Over a two week period, Heroic watched the local community step up to share recommendations of the best service providers from around the Twin Cities in hopes of winning our Who Do You Love contest. Over that time we read all kinds of recommendations and one thing was clear…there are a lot of trustworthy service professionals in the Twin Cities with happy, loyal customers.

It was a close competition, but one recommendation in particular embodied the spirit of the Heroic movement. Sara Bible and her recommendation of plumber extraordinaire, Ron the Sewer Rat, take home the grand prize!

Sara is the recipient of one year of free professional house cleaning. Ron and his team will also come away victorious with a free premium profile on Heroic, professional photos and a video of he and his business.

Ron’s honest approach to customer service, his obvious sense of humor, and 37 years serving the Twin Cities Metro Area deserve to be recognized. We tip our caps to you today, Ron. Thanks for adding value to our community.

From Ron the Sewer Rat’s website…

RON the SEWER RAT’s BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY

We find that the creation of our business philosophy provides a clear vision for Ron the Sewer Rat and an ethical path on every home that opens their doors for us, and for every client we serve. These are the statements that guide every member of the Ron the Sewer Rat professional team member:

* We are FAIR with our pricing, and try to give you the best value we can.

* We take great pride in our work, and go out of our way to correctly do your job.

* We are a family-owned company that is well-acquainted with our local conditions in the Twin Cities area.

* We clean up our mess, and use carpet runners* when necessary to protect your home.

* We specialize in residential work, however, we also do apartment and commercial work.

* We have the equipment to do most any residential or light commercial work.

* We don’t pad our fees. We only want to do the work that is necessary to solve your need.

* We welcome your suggestions for anything we can do to improve our service.

* We don’t believe that by cleaning your main line, every drain will flow better.

* We do not have the equipment to pump septic tanks or flammable – sand traps.

* We do not commit to work that is beyond our ability and or we cannot complete timely for you.

Excellent philosophy, Ron and Co!

To the rest of the Heroic community, keep on sharing recommendations. A recommendation from someone you trust is the best way to hire a service professional.

The post And the winner is… appeared first on Heroic blog.

Minneapolis, Minn., March 27, 2013 – Local startup Heroic teams up with CRAVE Restaurants to celebrate the hardworking service economy in Minneapolis through a campaign called “Who Do You Love?”. They are seeking recommendations from the public to discover little-known experts, artisans, and local craftsmen. The first 100 participants win a $20 gift card to CRAVE restaurants, and one will win one-year of free house cleaning.

Heroic is a newly formed community in the Twin Cities and is a free place for friends and neighbors to share recommendations of local service providers, like painters, carpenters, and mechanics. Who Do You Love is inspired by co-founders Dan Linstroth and Reed Robinson’s discovery of a little-known bike mechanic working out of his basement in Minneapolis named Sam Reinert.

“I discovered Sam through a recommendation from Reed and he blew me away with his service,” says Linstroth. “He’s an absolute expert, provides incredible customer service, and charges a neighborly price.”

By making this connection, the two friends began wondering how many people like Sam exist in the Twin Cities of other crafts. Who Do You Love was born, and they’re seeking word-of-mouth recommendations from the community to uncover more experts, just like Sam.

“These are the hardworking, honest people that make our neighborhoods run,” adds Linstroth. “They are the soul of our local economy and deserve to be recognized.”

Heroic is encouraging people to share by offering a limited number of Gift Cards to CRAVE restaurants and the chance to win one-year of free house cleaning.

“CRAVE was very generous in showing their support for this idea and Happy Earth Cleaning Company, another fantastic service provider, chipped in the incredible cleaning offer,” says Linstroth with excitement. “We’re very grateful for their participation.”

The Who Do You Love campaign emphasizes the core of Heroic,“which is friends and neighbors sharing good old-fashioned referrals,” says Linstroth. “We want to facilitate this age-old, word-of-mouth behavior online while helping people like Sam get discovered.”

The service provider of the winning recommendation will also win prizes from Heroic. Professional photos and video plus a free premium upgrade on the site are all meant to celebrate the winning expert from the local service economy.

About Heroic

Heroic is a free place for friends to share recommendations of favorite service providers. A personal referral from a friend or neighbor is the best source of information. Heroic is also free for service providers and will be incorporating a premium version in the future. The company is currently available in the Minneapolis/Saint Paul market and features service providers in 150 categories, all crowd-sourced and user-verified through personal recommendations. The company was founded by Justin Barrett (CEO), Ethan Otterlei (CTO), Reed Robinson (CPO), and Dan Linstroth (CMO).

