AISHA PANDOR and her husband, Alen Ribic, were on vacation in Cape Town, South Africa, in December 2013 when she tried to find a cleaner for their home in Johannesburg. It was the busy holiday period, when domestic workers leave the cities en masse to return to rural areas to spend time with their families. Finding someone was proving difficult.
SHINING EXAMPLE: Pandor co-founded Sweep-South, an on-demand cleaning service in South Africa.
PER-ANDERS PETTERSSON FOR NEWSWEEK; J. PERDIGÓ & C. ALDEHUELA FOR NEWSWEEK
She eventually found a cleaner from an agency, but only after hours spent combing through online advertisements and newspaper classifieds, as well as asking friends for referrals. It was this frustration that formed the kernel for SweepSouth, an on-demand cleaning service that can summon a cleaner with a few taps on a smartphone. She eventually quit her corporate job at the age of 28 and sold her house to pursue her idea.