Our mission & our values

We believe in the power of the personal recommendation.

There's a problem: Customer decisions are driven by recommendations from people they know and trust. When a decision revolves around a kitchen gadget (Justin swears by silicone scrapers for scrambled eggs) or which pizza to get (Aaron's kids love Pizza Studio), you've got options. But when it comes to service-oriented businesses — small businesses and independent professionals like your everyday realtors, attorneys, piano teachers, house painters, and so on — we're all still sending texts and emails back and forth, giving and receiving recommendations.

This model is upside-down. It's no big deal if the pizza isn’t crisp enough — but it is a big deal if your "5-star" electrician causes a house fire.

So when your friend recommends a truly stellar electrician to you, everything changes. Your friend’s word is enough; it’s the only proof you need.

At Recommended, we believe in the power of personal referrals — because we know you do, too. Our focus is to make it as easy as possible to give and receive them.

We support small, service-oriented businesses.

Running a business is hard. Some business owners make it look easy. To make it look that way, they often spend a lot of money — money that carries over to the customer, who's now paying for ads, fancy emails, discounts for new customers, and a lot more.

People who do their jobs well are rewarded with customers who tell their friends. The friends then hire those people, and the good word spreads.

Here’s the problem: This system is slow, and referrals are limited to one-to-one interactions, like texts, emails, and face-to-face conversations.

Recommended fixes all of that and makes the world better for both businesses and the customers looking for them. We give highly recommended professionals the ability to sell their services online — like an OpenTable for service-oriented businesses — and give happy customers the ability to recommend them publicly. In short, Recommended digitizes word-of-mouth.

We believe great businesses generate happy customers, and both deserve a free voice.

Positive word-of-mouth seems simple, but it’s not what you can find on the Internet today. Unlike other review sites, Recommended offers no advertising to businesses, no paid search rankings, and no favoritism in the listings. We help customers find the best businesses in a radically new way (and in a way that models real life). Only the most highly rated businesses and services — those that carry strong recommendations — are listed. When it’s people you know making the recommendations, those businesses rank even higher for you, because they’re coming from people you trust. The result is happy customers referring great businesses, and deserving businesses attracting more customers.

Happy Recommending!