get started. Let’s go. Let’s go. Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Kara Goldin show today. I’m so excited for our next guest. We have Angie Hicks, who is the incredible co founder of Angie, which is, as many people know, is Angie’s List, as well known as Angie’s List, a home services brand that has helped over 150 million people maintain, improve and love their homes. And Angie and her co founder launched Angie’s List in 1995 as a recent college grad, going door to door to sign up members, and over the past 30 years, she’s built one of the most trusted and recognizable names in the home services space, taking the company from startup to IPO through a major acquisition, and later rebranding it to Angie. And along the way, she’s led the company through reinvention after reinvention, all while staying close to consumers and using their feedback to shape the brand’s future, I cannot wait to hear the secrets that she has behind building this incredible legacy brand in a fast moving world of brands out there, And why she believes the future of home and work is all about Angie’s List and trust and doing things differently and all of that. So welcome, Angie. So nice to meet you.

Angie Hicks 2:13
You as well. Kara, thanks for having me.

Kara Goldin 2:15
What a great, great idea that you had in I guess right before 1995 before you decided to to launch. But for those who are not familiar with Angie and Angie’s List, maybe they’ve been hiding under a rock over, over the many, many years that you started ago. But what is the brand Angie known for and how would you describe it to people? Right?

Angie Hicks 2:46
We help homeowners find quality pros to do work around their home. So whether they’re looking to hire a remodeler, a roofer, a landscaper, an electrician, even a handy person, they can come to Angie and find companies that have been rated well and are skilled in that area to take, to take those projects off their to do list. Because, you know, for a lot of homeowners, they may have a few dream projects they do in their lifetime. They might build that new deck or remodel their kitchen. I just did my kitchen a few years ago, and I love it. But a lot of times Home Improvement stuff is just the everyday, mundane things that happen. It’s just like the furnace goes out, or you’ve got a leaky faucet, and getting those things off of your your list is really important. It really important for making your day go smoothly. So we want to help get the right pro out there in order to get that job done well and get you back on on your normal tasks for the day.

Kara Goldin 3:41
I love it. So take us back to the beginning. What sparked the idea? And I mean, you were just graduated from college, what made the what made you believe there was a business in home services?

Angie Hicks 3:55
Yeah, so it actually was my co founders experience. Bill was had lived in Indianapolis and renovated a house there. It was his very first house. And he found this little business through a co worker that was a newsletter that kept track of which pros were great in kind of a few neighborhoods in Indianapolis. And he was like, Oh, this makes home ownership. It’s just so easy. I just go there. Get a good name. It works out life is good. And then he moved to Ohio a few years later, and he loves old houses, so he bought another old house, but then discovered that there was nothing like unified neighbors that little business that was in Indianapolis. In fact, there was nothing like it anywhere in the country. And he had a couple of bad experiences with contractors he hired, and he convinced me that we should try to start our own version of unified neighbors in Columbus. Bill and I met when I was an intern for him in college. So he worked at a venture capital firm in Indianapolis, and I interned with him. And so when I was getting ready to graduate, he was giving me suggestions and ideas, and. Then he threw in this, why don’t, why don’t you come and we’ll start a business together. And you know, your parents are going to hate the idea. And, you know, I can’t guarantee it’s going to be successful, but the worst thing that happens is, you have a good essay for business school.

Kara Goldin 5:15
There you go. And and, and so, so interesting, but such great advice. I mean, if you don’t try, you won’t know, right, right?

