It all started with Jim

For a fraction of a second you might be thinking, "Not Jim's Mowing Jim? Right??", and quite frankly Jim gets that a lot. When people ask him about his work, he would usually go with something quirky such as “My name is Jim, and I also started a lawn mowing business.” Coincidentally enough, it all did start with Jim (our Jim), who enjoys his gardening, and on most weekends would be outside maintaining those weeds, hedging the shrubs and mowing the lawn. 

The story began when life was getting too busy for Jim to find enough time to get any lawn mowing done during the weekend, and with his family and life commitments growing, he decided to hire a gardener. It was this experience that led him to the idea of mowbuddy.

Jim didn’t like the booking process of filling out complicated online forms or making a phone call to a gardener, who would almost always miss your call because they are onsite working, and when you finally get a hold of them, you have to wait for them to come the next day or two and see your property to give you a quote in person. Only to feel obliged to go ahead with it even though he wasn’t too happy with the price given. There must be a better way.

Being a digital product designer for over 15 years, the creative bug bit him and so he started creating mowbuddy, an online application that provides customers with a fixed price on the spot and book an experienced, insured gardener instantly. Anywhere, anytime.

Shai's story

It was one of those whirlwind mornings, up early for a quick brekky with my mind somewhere else when it should have been focused on the lovely lady I was sharing breakfast with. "Ok, one last message and then I'll put my phone down" I thought to myself. That last message was like destiny. Jim had reached out, looking for some technical assistance on "an app idea". Over the years, I had been approached like this hundreds of times. I closed the message without responding and started a conversation with my wife.

Later that same morning (admittedly after one too many Melbourne Magics), the intrigue bug bit. I scheduled a quick meeting with Jim over, you guessed it, a coffee.

Sitting down with Jim (also a coffee lover) was transformative. I don't know if it was the multiple coffees talking, or just the fact that Jim is a genuine and kind guy, but I was really feeling the vibe. I decided somewhere between flat white 3 and 4 that I have to work with this guy, Jim (our Jim) the mowbuddy alchemist.

As I drove back to my hotel in the Melbourne drizzle I reminisced on my own little mowing rounds that I did through high school. I had rigged up my push bike so that the handle bars would hold the whipper snipper and the mower would be 'towed' behind on it's two back wheels. I had five or six regulars and a few one offs or casuals who only really called when the yard resembled The Amazon. I was known as the 'Jordan mower' around my suburb on account of always wearing my Michael Jordan Chicago Bulls jersey to my gigs.

Stuck in traffic, I realised this could be a "full-circle" type opportunity for me. At the time I remember thinking that we could help countless people who are unable to take care of their lawns but who are still proud of their grounds. My Grandma was one of these people. My sister had been maintaining her lawn for a while now, and I must admit the guilt had been building up over the years. Jim was proposing a way that I personally could help my Grandma keep her lawns looking great even while I was not in the same city as her. How brilliant!

As soon as I walked into the room, my wife knew it had gone well "you have that 'I am going to take the plunge' look in your eye". I don't know about that, but here we are a few years later taking care of hundreds of people's lawns all over Melbourne.