When I read the 4 Hour Work Week from Tim Ferris some years ago, I was amazed by the entire market being created through digital outsourcing.
At the time, companies like ODesk (now called Upwork) and eLance were leading the way for outsourcing services. These companies connected suppliers with companies and individuals, making it possible to outsource specific tasks through to entire website builds.
There is no question the digital economy has fueled the outsourcing revolution. What I’ve found surprising is the recent trend toward Personal Outsourcing (the concept of shifting discreet chunks of work that we would usually do as individuals, to others).
In this post we take a look at a few start-ups making headway in the Personal Outsourcing revolution.
Wonder
Wonder helps people get their questions answered through effective research. Using the service is simple….just pose a question via the site, and Wonder will assign a researcher to research and respond to the question.
Pricing for Wonder is based on the number of questions you want to be solved – $39.99 a month will get you 5 responses, $99.99 will get you 15, and the bulk package is $299.99 for 50 requests a month.
Wonder even has an option to ask a first question for free. Give it a try here.
It looks like the service is receiving high demand, because it took me several days for me to receive a response to my trial question. I was very happy though with what I received!
Jarvis
Jarvis was founded in July 2013 as an “assistant to your virtual life”. Jarvis is a tech-enabled person that helps coordinate people’s lives through completing tasks and errands via SMS requests.
Jarvis will help you do everything from booking restaurants to finding a gift for your best friend’s b’day.
Jarvis runs on a subscription revenue model. The company offers a 7-day free trial. After that, it’s $99 per month for the starter package, $199 for the executive package and $599 for the jetsetter package.
Magic
Magic was founded in February, 2015. I first read about Magic and its co-founder Mike Chen (@mikechen) through Wired, and was impressed how a simple idea had suddenly gone so viral it was struggling to keep up with demand.
It is similar to Jarvis and has trained operators available day and night to answer customers’ requests, also via SMS. They order what you need when you want it, using ancillary services like Instacart and Postmates.
It’s free to chat with Magic, but users are charged per request. Their total price is confirmed and then billed and the tip is included.
Magic charges per transaction, making their revenue model a basic sales model.
Alfred
Alfred, founded in September, 2013, is a different concept than Jarvis and Magic. Alfred has raised $12m in capital and provides customers with a way to do weekly errands without lifting a finger. The company setup Hello Alfred this year, which is a portal that allows customers to access the company’s services on-demand. The service pairs busy career people with personal assistants who will pick up dry cleaning, get groceries, do laundry and other household-related tasks. This is leaning towards a traditional personal assistant role, versus more of a virtual assistant.
Their pricing model is subscription-based, charging weekly. The Alfred Tidy-Up is $15 per week, Alfred Basics is $22 per week, and the Alfred Service is $42 per week. The company also offers ‘a la carte’ (per transaction) pricing.
A final note
What is so interesting about some of these services, is that they depart from the purely digital world, to the offline world also. This reflects just how much attitudes are changing.
A decade ago many of us shunned the concept of buying clothes online. It seemed to be a great risk compared to going in-store. But of course now online retailers are among the fasted growing eCommerce businesses of any industry.
Undoubtedly, many of us have similar reservations about booking help with ‘home duties’ through a service like Alfred. But one has to wonder – in this world of increasing automation and home connectivity – whether these concerns will one day be overcome in the same way they were for online retailing.