Angie Hicks 5:26
I mean, it’s like, sometimes people ask the question of, like, you know, is it better to start a when’s the best time to start a business? There’s no great time to start a business. You know. It’s like when I look back on my career, I mean, I didn’t know anything about business when I started a business, you know. So it was like the ignorance is a bliss kind of theory. But I also had nothing to lose. I was 22 I mean, what? There’s just not, there’s not a lot of downside. At 22 I’m not responsible for a lot of things and stuff like that. Obviously, as you get more seasoned in your career, you’re gonna have a lot more experience and knowledge, and probably won’t be experiencing everything in your business as a first like I did

Kara Goldin 6:03
so 1995 I happen to to know very well that we weren’t dealing with kind of the speed of you wouldn’t be able to do, for example, a podcast or the data. It was very, very different. I worked for a company called America Online back in 1995

Angie Hicks 6:25
address was an AOL email address. So yes,

Kara Goldin 6:29
there you go. And ran, I ran the shopping channel on America Online, and was there for seven years. Yeah, so grew it to but again, back in those days, it was dial up. You weren’t able to really have images like, I mean, the Angie’s List must have looked very, very different.

Angie Hicks 6:53
The Angie’s List was a call in service. You would just call in and talk to me, I would tell you the names of a plumber or electrician. I had a little simple database that I kept, and then we had a newsletter that we published each month that had content around home improvement, had some coupons from highly rated pros. But it was really a call in service, because at that point, there wasn’t, you know, it was probably, was it two or three years after we started, before we put up our first website?

Kara Goldin 7:21
So, so interesting. So what was the biggest turning point, maybe, in that first year that that really made you realize that this was not just a one of Bill’s crazy ideas, but one that that right you were going to be able to actually create a company out of

Angie Hicks 7:42
it, yeah, I mean, you know, we did have the luxury of being able to see the, you know, the unified neighbors was the business in Indy, so we knew it could turn into a successful business. That business has been around since the 70s, and it was a little, you know, small business in Indianapolis that supported, you know, a team of four people. But honestly, our biggest challenge when we first started was, was sales. Unified neighbors was built up via door to door in the 70s, you know. So there was, we had a blueprint for a lot of things. We didn’t have a blueprint for selling. And our original thought was like, Hey, we’re just gonna send Angie door to door, which was, like the worst idea ever. I mean, you know, we were measuring sales in one or two a day, and that’s a $19 a year membership. We weren’t, there was no big moment there, you know. So it was really for us once we decided to take some money invest in some local marketing so that we could flip that from, you know, kind of this on the feet on the street sales effort to, you know, people calling in. So we took out a little two by three ad in the local newspaper that was like, said, tired of lousy service, and call us and you can get the name of good plumbers or whatever. You know that that little ad, that little creative carried us through many years. In fact, we ran that exact little ad in the New York Times when we opened there.

Kara Goldin 9:05
Wow, that’s That’s amazing. So, so incredible. So did you focus just on Ohio or Columbus initially? And how long did that? Yeah.

Angie Hicks 9:16
So our belief back then was like, locals, local. You need to know Columbus, like you need to be there. You need to be a part of the community in order to understand it. So we, when we first started opening markets, we actually opened physical markets in each city that we went to. So we went Columbus, then we bought the Indianapolis business a year later, then we opened in Cleveland and and then from there, we actually we had investors that lived in Charlotte and Boston, so actually, we kind of jumped around a little bit.

Kara Goldin 9:46
And at what point did you really feel like you were national?

Angie Hicks 9:52
Yeah, I mean, it was, it actually came to a point. It all revolved around our marketing in our business, you know, the. Consumers, they stuck around. The pros, they’d stick around. So we were really driving this recurring revenue business, but it was the initial marketing expense that was the largest portion of our of our income statement, and so we were building it out on local marketing. This was before a lot of digital advertising was available and things like that. It was like we were buying ads in newspapers, you know, radio ads, things like that. NPR was one of our biggest sources for for ads. And I’m trying to think it was probably in like 2005 I think it was, I was getting ready to buy NPR, and I think 30 markets and, and I talked to Bill about it, and we kind of went back and forth. I was like, it’s like, a million bucks. And he’s like, you know, maybe we should try to see what that looks like nationally. So I go and I talk to NPR nationally. I come back, I’m like, Well, good news. I mean, we can get it for 700,000 nationally. And he’s like, I bet you get a lot more cities. And I’m like, Well, yeah, we get 700 so that was the turning point for us, once we could, you know, shift from being a local marketer to being able to really leverage our marketing, we went from being in 30 cities to 100 is enough, to 100 cities in about 18 months. So that was, that was our big, our big shift.

