Wish you could just delegate away all of those pesky personal tasks that plague your time?
At least one start up is betting on it. Delegate, which launched its private beta in May, offers up a $50/month service that appears to solve practically anything — within legal limits. In what looks like a productivity play that’s part Task Rabbit and part Monday.com, Delegate looks to prioritize — well, your priorities. And max out your “free time” for other, more important things.
Grit Daily caught up with the company’s founder, Ohad Elhelo, to take a peek under the hood at his latest venture.
GD: You had your own interesting career before you launched Delegate in 2017. Share that.
OE: Before launching Delegate, I founded a non-profit organization called Our Generation Speaks while I was a student at Brandeis University. OGS is a fellowship program and startup incubator that brings together young Israelis and Palestinians through entrepreneurship and innovation.
When I moved to Boston from Israel, I was looking at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from afar for the first time and gained perspective as well as the energy to make a difference. I knew that if we could bring young leaders together from different backgrounds and teach them to trust each other on a people-to-people level, the effects could be exponential. The OGS fellowship has created a dozen high-impact ventures that have generated significant economic and social impact while working to bridge the divide between Israelis and Palestinians.
GD: For the uninitiated, why co-found Delegate in what looks like a crowded market for personal assistant services?
OE: Delegate combines cutting edge AI technology with human gumption in an affordable way. A typical personal assistant service can cost upwards of $500 a month – a monthly Delegate subscription is just $50. Our guarantee is that we will complete all the tasks you delegate to us at least as well as you’d do it yourself, and typically better.
Our powerful AI allows us to easily identify the patterns of how people solve personal tasks in the real world and translate them into efficient processes. Our technology breaks down each task into a small, reusable lego block, and allows us to specialize in each block and then re-use it in different contexts. Every time we complete a task, the blocks build on each other and makes the entire system better. This technology, combined with our Boston-based Customer Success team, ensures that the quality of our service and its affordability are top-notch.
GD: How much time are executives wasting, pursuing tasks they could otherwise delegate? Any good data on that?
OE: Studies confirm that most people spend at least an hour a day on personal tasks that they could easily be delegating, freeing up their time as well as giving them peace of mind. Even a busy executive, who may have an executive assistant at their office, still needs to spend time researching family activities for the upcoming weekends and checking with Delta Airlines what is the best upgrade their points can buy them for their next vacation. This leaves them with less time and mental energy to make room for the important things in their lives.
GD: What’s the current client count? Revenues?
OE: We just launched our private beta in May, and our waitlist is over 500 people right now. We’re slowly granting access to those on the waitlist in a methodical manner to ensure we don’t sacrifice quality. Some of our alpha-stage paying customers have been with us for almost a year right now.
GD: What’s the most popular task to “delegate” so far?
OE: The biggest complaint we hear from our members is that they’re so busy taking care of the “must-do” aspects of their lives that the things that make them happy are never a priority. So in addition to helping our members with their “must-do” lists, we get a lot of requests for help with the “fun” aspects of their lives.
Someone might want to take their partner on the perfect romantic date, but they don’t have time to weed through dozens of yelp reviews to find the best restaurant where you can watch the sunset from a quiet table and for less than $100/person. Others may want to plan an incredible family vacation, but don’t have time to research to make it an unforgettable trip. We’re constantly helping our members achieve balance in their lives and allowing them the breathing room to prioritize what really matters.
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