Angi CEO Oisin Hanrahan told CNN Business that the name change was intended to emphasize that the company has other housing-related services, most notably HomeAdvisor and a gig economy market. (Hanrahan is a helpful co-founder, who joined Angi in 2018 after the company bought his business.)
“The Angie’s List brand is well known and loved … People understand what it stands for and trust it,” Hanrahan said. “The challenge is that we are no longer just a list. Customers were limited and limited by the literal nature of the name.”
He noted that Angi has focused on all aspects of the home improvement industry and offers customers an easy way to find, book and pay contractors – not just a place to review them.
This strategy has yielded dividends over the past year, when millions got stuck at home during the Covid-19 pandemic or fled to the suburbs for more space. Wherever they live, many people have tried to improve their homes, or they are taking on big projects such as moving to a new home.
Angi is part of the Barry Diller IAC Web of Public Enterprises
Shares in Angi have risen by almost 25% this year and have risen by about 250% over the past twelve months.
But what will happen to Angi now that many people have been sitting at home for the past year, wanting to travel more thanks to the greater availability of vaccines and the reopening of the economy? They may not be so focused on trying to solve painters or people to fix a broken cupboard door.
Hanrahan concedes that Americans want to get out and start doing things. However, he believes that the broader trend of people improving their homes will not change – and they will increasingly want to use services like Angi on their phones to find, book and pay for professional hand types, he said.
“If people start traveling again, of course there will be a shift in the way people spend. But the much bigger shift is from offline spending to online spending in general,” he said.
As for the eponymous Angie or Angie list, it is said that Angela Hicks Bowman is cool with the name change. In fact, Hicks is still with the company and serves as well as Angi’s chief executive officer as a board member.
“She is incredibly excited about the development and mission of the company,” Hanrahan said. “Home is the most important place on earth and we want to help people love where they live.”