Media Contact:

Dan Linstroth

Dan@BeHeroic.com

612-408-1828

The post Celebrating the Service Economy in Minneapolis: An unlikely partnership launches a community into action appeared first on Heroic blog.

You win, they win! The service provider of the best recommendation will get $1500 in small business tools including a 1 year premium membership on Heroic and professional photos.

The post Get $20 from CRAVE and Chance at 1-Year of FREE House Cleaning appeared first on Heroic blog.

I remember the first time that I was shown the answers in the back of the math book. I thought to myself this can’t be real! It’s a trick! Did I accidentally land one of the teacher’s copies? No one must know…

Fortunately, I wasn’t the only one with this “magic book;” that’s a secret that this twelve-year-old wasn’t able to keep. As I came to discover the answers were there as a reference point to help me understand the material.

That’s the idea behind Heroic’s latest product update – to provide our users with tools to help them understand what they are looking at. The new “How to…” buttons are like the back of a math book – click on them to see answers explaining how to use each page.

You can find a “How to…” button in one of three places – on your homepage (after logging in), on your My Favorites page and at the top of your My Friends page.

When you click on a button a card will appear above the page that you are looking at. On each card you’ll find three quick tips for how to use that page. Simply click on a green button to act on a tip, or close the card to get back to the original page.

The content within each “How to…” button varies depending the page. On the homepage you’ll be shown how increase the number of recommendations from your friends & neighbors. On the My Favorites you’ll find buttons to help you organize your favorite recommendations. And on the My Friends page you’ll be given tools to invite and follow your friends, increasing the power of your recommendation network.

So, please return to Heroic, log in and click to see the new “How to…” buttons. That way the next time you find yourself asking, “what am I supposed to do here” you’ll know where to find your answer; but remember, you still have to show your work.

The post “How to…” buttons provide easy answers for what to do on Heroic appeared first on Heroic blog.

Heroic has $500 earmarked towards an upcoming contest. Since you are the one who could be winning, it makes sense for you to have some say in what we’re giving away.

While it doesn’t feel like it yet, Spring is officially here so we’ve thrown in some timely seasonal options mixed with some old-fashioned giveaway classics like groceries and cash!  The option with the most votes by Sunday, March 24 at Midnight CDT will be the giveaway option. Choose wisely.

Vote and share!

View poll on GoPollGo

A freshly cleaned home!

Home remodel supplies, like paint.

Beautiful home decor.

Lots of groceries from your local store.

Catering for your next party or event!

Straight cash, Homey.

The post How Would You Like Your $500? We’re Listening! appeared first on Heroic blog.

Thank you to everyone who participated. There were a lot of thoughtful recommendations submitted of painters, plumbers, lawn care and pet care specialists.  We’ve narrowed it down to the best and have included it here for you to read.  While there is no consolation prize for runner-up recommendations, we wanted to highlight a few team favorites that capture the essence of Heroic.

Stay tuned for a lot contest just like this one.

The Winner:

Written by : Dennis Malinas

Recommended: Melissa Oholendt, Photographer

The Recommendation: Melissa specializes in wedding photography. Let’s assume that all photographers have the same technical ability – the ability to take great pictures that tell a story and capture a moment. What differentiates one from another? Melissa builds close personal relationships with her clients. She truly gets to know them so that working with her clients on a wedding day is more like being with friends. She’s personable and a pleasure to work with.

Why we love this recommendation: Dennis clearly loved working with Melissa and took a few extra moments to describe what differentiates her from other photographers. Melissa sounds like the kind of service provider that deserves the title of “Heroic.”

A few others we like:

1. Written by: Mike Schardin

Recommended: Damian Kussian, Video Production

The recommendation: Damian has a unique ability in understanding what his clients and customers are looking for. His ability to explore the right message you are looking for and creatively making it beautiful is what I enjoyed most about working with Damian. He’s a true talent and can work with most budgets. He’s completed some amazing video projects for me and my clients and we’ve seen great successes from these campaigns.

2. Written by: Ben Johnson

Recommended: Dahlmeier Construction, Remodeling – Kitchen and Bath

The recommendation: My wife and I were referred to Brad by a good friend of ours. We wanted to knock down part of our wall and open up the kitchen into the living room. Brad is very thorough, hard working and just a great guy. He handled everything from the construction to the electrician and beyond. DCS is very competitive with other estimates that we received and was very accommodating. We’ll be hiring Brad and Dahlmeier Construction Services again for any future home updates.

