Angie's List charged people to read reviews while Yelp gave them away. The Indianapolis company had more than 1 million paid memberships by its November 2011 IPO. Members rated local plumbers, roofers, dentists and auto shops, and only members could read the results. Highly rated providers could pay to offer members discounts. The pitch was trust: real names on every review, and no company could buy a better grade.

Door to Door for Members

Bill Oesterle and Angie Hicks started the business in 1995. Hicks went door to door signing up the first members and became the company's spokeswoman, her name on every ad. It was organized in Indiana as Brownstone Publishing and took the name Angie's List in 2010. The bet was that homeowners would pay for advice on what the company called high cost of failure services, where one bad contractor costs thousands.

Thirteen Dollars, Then IAC

Angie's List sold 8.8 million shares at $13 each and listed on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol ANGI. It spent heavily on advertising to win members and lost money for years. In 2016 it opened up a free tier and dropped its paywall. In 2017 it merged with IAC's HomeAdvisor to form ANGI Homeservices, which kept the ANGI ticker. The combined business now runs under the Angi name.

Cover: The Builders, Donald Shaw MacLaughlan. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for builders at work (home services).