![]() Hello Alfred also stands out for its commitment to hiring full-time employees, who make from $18 to $25 per hour, plus benefits. “They come home happy and feeling like they’ve been taken care of.” “Our clients love the personal touch,” she says. The drop-by butler assigned to each client gives this business its edge, according to Sapone, a recent Forbes “30 Under 30” winner. A companion smartphone app allows customers to start and manage their butler service-it even has a big “A” button they can hit for last-minute requests. Design your wish list, pass on your credit card number and your house keys, and leave the rest to Alfred, a real person who does real chores, leaves real notes, and also manages those multiple independent services-dry cleaning, grocery deliveries-that you’d otherwise have to coordinate yourself. You might be free of the chores, but coordinating all the services that manage them can be a time-consuming undertaking in itself: How many apps can you be bothered to juggle? That’s where Alfred comes in. The world is crowded with services offering to simplify your life in countless ways-there are apps for cabs and groceries, even dog walkers. “Time shouldn’t be a luxury,” says Sapone, who designed Hello Alfred to be affordable, at about $30 to $60 per week, depending on the number of visits. You get your personal Alfred to help keep your Batcave in top form, freeing you to discover your own superpowers-or at least to live your life with more focus, efficiency, and purpose. ![]() Inspired by Batman’s trusty tux-clad ally, Hello Alfred is designed to handle a slew of day-to-day necessities, from grocery shopping and dry cleaning to tailoring and pharmacy runs. The start-up operates in Boston and New York City, with plans to expand to San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC. After winning TechCrunch Disrupt 2014, a competition where start-ups compete on stage in front of potential investors, Hello Alfred raised $12.5 million in venture capital. There are more than 100 Alfreds actually, and they all work for Sapone, who is the CEO and cofounder of Hello Alfred, a tech-driven butler business. “I was working with a bunch of friends,” she says, “and we explored a different idea each day-five days, five ideas.” Stickman was the winner, and he has a name: Alfred. It was spring break and Marcela Sapone (BSBA’08, UNI’08) was brainstorming about possible business ventures. ![]() IN THE BEGINNING, there was “stickman”-a rough idea for an affordable, on-demand butler service sketched out on a piece of scrap paper. “BU TEACHES YOU TO BE SCRAPPY, TO BE A PROBLEM SOLVER, TO FIGURE IT OUT.”
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