Industry Internet CEO Andy Kurtzig (2003–) Founded 2003 Headquarters San Francisco | Area served International Founder Andy Kurtzig Number of employees 150 Type of business Private | |
Key people Andy Kurtzig, CEO
Charles Schwab, Board of Directors Services Expert Information, Q&A website Profiles | ||
Justanswer how it started
JustAnswer (also known as Pearl.com) is an online expert question and answer website that connects visitors with verified experts in several categories including medical, legal, automotive, veterinary, and tech support.
Contents
Justanswer become an expert
History
JustAnswer (then titled "ExpertAsk") was founded in 2003 by CEO Andy Kurtzig. He came up with the idea for the website while he and his wife were expecting their first child, as Kurtzig found that he had difficulty getting his doctor to answer questions outside of scheduled appointment times. Kurtzig decided to create a website that allowed people to ask questions and receive answers from doctors and other experts 24 hours a day.
The website operates by allowing users to ask questions and receive answers from doctors and other experts 24 hours a day. Users must sign up for an account and place a good faith deposit in the amount of their choosing, which may be paid to the person who answers the question. If users are satisfied with the answer, they may provide a positive rating and the expert will receive a portion of the deposit as determined by JustAnswer's current Terms of Service and Experts Agreement. If the user is not satisfied, they have the option to seek another answer or to receive a refund. If the user fails to provide a positive rating, and does not request a refund within 30 days of the date that the answer was received, then the expert will receive nothing for the answer, and JustAnswer will retain 100% of the deposit. The length of the response time will differ depending on "how fair Experts believe the offered price to be (as compared to the complexity of the question and speed required)." The site also offers live chat.
In 2004 the company changed its name to JustAnswer and later established a headquarters in the basement of a Chapel located in the Presidio of San Francisco, a park and former military base in northern California. JustAnswer has offices in multiple countries, offers services in multiple languages, and has been featured in a Google Case Study focusing on how it used Google Adwords to help consumers and was also granted status for several key inventions.
In 2012 the company received an additional $25 million in funding from Glynn Capital and Charles Schwab, who also joined the company's board of directors.
In 2015, the company released an article announcing a "quality audit" to the expert community. The audit "reviewed and evaluated over 3,000 randomly selected questions from over 200 high-volume Experts"—for the following qualities: profile photo; expert bio; spelling and grammar; responsiveness; cues & empathy; appropriate language; clarity & detail; etiquette. The article states: "These are qualities that customers value most. Note that we did NOT evaluate the accuracy of [expert] responses."