Kara Goldin 11:13
But you didn’t do that until 10 years,

Angie Hicks 11:16
10 years. And we were like, I tell people all the time, I this was a, this was a slow grow business. I mean, the business was what, you know, we didn’t go public till 2011 you know. So we were a 16 year old, you know, company that went public.

Kara Goldin 11:33
What is the number one thing that people are looking for when they come to beyond help? What specific, is it, Home Improvement? Is it? Is it plumbing? Is it? What is that thing that everybody maybe it’s like the, the darling of your business, that everybody seems to want,

Angie Hicks 11:54
yeah, I mean, the top you track tasks are kind of, oftentimes they’re kind of evergreen, you know, so plumbing, you know, roofing, electrical, handy people, things like that. Those tend to be always kind of in that top list, but, but we have 500 different tasks. So, you know, we can help you with anything that you can imagine when it comes to your home. And in fact, recently, this year, we just launched over the summer an AI helper. Because I think one of the biggest challenges for homeowners is they’re not always sure what they need. And so you know, if you kind of say, like, it’s one thing, if you come and say, I need a plumber, you’re like, great, I can give you plumbers. But you know, now we let people explain their problem, and our AI helper will go through based on kind of content and all the years of data that we have and be like, Okay, let me ask you a few more questions related to what you gave me, and then once we get through that, then we can match to the right task. And that’s really improved the experience for people that are using it. And I think that’s one of the biggest things, because people love their houses. I mean, you know, we love our houses. It’s usually one of our biggest investments. We raise, you know, we live there. We raise our families there. There’s lots of, you know, our life kind of centers around home. So when you’re so you want to make the right decision, you want to hire the right people to come in and take care of it. And so I A lot of times, we’ll call it, these are high cost of failure hires, but we may not be experienced in it, right? I’m like, I’m even in the industry, and I have never been on a roof, and I don’t plan to, because I’m afraid of heights, but, you know, I’ve put roofs on houses before, and I have to trust that I’m getting a good pro that’s going to do, you know, stand by their work and do a good job. So that’s what we’re providing. Is that, that that that support and kind of making sure that a get the right type of pro B, the Pro does good work, and, you know, it has a lasting impact for the homeowner.

Kara Goldin 13:55
So revenue model. So how has that? What is it and how has that evolved? I guess, over time. How did it start? How, what does it look like today?

Angie Hicks 14:06
Yeah, I mean, so when we first started, I mean, it was, it was a, you know, we patterned the business after, like a magazine subscription. So homeowners would buy us, you know, buy a membership to Angie’s List. And, you know, pros that are that are rated, well, could advertise with us, but if their rating fell, then we’d pull their advertising over time that consumer revenue line has gone is has has shrunk quite a bit, because we opened up the we opened up the ability to check, you know, check Angie for free. There’s additional benefits for people who who also want a membership as well. But the basic product, the content, is free today, and then pros pay, and then pros pay for either a subscription or the leads that that that they are matched with today.

Kara Goldin 14:56
So what have been some of the biggest challenges that you’ve faced? Based, I guess, over the last 30 years in growing the business, you have not only started the business and were very young, not not with a ton of experience, and you grew it into a national brand, but also you went public. I mean, you’ve done a lot of things that many people will never do, so I’d love to hear maybe, what was the most challenging, and why was it so challenging for you? Yeah, I mean, I

