At your beck & call

Ever wondered what it would be like to have a personal concierge? Aucklanders are already experiencing the reality through Brian Dewil’s clever UrbanSherpa start-up.

Like all quick growing start-ups there’s a long history behind UrbanSherpa.

It’s creator Brian Dewil has an interesting business background – having emigrated from South Africa in 2007, where he had been involved in the family business for a number of years – and then, in New Zealand, managing business development for business consultancy Results.com, and later taking on the role of country manager for the RICS (Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors).

But all roads had been leading to his real passion in life, UrbanSherpa, which, when NZBusiness caught up with Brian at the beginning of July, had only been in business for a fortnight.

Although initially utilising standard pushbikes with specially kitted-out riders, capable of carrying up to 30 kilograms, Brian did show me an innovative, Danish-built, electric-assisted ‘stretched’ delivery bike he was trialling, that would allow even greater flexibility for pick-ups and deliveries. But it’s early days; there’s some growing to do.
The concept behind UrbanSherpa – an on-demand ‘fetch and carry’ service utilising real-time mobile technology, GPS locators and video calling – was a long time in incubation.

In South Africa 12 years ago Brian first came up with the idea for a personal on-demand home delivery shopping service, which he was going to call Home Run. Unfortunately he was ahead of his time – the Internet wasn’t capable of delivering such a service back then.

He abandoned the idea, only to have it resurrected nine years later when New York company Postmates successfully launched such a service in the Big Apple. He was inspired.

“I used that example, and the technologies coming out of Silicon Valley at the time as a barometer to gauge the appetite [for the idea], the level of technology required, and what people were building in that space,” says Brian. “I needed that inspiration and confidence in order to sell the idea to others.”

It was time to marry his original idea with the very latest in mobile technology. So Brian found a lecturer at Auckland University with a PhD in computer science who was happy to take up the challenge of building a software prototype in exchange for shares in the company – one they could take to an investor. The prototype took 18 months to complete.

Brian’s wife Sara-Francesca came up with the name UrbanSherpa, for which the New Zealand and Australian domain names were available. Acquiring the .com domain name involved paying a certain US-based gent $2k – which Brian regards as money well spent!

Investor interest was strong; UrbanSherpa could now gain some traction. And Brian is currently looking at a second round of fundraising to continue the momentum.
There is a whole lot of business growth required. Auckland’s CBD, with a 3.5-kilometre radius, was chosen for the initial service roll-out, but Brian has his sights set on inner-city suburbs, and then, via ‘satellite hubs’, take UrbanSherpa further afield to the likes of the North Shore.

“These hubs will be what I like to call ‘Sherpa Sheds’; special shipping containers where our UrbanSherpas can be based,” he says.

Beyond that, expect to see UrbanSherpa expanding to Wellington in a matter of months – as well as to Sydney and beyond to the Asia Pacific region.

“Asia-Pacific is on our radar because of its many densely populated cities, such as Hong Kong and Singapore,” explains Brian.

Speed is clearly of the essence in order to gain traction for the brand. While there’s no immediate competition for UrbanSherpa, Brian says he does have his eye on Uber, which is looking to capitalise on its ‘run density’ by expanding into the online delivery space. He notes that Uber has used the ‘independent contractor’ model to enable rapid growth – but his plan is to use a “healthy mix” of UrbanSherpa employees and independent contractors.

Just two weeks after launch the company had five contractors and three permanent employees including a social media marketing manager, with plans to double the numbers within six months.

Goods carried range from computer keyboards to firewood! The seven-day-a-week service costs a flat fee of $12 for deliveries within an hour and operates between the hours of 8am and 8pm.

Key partnerships
Equally impressive is the 15 retail partners UrbanSherpa already has on board, including Sabato and Nosh. The Pullman Hotel and SkyCity Grand Hotel use UrbanSherpa as an extension of their in-house concierge; a shopping service for fetching the likes of clothes, toiletries, takeaway food, just name it, for guests. Retailers have kept Brian’s phone ringing hot since the business was first announced, as they seek to extend their service offering to customers. “It’s in the retailers’ best interests to partner with us,” explains Brian. “When we list you on our site as a partner, people will assume that you’ve subsidised the delivery cost, and they’ll be getting the delivery at a cheaper price. More business for the retailer.”

Brian says the challenge for UrbanSherpa going forward is to get people used to the convenience. It has parallels with Uber, he says, in that once people discovered the convenience and pricing advantages of the Uber service, it really took off.

Brian doesn’t have the marketing budget of Uber, so he’s relying on people discovering the convenience of their own personal concierge service and getting hooked on it.
“The challenge is to create enough awareness through marketing – so we’re front of mind when people think about what they need to have bought, delivered or dropped off in a hurry.”

He says UrbanSherpa’s second round of funding will be utilised to provide the necessary above-the-line advertising to achieve that goal; advertising based around consistency of message.

Once people experience the service, and the ease of the technology – which allows you to text or talk to your ‘urban sherpa’, track him in real time using GPS, or even confirm shopping items by photo – then they’ll be back for more, he believes.

Something to keep in mind next time you leave your iPad behind after a meeting on the other side of town!

To trial the UrbanSherpa experience, until the end of August 2015 all NZBusiness readers will receive a free initial service. To register and download the mobile app go to www.urbansherpa.co.nz