3. Written by: Rick Joseph

Recommended: United Real Estate Services Co., Electrical, Handyman, Heating & A/C

The recommendation: Don is licensed in Electrical, Plumbing, and HVAC, plus as a General Contractor.. He prefers Repair-type jobs taking one day, or less. He shows up when he says he will, does his job competently, and moves on. I have done B to B business with Don for 30 years.

Thanks again to all who participated. If you haven’t already, get signed up at Heroic to participate in our next contest.

The post Winner of $100 in House Cleaning appeared first on Heroic blog.

Welcome to Heroic!

If you’re like most of our users, you’re looking for a more personal way to discover and hire local service professionals and recently heard about Heroic from a friend. We’re here to help and are excited to have you.

A referral from a friend is the best way to hire service professionals like contractors, plumbers, painters and auto mechanics. There are over 150 service categories on Heroic, all of which have been carefully curated by our early adopters to help you find, hire, and share the best service providers from your community.

The power of a personal recommendation

Your friends know you well. They know what you like and especially, what you don’t like. They know that it drives you nuts when a contractor doesn’t take his or her shoes off when entering your home. They know that you believe an auto mechanic who is not keeping you fully informed is dishonest. Your closest friends understand that you have high expectations, therefore they are the best people to provide a recommendation when it comes time to hire a professional.

A recommendation from a friend has the power of context that ratings and reviews from strangers do not have. While someone might think “good enough” is worthy of a five-star rating, you feel different. That is the risks with ratings and reviews from people you don’t know. There is no context.

Create your own personal referral network with Heroic

Heroic is a place for you personalize your own list. It’s a place for you connect with friends, share recommendations, and feel confident that you are hiring the right person for the job.

To get the most out of your Heroic experience, we’ve put together a few tips and short tutorial on how to get started.

3 tips to get the most of your Heroic experience

1. Connect with friends – This is where the real power of Heroic lies. Find, invite and follow your closest friends. Together you can share recommendations and create your own network of recommendations. Let’s be honest, there is only a select group of people in our lives that are most relevant when seeking recommendations. For this reason, you are in complete control of your friend connections on Heroic. Connecting to Heroic with Facebook makes this process easier and faster. Don’t worry! We will never post to your wall or pull any funny stuff with your personal information. We are Facebook users ourselves and nothing drives us more nuts than funny business on our wall from other companies.

2. Recommend a provider – Heroic is a place for friends and neighbors to share recommendations of their favorite service providers. We each know a few exceptionally good ones around town that are truly worthy of a recommendation. If we each know a few, together we know many! Start by inputting three recommendations of the best service providers that you know. There are 150 service categories on Heroic ranging from auto repair to catering. After you input three recommendations and connect with three friends, you’ll undoubtedly start to see the power of Heroic come alive!

3. Discover new service professionals – Discovering new service providers that have been positively recommended by your friends makes the process of hiring a service pro much better. Instead of combing through reviews from strangers, a search on Heroic will return relevant recommendations from the people you trust most. To make the most of your Heroic experience, start by inviting and connecting with three friends then input three recommendations.

The post 3 Tips to Get The Most of Your Heroic Experience appeared first on Heroic blog.

Heroic is a team of neat freaks. We like to keep things tidy and judging by the number of house cleaners that have been recommended on Heroic, you probably do to.

That’s why we’re giving away $100 in house cleaning this week from Distinctive Cleaning. Spring is right around the corner and you probably have a lot of projects in store.  Since all home projects need to be cleaned up, we thought this was the perfect time dole out some free cleaning help.

Carpet cleaning, window washing, indoor cleaning, post construction cleaning, etc.

Just go to Heroic, recommend a provider, and you’ll be automatically entered to win the $100. BUT, this isn’t a random drawing. We’re going to be choosing the BEST written recommendation.  So, take a few minutes (that’s not much for the chance at $100) and craft a well-deserved recommendation of one of your favorite local service providers.

It could be your regular lawn care guy, an event service like catering, a framing specialist, or anyone else from the neighborhood who has recently impressed you with their level of customer service. Now is a good time to get them entered.

Recommendations must be submitted by 12pm CDT on Friday, March 15.

Check out our Facebook page and our Twitter feed to see if you won.  We have many more of these promotions in store, so keep an eye out for the next one coming soon!

The post Win $100 in House Cleaning This Week Only! appeared first on Heroic blog.

Make Your House A #HeroicHome This Year

Get tips and inspiration at the MPLS Home and Garden Show

Looking for plans this weekend? Heroic has you covered with FREE tickets to the MPLS Home and Garden show going on now through March 3, 2013.

The show has hundreds of expert home service providers and celebrity guests  offering practical advice, great deals, and new ideas for your home and garden.

