As both founder and CEO of GiGO Clean Technology, Bita Safari is paving the way for a revolution in the cleaning industry. Her company is one of the first to introduce digital technology to the field, and it’s paying off. And her use of green products is helping repair the industry’s bad reputation with the environment. Her application GiGO Clean is accessible to all and simple to use. Safari says realtors, homeowners, and rental property managers “find instant satisfaction” in the cleaning-service app, which connects customers to cleaning professionals with the touch of a finger.
Safari attributes her entrepreneurial success to a culmination of educational and career choices, although her interest in cleaning services did not spark until later on in her career. When she realized that ”in the service industry everything is about efficiency and productivity,” Safari viewed it as a good match to her strengths in management and organization.
Previously, Safari worked at Nationwide Legal Services as Executive Office Administrator. But the idea of working for herself as an entrepreneur appealed to her more, and she decided to strike out on her own in the cleaning industry, exiting the firm to apply her service experience and degree in chemical engineering to developing her own application and its green-product initiative.
But before GiGO Clean went live on the App Store, Safari got practice conducting her own business with an experimental one called Simply Crystal Clean. Largely successful, the company’s prosperity stemmed from deciphering the “best way of training, hiring, charging, and communicating with clients,” Safari notes. Now, Safari’s well-developed skills in management and entrepreneurship are driving GiGO Clean forward to greener and more accessible cleaning services. The company avoids chlorine-based cleaning products, and service can be booked in less than 24 hours.
“Right now,” Safari continues, “there are a lot of middle-people involved and through GiGO Clean, customers are able to connect to cleaning professionals directly.” Rather than relying on third parties or word-of-mouth to advance cleaning services, Safari has re-thought how communication has changed within the industry, making cleaning services more compatible with our technology-driven 21st century.
Success for Safari does not come solely from exertion and motivation; it also comes from establishing and maintaining a fun work environment, where workers are friendly with one another and make an effort to get to know everyone, no matter their titles. The tech exec emphasizes that GiGO Clean runs on both discipline and good relationships but also involves work-life balance. “Although I have a very friendly relationship with my staff, I am also able to keep my boundaries and stay with our schedule.”
Making time management a priority has allowed Safari to balance her commitment to the company with outside causes important to her. She is a member of two Chambers of Commerce, and on the Board of Advisors for Moms Against Poverty (MAP), an organization dedicated to hiring and supporting women who have experienced domestic abuse. Safari is highly involved in her community, and it shows through all the support and growth she has enjoyed in the service industry so far.
Safari began her journey with GiGO Clean in 2019 — right before the coronavirus broke out. As with many entrepreneurs, starting a business in such a precarious and uncertain time was quite a challenge. “We unfortunately lost our head of development to the coronavirus, and then we hired a company we went live with, but the app crashed and we had to start again,” she remembers. Safari has had to start and restart GiGO Clean several times due to these circumstances, but this past March she launched GiGO Clean in its current version — a huge accomplishment in itself.
Reflecting on the past three years she has had her company, Safari is grateful for the ups and downs: “I consider that as a success for myself…that I was able to overcome all those obstacles, finish the project, and make it available to people, as well as make changes to the industry.” Safari admits that spurring customers to change up their routines and seek out cleaning services in a new way has been difficult. However, her progress in doing so is proof of the positive disruption she has brought to the industry.
When creating GiGO Clean, Safari made sure the app was going to be simple and easy to use, minimizing the time it would normally take to secure a professional cleaner by directly pairing customers with cleaners. The service is free, and she encourages “anyone needing help with cleaning” to download the app and select the date and time that suits their schedule best. Right now GiGO Clean is available to Southern California users, serving Orange County and Los Angeles customers. She also has made it her policy to provide cleaning professionals with green cleaning products, a step toward revolutionizing the way cleaning products interact with the environment in an unharmful, even positive way.
The name of the company, which includes the computer science acronym “GiGO” — or “Garbage In, Garbage Out” — literally outlines the cleaning services Safari’s business provides, while also honoring her educational background in STEM. In addition, it is very similar to her own motto, which doubles as advice to budding business owners: “We have to fail before we become successful.” Her eagerness to embrace early mistakes while working toward GiGO Clean’s future may be her secret weapon, and, along with her simultaneous dedication to helping her community, can serve as inspiration to the entrepreneurs of tomorrow.