Angie Hicks 15:34
think it’s I think that’s interesting, because I get this question a decent amount. Sometimes it’s like, was it challenging because you were young. Was it challenging because you were a woman? And in some ways, like especially, kind of, before we went public, when we were starting to raise venture capital money, it was, it was kind of proving that you could build a tech business in the Midwest. You know, we had, you know, we had people that wanted to invest in the business. And we’re like, we will only invest in this business if you move to one of the coasts, because we don’t think there’s just enough smart talent in the Midwest. And, you know, luckily, we were fortunate enough to be able to say no and be able to use that as a bit of a rally Kara to go prove people wrong. But I think that’s, you know, sometimes when you know, people aren’t pulling for you. It kind of pulls the team together in a really positive way, you know. So that was the case. I mean, you know, when I think about the business and how it’s evolved, I mean, we’ve been through 30 years. I mean, we went from, you know, before the internet to the internet, it was like, how’s the internet going to play a role in this business? And how do we tackle that change to, you know, we were, we were the last in our space to go free for homeowners. So there was also this question of, like, you know, how do we, how do we make that transition from a revenue standpoint, which was a big process we went through. So it’s continually, continues to evolve, but I always come back to the fact that what we do has fundamentally not changed. How we do it, how we deliver it. Things like that have changed, but kind of what’s important, and you know, you hit on it in the intro, it’s like, trust is super important. When you want to go and spend 1000s of dollars. If I get a recommendation for going out to dinner and I have a bad dinner. I’m like, It’s fine. I didn’t enjoy it. I’ll get over it, or I didn’t like that movie, or whatever. But when you’re you know, you’re putting a new roof on, and you’re spending 1000s of dollars to do that, that’s a decision that really matters. And having that, having you know, that trust for where the source that you go to to find those pros is super important.

Kara Goldin 17:41
Yeah, definitely. So the the company is named after you. You just went through a branding but how did you decide to do that? And would you recommend it to other people who are maybe thinking about, Oh, I should name it after myself, versus not doing that, or just a name,

Angie Hicks 18:06
just a name, yeah, exactly like, right? So, so when we first started, we did not name it after me. We actually started as Columbus neighbors. We copied unified neighbors and called it Columbus because we were in Columbus, Ohio, Columbus neighbors. And after about a year, people were just getting the name wrong, and they thought our newsletter was the list. And they were just like, well, I guess it’s not doesn’t have what I need this month. Maybe it’ll be helpful next month, not realizing they could call in and get recommendations. And so we decided to change it. We debated, like, three names, and Bill threw it at the last point. He was like, we should call Angie’s List because, you know, she answers the phone, and that story works. So like, even, even if she leaves, it’ll still work. And, you know, and you know what, I was 23 we had probably 500 members at the time. Like this is, I often say there were inconsequential decisions that turned out to be pretty big ones. In retrospect, that was probably one of them. The second one was being willing to be in the TV creative when the marketing team came and asked about it. So I think, I think it can be very powerful. I think you have to do it very authentically. And so, you know, as I kind of worked through this process, I mean, I’ve always told my my team, it’s like, well, you’re gonna have to operate, kind of in the world that I operate in. Like, if, if you know, if we’re writing a column that I’m authoring, guess what? I live in this world too, and I get questions about what I write. Like, everything has to align. And, you know? And I think that’s super important. It’s like, it is what it is, right? So that was my big ask for them, was like, you know, you can’t put something out there that isn’t who they see

Kara Goldin 19:56
in the grocery store on Saturday. Yeah, that’s, that’s so, so true. True, and

Angie Hicks 20:00
I think that’s how it worked. I guess over those years, is just that kind of element. But I do believe, like, you know, people like people, and I think this is they like people more than they potentially like brands. And I think in our particular business, where it’s high trust, I think that has served us well, because it’s like, oh, you know, Angie’s like, my neighbor, like people thought, I live in each of the cities, if you would have, you know, in the early days, you’re like, yeah, she lives, she lives in Kansas City, or she lives here, you know, they that’s an element of, you know, kind of just the brand persona that we built around. But I think it’s, I think it’s important to think about. So I think that’s a question I don’t take lightly, in retrospect, and I think people need to think about how they are going to live that out and kind and be able to be that person, 24/7,

Kara Goldin 20:57
so you’ve talked to hundreds, 1000s of consumers over the years. What are you hearing today that has maybe really shifted in terms of home ownership, but also maybe even like location to your point about building a company? So I’d be so curious to hear, kind of like, what do you see as what’s happening for 2026 around this consumer that you’re working with?

