Boston Startups: Run My Errand – Need Some Help? Find Helpers Around Your Town September 15, 2009
A few years back I lived with some kids who made their coin as bike couriers in Boston. They spent their days riding around town, delivering packages from building to building or doing anything that was required. I always wondered how the service was centralized and worked in terms of organization. I eventually learned that the service was run by dispatchers and a point man – with the couriers equipped with radios. But this service was almost meant to live online. Fast forward to today, and there’s a service that’s popped up here in Boston that is somewhat along the same lines: runmyerrand.com.
RunMyErrand is a service networking company that provides a way to post chores or errands that other folks can pick up and do for a fee – typically ranging from $7 – $50, depending on the travel time and complexity of the errand. The flip side is that people can then choose to do certain chores and make money doing it (talk about a decent way for unemployed folks to make some money). The map of errands is fairly impressive actually, as I could potentially step out of my door right now and make some loot:
When you sign up for RunMyErrand, you purchase credits that will be used to pay for the errands that you post. These credits are like currency – and also enable the company to make some money, especially as the number of users and errands grow. The errand is then picked up by a ‘runner’ and they will contact you to discuss the price for the errand (bargain with you), and then make it happen if you agree. The runners are then paid by the service – pretty smart system if you ask me.
Some issues that Run My Errand face is somewhat of the ultimate chicken and egg problem. The service needs errand runners and a lot of them – available ideally at all hours of the day – in order for it to be worthwhile for folks to post errands. For example, if I want to post an errand for someone to pick up my dry cleaning, I want it done today, or else I’ll make the time to pick it up myself. I certainly don’t want to wait until Thursday for my dry cleaning when I posted the errand on Monday.
But the site does possess the tool to drum up some errand runners – money. If they mandate that the cost of errands go up, then it will increase the amount of folks who run errands – though it may also decrease the amount of errands posted. This at least would be a starting point for a service that I think could be very useful and popular. Right now, the service is only in Boston, and hence their lowish traffic numbers to date. Look for them to expand and grow in the future (I’m really excited to see how this does in NYC, a city that was made for this it would seem). Check out the founder at Hubspot TV the other day:
What a great idea! We do the same in London (GB). The main problem with running errands is not the money as folks who have it will pay to get their errands done.
Overtime, we have found that the real challenge is TRUST.
A runner goes out to do the errand on their own. How do you make sure they deliver on time and as requested. The business is also fraught with potentially high risks which we wouldn’t have envisaged when we started in late 2007. It’s taken time for us to understand these risks.
We undertook an initial consultation with KPMG in the first few months of starting up and even that didn’t hightlight some of the risks we have encountered. It’s taken time and crawling before we can run to understand the business of running errands.
Good luck to Run My Errand.
Claire