By Brent Wistrom
From The Austin Inno
Between his junior and senior years at The University of Texas, Connor Tomkies did what so many students dream of doing. He loaded his backpack, took out about $1,000 of spending cash and traveled around Europe, passing through about 15 countries.
And, like many students traveling on a budget, he opted to stay with the locals, using services like Airbnb and HomeAway instead of hostels and hotels. But staying in other people’s homes means a lot of uncertainty. Will they have a nice clean room, fresh linens and plenty of towels and toiletries? Or will you be stocking the place yourself?
“There’s no real standard for customer service,” Tomkies said. And, in those new locations, he could never be sure which smartphone apps might work or what on-demand services might be available.
“You have to figure out ‘what’s the Favor of Italy?'” he said. “How do you get around? What’s the best way to get on-demand deliveries?”
DelegateIt Founder Connor Tomkies
When Tomkies got back to the states, he discovered a San Francisco-based service called Magic, Inc., which had a team of people ready to respond to text requests from customers who need anything from a dozen roses sent to their partner to a pizza delivery to booking a flight. You text them, and they figure it out.
With that as a baseline, Tomkies sought to build his own business called DelegateIt to help travelers — or anyone who wants something done for them — get quick responses and solutions by simply sending a text or using a smartphone app. And he teamed up with co-founders Austin Middleton and George Farcasiu.