Plowz & Mowz, an on-demand snow plow and lawn care company founded in 2013 by two Syracuse University alumni, has recently moved its offices to downtown Syracuse. Its owners plan to expand the company’s reach across the northeast this winter.

Syracuse is expecting some of its first snowfall of the season this week. Plowz & Mowz, which connects customers to lawn care and snow plow service professionals, has expanded from its central New York origins to provide services across the Atlantic coast, Midwest and as far away as Texas.

Co-founders Andrew Englander and Wills Mahoney instantly recognized the potential market for an on-demand snow plowing service when they graduated from SU.

Customers can either log into the company’s website or download the smartphone app to request a variety of outdoor home services. The customer is given a quote and matched to a lawn care professional, who will complete the requested service on a date specified by the customer.

These professionals are sometimes able to reach a customer’s home in as little as 10 minutes, Englander said.

Snow plow and lawn care professionals have had difficulty securing new clients and often didn’t receive pay from their regular clients for several months after providing their services, Englander said. When they work with Plowz & Mowz, professionals are paid within 24 hours, he said.

They are also introduced to a type of customer that Englander referred to as the “DIY” customer — someone who has been reluctant to sign onto an expensive annual contract with a snow plow or lawn care service.

Englander and Mahoney decided to remain in Syracuse when they began their startup and have been growing their business in central New York, Englander said.

“We raised money, and we didn’t want to take it to Silicon Valley, or anywhere else, we wanted to do it with Syracuse labor and, really, Syracuse talent,” he said. “We’re just so excited to be doing it in downtown Syracuse.”

Englander and Mahoney both graduated from SU in 2005, Mahoney with a degree from the School of Information Studies and Englander with a political science degree from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. The pair said that SU prepared them well for the business world.

Mahoney shares his business partner’s enthusiasm for the city, which played a key role in their decision to move their office downtown.

“We wanted to make a statement that the city of Syracuse is coming back, and there’s definitely a tech scene downtown and we wanted to be a part of that,” Mahoney said. “There’s plenty of opportunities here.”

Plowz & Mowz started with snow plowing but now offers a variety of services, including lawn mowing, weed removal, mulching and fertilizing. Englander said he wants the company to become a “full end-to-end solution for everything outside the home.”

Jay Purdy, the owner of the combination bar and beer store Now & Later on Tipperary Hill, has used Plowz & Mowz for more than a year. Initially he used the service for mowing, but now said he uses it for snow plowing four to six times per year, he said.

“It’s almost like Uber, where you can put in the size of your yard or driveway and they give you the cost so you know ahead of time what it’s going to cost you,” Purdy said. “It’s definitely a very convenient service.”

Plowz & Mowz, which already has a service area of about 30 cities according to its website, plans to launch their services in Westchester County, northern New Jersey and the Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., metro areas this winter. They’re also hiring various new positions in customer service, marketing and finance, Englander added.

While the company is expanding, Englander said having its roots in Syracuse has been advantageous to the company’s growth.

“If you can make it work in Syracuse, where sometimes there’s 120 inches of snow, you can make it anywhere,” Englander said.

Published on November 13, 2018 at 9:18 pm

Contact Gillian: gifollet@syr.edu