Thom Hartmann: -- Moving forward, I am fascinated by the story of Angie's List. It's like intense democracy in the workplace. Right after the break.
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Commercial:
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Thom Hartmann: -- Welcome to the place where smart people get their news. It's the Thom Hartmann Radio Program and welcome back -- Angie of Angie's List is on the line with us, and I just find this whole thing fascinating. I just wanted to -- for all of our callers who wanted to talk about our previous segment, we'll get to your calls in just a moment. Just hang on to the lines.
But I just find this fascinating. We had the experience of getting a lousy contractor into our house, that we got off one of the on-line sites and there was nothing that we could do about it. And then we used Angie's List and actually, all the ratings -- well, Angie, first of all, welcome to the show.
Angie: -- Thank you!
Thom Hartmann: -- And thanks for being here with us. What I find so cool about Angie's List is that as a user, I can actually go on and say I had a lousy experience with this person, or I had a great experience with this person. And the vendor cannot do that themselves. They can't come on and rate themselves or spam the list, and you actually check these things out. How did you come about this idea of democracy in the workplace like this, or democracy in the marketplace, I guess?
Angie: -- Sure! We started Angie's List 14 years ago in Columbus, Ohio. My co-founder was trying to renovate a 1920's house, and was having a lot of trouble finding reliable contractors. So we really thought there should be a better way for consumers to network to find out who's good in the area. You know the same way you just ask coworkers and family but on a much larger scale.
Thom Hartmann: Right.
Angie: -- And so, we started pre-Internet days. Before reviews were really the thing that they are today. We started as a call in service and a magazine.
Thom Hartmann: -- Oh! That's fascinating. And by the way, for our listeners and our viewers on the Internet, who are watching our live video stream, Angie is coming in by Skype so you can see her on our monitor. Um, Angie, you've expanded beyond contractors. And some of the categories that you are reaching out to are like doctors, for example. Who would have imagined! How is that working?
Angie: -- Well, today we cover more than 400 different categories of services. Really, anything you might turn to the phone book for, and about a year ago we started collecting ratings on the healthcare community out of demand from consumers who are looking for more information about the healthcare choices they needed to make. And it's been met with a tremendous response. Consumers are giving us thousands of reports every month on their healthcare providers. They're using the list and we've actually expanded the number of healthcare categories, whether they be pediatricians, and dentists and so forth. We've expanded it to over 150 categories. We started with just 50.
Thom Hartmann: -- That's great, and this little short segment that we do periodically is for the people who are supporting our radio program, progressive talk radio in general, and I'm curious, as a sponsor of the show, and of other shows like this, what sort of response do you get from your support of these kinds of programs? Is it a good investment for Angie's List?
Angie: -- It is, it is, Thom. It's actually funny -- we find that your show and shows like it have a very loyal following and are people that are looking for information to help make decisions. So they overlay with people that would be likely to use Angie's List as well. I was out in LA not that long ago talking to a member who had heard about us through your show and he was pleading for me to continue supporting Thom Hartmann.
Thom Hartmann: Great! Thank you! Angie of Angie's List, Angieslist.com -- Angie -- thanks for dropping by today.
Angie: -- Thank you.
Thom Hartmann: -- And thanks for supporting progressive talk radio. And have a very good day.
Angie: -- Thanks.
Thom Hartmann: -- And of course, as I mentioned, we do these segments to encourage other companies to consider sponsoring, supporting our local radio stations -- you know, nothing wrong with supporting the national show too -- but local progressive talk radio can be a great venue as well.
Transcribed by Caleb Burns, Portland Psychology Clinic.
