“Crowdservice’s vision is to put a personal assistant into everyone’s pocket”
Founder Michael Duran
[Note: An edited version of this blog appeared in the Business Matters [Tech/Marketing/StartUp] column in the Los Altos Town Crier — a locally owned weekly newspaper, offering in-depth, local news relevant to the affluent communities of Los Altos and Los Altos Hills with a total weekly circulation of 16,500.]
Living in Silicon Valley can make us feel like we are constantly driving in the fast lane, with little time to slow down and enjoy life. Between work and life demands, and tending to daily routine chores that take up most of our time, we all feel the pain of time poverty.
An Idea is Born
The frustrations of time management and a growing desire to delegate routine chores without having to hire a full-time assistant have led Michael Duran, a busy Physician and single dad, to found Crowdservice.
Crowdservice is Duran’s local startup whose vision is to put a personal assistant into everyone’s pocket, by making use of mobile technology to build a platform that elegantly taps into the power of the Crowd to find, sort, and vette workers to help busy people, while allowing greater flexibility and earning power to workers who are bidding on jobs requested.
In a perfect world, Crowdservice acts like a personal assistant who can take care of all the traditional and non-traditional chores that a personal assistant could do and more, depending on the skill set of select workers.
“The platform has been optimized to automate most things, making it safe, affordable, extremely easy and quick to use. Listing a job takes less than 30 seconds. Users get help ranging from grocery shopping and pet sitting, handyman and mobile mechanics, to small jobs such as “pick up my dry clean” or “fetch me a cup of Starbucks’ coffee” can be done via the app,” Duran said.
“This efficiency lets our fees to be the lowest around, which makes even little jobs – like bring me a coffee – practical and affordable in Crowdservice,” he said.
Duran believes that Crowdservice is unique among gig-work platforms, where workers of all types can get on board, using it to help them find jobs in their communities, such as, picking up work between gigs, lending a hand when they have pockets of free time, or even using it to test a hobby that they may want to turn into a real profession.
“TaskRabbit only supports certain jobs, only works in certain cities, sets prices and charges its workers 20-30% for the privilege of working for them,” Duran said. “Crowdservice lets workers set their own prices, subject to what people want to pay – just like workers have done for thousands of years. It works everywhere today, and we only take 9% to operate, that’s two-thirds less than what others would take.”
“There are no hidden fees, and you don’t have to jump through hoops to register. We just need a name and an email address to get you started,” he said. “There’s no charge to list a job, or to bid on one. We want to give our users unlimited usage of our platform anywhere in the U.S., and our commission is less than 10%.”
“Takl is a little more flexible in job types; they also take up to 30% and set prices, leaving workers dissatisfied with their lack of autonomy and less monies in their pockets,” Duran said.
Crowdservice also handles charity jobs, so Bidders can feel good that they can help out the elderly or handicapped for free while earning “Karma Points.”
Save Time, Don’t Let Time Control You
Outsourcing to Crowdservice not only saves you time, pockets of free time that you’ll get back can be used wisely for sacred moments that bring you happiness, or focusing on important things to get ahead in your life journeys.
“Research has shown that there is something satisfying about simplifying and organizing your life. When you are free from chore clutters, even a 15-minute break could improve your mood, in the midst of a long day,” Duran said.
Crowdservice was launched nationwide in December 2018, with Silicon Valley and the Bay Area being its first focus market. “The Bay Area has the right culture for us; people here are more “on the go” and tech savvy than anywhere in the country,” according to Duran. The app is currently available for download on both Apple iTune and Google Play stores.
“With scale, it will act like an “alter ego,” sitting on your shoulder and waiting for your command. Tell it a mental list of things to do, and it delegates them. That’s where we’re headed,” Duran said.
For more information, visit www.crowdserviceinc.com/downloads
Source: Time for Happiness, Harvard Business Review, Jan 2019