Angie Hicks 21:33
Yeah, I think, you know, one of the biggest things, probably, is just the cost these days. I think you can’t have a conversation, you know. You know, we’re all focused on how we’re spending and how we’re spending around the homes. No different. I mean, I think, you know, we’re at our highest average ever for first time homeowner age, you know? So it’s different. It’s a different person coming in and kind of being that first homeowner. I tell people all the time, there is probably no such thing anymore as the starter home, because the silent generation, the baby boomers, are not giving up their smaller homes. And, you know, you’re likely not going to flip a house. So when you’re going and buying, you need to think about, what do I what do I need this house to be for me in five, seven years? Because I might not flip it in two or three years, like we might we might have thought about, you know, 1020, years ago. You know, also, homeowners just need to be thinking about, I think it’s just a competitive market when they do go out and buy where they potentially, you know, maybe they’re not getting their dream house, but they have to think about how their dream house is going to become, their house is going to become their dream house. So what improvements are they going to do things like that, that will, that will make that house just so they have it where they want it. So that element, I think, is continual. But people still are spending. It’s not a question of, do they spend on their house or not? It’s oftentimes how they spend, you know, so they’re maybe they’re not doing the dream kitchen this year. They might be doing more maintenance type things, because they want to make sure they’re not surprised by some unexpected bill. You know, we’re still going to take care of our homes. We just might be thinking about it differently.

Kara Goldin 23:09
So, so interesting. So in terms of tariffs we’ve we’ve heard about those over the last year, and I would imagine, especially some of the services that people are getting that’s going to change, versus so and who do they call? Maybe some of them come back to you, right? And how do you deal with with that? Because you’re, you’re a known brand, right? And this is somebody that consumers got that contact through you. But price is something that is kind of out of people’s control to some extent. Yeah.

Angie Hicks 23:49
And then I would encourage people, as they’re as they’re thinking about hiring is, you know, to make sure they’re going into it informed. I mean, you know, we have cost guides that can help people kind of navigate like, Hmm, I don’t know how much you know a typical bathroom or model might be, at least, get me in the ballpark. And then I really encourage them to get, you know, two or three estimates, especially on larger projects, just so that they can understand the expenses and and I think the fundamental, most important thing when you’re deciding which contractor to hire is is how well you communicate, how well you kind of go back and forth. Because you know, like you should be able to have a frank conversation, is like, Okay, if tariffs are impacting this particular input to this project, what are my alternatives? Are there alternatives that maybe aren’t having that impact, and don’t be afraid to kind of go back and forth on those topics to make sure that you get the project you want. Some projects can be done in phases, you know, like there’s talking to your contractor, like they’re having these conversations with consumers every day and kind of making those trade offs and seeing what’s happening in the industry. So I encourage them to continue to have those conversations. Because, you know. Whether it’s tariffs today, it’s been fuel costs in the past. I mean, there’s, there’s typically, there’s always kind of some things that are hitting, you know, all of these businesses, and you know, it’s important to go in with an understanding of how that could impact that project.

Kara Goldin 25:15
I think that’s really, really good, good advice. So when you think about AI, you talked about how you’re using it on kind of the front end, when you think about the the future for AI and your business, what are you most excited about?

Angie Hicks 25:34
Yeah, I mean, I think it’s just, it’s just, it’s yet another opportunity here. I’m like, I start, you know, since I started an offline world, it’s like, yes, we could all be afraid of what the internet was going to mean in 1990 whatever. And now we look at it’s like, what would I do otherwise? You know, like, I remember, I remember a day where you didn’t have a cell phone, and now I can Google anything that I ever wanted to know. And more, you know, AI is just going to make more things possible, you know. And I think we have to figure out how to use it and make it productive and useful, you know. And it’s something that we’re focusing our team on is just like, how can, how can we use this to be more effective, more efficient, you know, because it’s, something that’s here to stay, and I think it’s something that we need to embrace and think about.

