How FindPlumbers makes money

Plumbers keep 80% of the job total; the platform keeps 20% (configurable in basis points). That split is what plumbers see in the product — no opaque “membership” upsell to take work.

Customers see a call-out fee, hourly rate, and a maximum card hold before they request. We authorize that ceiling up front, capture what was actually done when the job finishes, and require explicit approval for work beyond the ceiling.

At authorize time the plumber is not yet known, so we use Stripe Connect separate charges and transfers. Cancel and expire paths release the hold or capture a snapshotted call-out per the booking state machine. Disputes freeze Connect payouts; chargebacks create ops tickets.

Optional Instant Payouts (where Stripe supports them, e.g. CA debit card) may carry Stripe’s own fee — disclosed in-app. They are not required for the model.

Holds, capture, refunds, tips, and connected-account payouts need an audit trail. Stripe Connect is the correct App Store path for a physical service — not in-app purchase for digital goods.

Licence verification and Stripe KYC are complementary: the registry proves trade authority; Stripe proves they can receive money as a real person or business.

Anyone can upload a photo of a licence. We stack government registry checks (live in Québec via RBQ open data for Active Entrepreneur + plumbing subclass 15.5), a staff queue for edge cases, Stripe Connect KYC, phone OTP, licence photos on file, and in-product ratings, Report/Block, and payout freezes.

There is no global plumber database. Expansion uses jurisdiction adapters — same booking and payment rails, new licence source per market. Until an adapter is strong, humans stay in the loop. We do not fake automation.

The hard problem is density: requests need someone nearby who is available now. We launch one neighbourhood (Montréal), not “Canada,” gate supply on real licence + bank, and grow plumbers through referrals before pouring consumer ads.

Code can be ahead of liquidity on purpose for the first city. Capital and operator time go into recruiting plumbers in one radius. We measure time-to-accept and expired-request rate before scaling demand.

We connect customers with independent licensed plumbers. We are not the contractor on the job and we do not employ the tradespeople on the platform.

Insurance, bonding, and employment-misclassification rules are expansion costs that need counsel per jurisdiction — not something we invent solely in the app. Classification risk is named, not papered over.

Depth before breadth: one city liquidity → more Canadian cities on CAD → one deliberate US metro with its own state licence adapter and Stripe setup.

Each market is a local launch — payments country/currency, licence adapter, and legal review — not a globe toggle. That sequence is capital-efficient on purpose.

Angi, HomeAdvisor, and local listings mostly sell leads or pay-to-play presence. FindPlumbers is built for now: live availability, a card hold with a price ceiling, dispatch, tracking, and payout when the job is done — with a licence gate before anyone can take work.

We do not claim we have already beaten incumbents on brand. We claim a clearer job-to-be-done for emergency and same-day plumbing in a city we can dominate.