[ibimage==36851==Original==none==self==ibimage_align-center]Within the startup ecosystem, there’s no shortage of delivery services. Apps like Postmates and Seamless present consumers throughout the country with a tempting prospect: order takeout without having to pick it up, regardless of your location. Meanwhile, startups like Saucey and (the legally contested) Nestdrop hope to follow their lead, but with alcohol and, for the latter, medicinal marijuana.
Though they transport different goods, most delivery startups have one fundamental thing in common: they all specialize in one category (i.e., food, booze, weed). It’s a model that’s proven widely successful, but Los Angeles’s Schlep & Fetch seeks to reshape it.
Founded by folklorist and museum curator Bryson Strauss and graphic artist Ashley G. Eaton, Schlep & Fetch allows users to request delivery from any location in their area, whether it’s a drugstore, restaurant, or friend’s apartment. Strauss said the startup was born on a late, stressful night; he and Eaton discovered they had run out of diapers for their infant daughter and, plagued by fatigue, searched in vain for a last-minute delivery option.
“[We] found ourselves wishing we could just have someone go on a late night diaper run for us. We searched online, but we could not find any service like that in Los Angeles,” Strauss said. “We knew that there had to be other people who were in similar situations, wishing they had someone to take care of an errand for them (whether that be going on a run for food, beer, or baby formula). So, when we couldn’t find a solution, we decided to create one ourselves.”
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The app, which is slated for release in the App Store this month, allows requesters to pin locations for pickup and delivery, receive a price quote (which varies depending on distance and type of service) and ETA (the average delivery cycle is 35 minutes, Strauss said), and receive push notifications about the progress of the delivery. Upon launch, it will be available to all of Los Angeles County (an unorthodox and ambitious move, as most Los Angeles courier startups tend to devote their inaugural service to the Westside).
Strauss said the company functions both as a courier service and as a white-label service for hundreds of restaurants and startups, including RushOrder and the aforementioned Nestdrop. Schlep & Fetch has adopted basic principles of the “rideshare” model: drivers accept requests near them, and users rate their drivers once a transaction is complete. “That being said, we offer a very different value proposition than Uber or Lyft,” he explained. “We schedule drivers, we manage them, we have live dispatchers and take special orders, including shopping services.”
Having recently closed the first tranche of a second round of funding, Strauss and Eaton plan to finalize the app and open in Orange County this spring. Following that, they plan to extend service to Santa Barbara and, eventually, the entire country.
“We hope to become the household name in America for personal delivery,” Strauss said. “When anyone says, ‘Shoot, I left my iPhone at my friend’s house,’ everyone around that person will respond in chorus, ‘Get it Schlepped!’”