Kara Goldin 26:25
I We touched on this earlier, but you’ve led the company through IPO acquisition spin off, massive transformation. When you think about staying grounded, right, you can have the best plans in the world, and then all of a sudden, the world shifts, right, or, you know, at least, as it relates to your company, you’ve also held a number of different roles inside of Angie’s List, from Chief Customer Officer and cmo always a co founder, brand spokesperson. But how have you? How do you stay grounded through all this chaos and change and like? How do you think about that as, as you know somebody who actually started this company?

Angie Hicks 27:20
Yeah, I think it’s really important for me, you know, to build relationships. I am an introvert, I you know, and so kind of having having one on one relationships, I’m not like a big kind of rally a crowd type thing. For me, it’s actually connecting with our customers a lot. So in in a digital world where we’re sitting here talking about AI and how AI can do all of these things for us. I also do some old school things like I do, I do chats with our pros. Any pro in our network can sign up and talk to me live on a zoom 15 minutes, and we’ll talk about whatever they want to talk about. And I think there’s something powerful in that accessibility and being able to relate. I mean, we’ll talk about things from kind of how the products working for them all the way to advice they might have might be seeking for how to expand their business. For example, you know, we have a and now we have a holiday helpline, hotline going on right now for homeowners, where they can call in, you know, because it’s a stressful, overwhelming time of the year. You’re busy, right? Everyone’s like, all these things are happening. And, gosh, you know, some, you know, my ovens on the fritz, and I’ve got 10 people showing up for dinner. And, you know, tomorrow, what am I going to do? I mean, these are real problems. And, you know, so you can call the hotline, you’ll very likely get me directly and walk you through, you know, kind of content experience that I’ve learned over the years. And if you need a pro, we can get connected to a pro. But you know, those relationships are super valuable. So how you sprinkle those in no matter what kind of you know, no matter what kind of business you’re in, how are you staying connected to both your customers as well as your frontline team, because they’re the ones that, you know, they’re the ones that are kind of setting the tone for your business. So how are you, how are you staying connected with them? And it takes, you know, kind of dedicating specific time to it. I think it’s just one of those where I was like, I started this. Was like, I’ll spend an hour a week. I can give an hour a week to this, and you just have to start. It doesn’t have to be, I’m going to, you know, give 30% of my time start with an hour.

Kara Goldin 29:28
Yeah, definitely. Well, such a great note to end on. You are an incredible, incredible business leader. So thank you so much, Angie, for joining us today. Your time building Angie’s List from start to where it is today is just such a powerful example of persistence and adaptability and real brand building and leading with heart. So I think that you should. Be really proud, by the way, and what you’ve built. I mean, it’s really, really amazing. Everybody needs to check out the Angie is the new name on Instagram and on social A, N, G, I, and, of course, Angie’s List. Everybody needs to get on to that home improvement project, and definitely use Angie’s List to find the best opportunity there. And obviously, Angie Hicks is the founder, co founder, I should say, and she’s on social as well. So thank you again for sharing all of your wisdom. And thanks everyone for listening. Thanks Kara, thanks again for listening to the Kara Goldin show. If you would please give us a review and feel free to share this podcast with others who would benefit. And of course, feel free to subscribe so you don’t miss a single episode of our podcast. Just a reminder that I can be found on all platforms at Kara Goldin, I would love to hear from you, too. So feel free to DM me, and if you want to hear more about my journey, I hope you will have a listen or pick up a copy of my Wall Street Journal, best selling book, undaunted, where I share more about my journey, including founding and building. Hint, we are here every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Thanks for listening, and goodbye for now.

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