Sounds Great! How do I get tickets? Add a recommendation on Heroic! 

1. Go to Heroic between now and March 3, 2013 (If you haven’t signed up, get to it! Heroic is a FREE place for friends and neighbors to share recommendations of favorite service providers)
2. Recommend a favorite service pro
3. And we’ll send you an email confirmation and details on how you can pick up your tickets

Going solo? You just need to enter one recommendation.
You and friend? Enter two recommendations.
The whole famn damily? Enter a recommendation for each member!

Email us at Hello at BeHeroic dot com for more information.

And the #HeroicHome inspiration doesn’t stop there…

Follow us @HeroicLive - we’ll be live tweeting from the event with photos, tips, and cool prizes.  Retweet us for prizes.

See you at the show!

Step 1: Recommend a provider

Step 2: Share your recommendation

Step 3: You’ll get an email confirmation with details on how to claim your tickets

The post Free Tickets to the MPLS Home and Garden Show appeared first on Heroic blog.

Recommendations from friends is the most trusted form of advertising, according to a 2009 Nielsen’s Global Online Consumer Survey of more than 25,000 internet consumers.  Heroic, an online platform created to facilitate trusted referrals, announced that it has released its free personal recommendation site for service providers at http://www.beheroic.com/. The platform will initially be available in the Minneapolis/Saint Paul area, where it will feature thousands of local service providers from plumbers to event catering.

Heroic is “everyone’s personal referral network” says CEO Justin Barrett.  “Overwhelmingly, people prefer a personal referral from someone they know and trust when hiring a service provider, particularly for the home. Heroic facilitates this natural behavior.

Barrett is one of four co-founders, all from the Minneapolis area.  The team assembled in April of 2012 to pitch their idea at the Minnesota Cup, an annual competition that seeks to accelerate the best breakthrough ideas in Minnesota.  A runner-up placement in the high-tech division motivated the four to continue product and customer development.  After bootstrapping Heroic to launch, the company is now backed by a small number of local angel investors.

Users connect to Heroic through their Facebook account or email address.  As a result, members can easily find and follow their most trusted friends to start sharing recommendations.  To share a recommendation, a user first inputs the name, contact information, and a short review of the provider that they would like to recommend.  Currently, the community has hundreds of service providers in over 50 categories, all of whom have been carefully curated by the site’s early adopters.  A search to discover a new service professional will return personalized results based on your friend’s recommendations.

Heroic is not a ratings site.  The company’s co-founders believe that ratings sites have become overcrowded and are no longer relevant.  The validation of a trusted friend’s recommendation is more powerful than ratings from strangers, the team believes.

Citing the same Nielsen report, Barrett points out that consumer opinions posted online by unknown users are trusted by only 70 percent of consumers.  The team believes that this number will continue to decline as ratings sites struggle to establish trust in the sources of those ratings.

“People only turn to ratings sites or a Google search when they do not have a personal referral,” adds Barrett.  “With Heroic, we’re trying to make it easier to access those referrals.”

Heroic also incorporates tools for service businesses to foster referral customers.  Currently, there is no efficient way for small service businesses to thank their customers, ask for a referral and track the results all in one place.  This gives businesses that have been recommended on Heroic the ability to maximize the power of a customer testimonial in real-time.  The platform is free for businesses as well, but the team plans to add a paid-premium upgrade in the future.

About Heroic

Heroic is a free place to share recommendations of favorite service providers. A personal referral from a friend or neighbor is the best way to hire a service professional.  Users can store categorized lists of favorite businesses ready for re-hire, discover new professionals through personal recommendations, and share a favorite provider with a group of trusted friends.  When ready to hire, a user can contact a service provider directly from the Heroic platform to inquire about booking.  The company is currently available in the Minneapolis/Saint Paul market and features hundreds of service providers, all user verified through recommendations. The company was founded by Justin Barrett (CEO), Ethan Otterlei (CTO), Reed Robinson (CPO), and Dan Linstroth (CMO).

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact:

Dan Linstroth

Dan@BeHeroic.com

612-408-1828

The Heroic community is making recommendations for Twin Cities service providers from plumbers to bike repair specialists. Sam of Resurrection Cyclery is a community favorite.

Heroic CEO, Justin Barrett, shows off the future of Heroic to a crowd of 300 at Fulton Brewery in December of 2012.

The Heroic Team. (From L to R) Reed Robinson, Justin Barrett, Ethan Otterlei, Dan Linstroth

The Heroic homepage.

The post Consumers Trust Real Friends the Most appeared first on Heroic blog.