We got tired of the broken way.
FastHands is a small Los Angeles team building the home-repair marketplace we wished existed — one where the platform only wins when the work actually gets done.
Why we're building this
Most home-services platforms make money selling leads. The contractor pays for the introduction — before any work is agreed, sometimes before anyone picks up the phone — and the same lead often goes to several contractors at once. That one design choice explains most of what people hate about hiring: the five cold calls in an hour, the pressure tactics, the padded quotes that quietly cover all the leads that went nowhere.
California actually has strong protections on paper — most repair work over $1,000 legally requires an active CSLB license, and anyone can verify one at cslb.ca.gov in two minutes. But almost nobody checks, and the platforms don't make them. So licensed pros get underbid by unlicensed operators, and homeowners find out the hard way — usually mid-job.
What we built instead
FastHands only earns when a job is completed and paid — at most 15% from the contractor, nothing from the homeowner. Every contractor's CSLB license is checked against the state registry before they can bid, matched on name and ZIP so nobody can borrow someone else's credential. Payment sits in escrow until the work is submitted with photo proof, and you get 72 hours to confirm it or flag a problem before the money releases. And your phone number stays hidden until you sign an agreement, so comparing bids never means volunteering for a week of cold calls.
Why Los Angeles
Because depth beats breadth. The national platforms spread themselves across five hundred categories and every U.S. zip code; we'd rather actually know what a fair panel upgrade costs in Van Nuys, or what a C-36 plumber charges for a weekend call in Echo Park. We're starting with the twelve trades LA homes need most — plumbing to pest control — from Silver Lake to Santa Monica, the Valley to South Bay. When it works here, we'll have earned the right to go further.
A small team with a clear mission: make home repair fair for everyone involved.