You may have read recently that these guys are leaving the area, but before you get your panties in a twist Boston, RunMyErrand isn’t leaving us, they’re just expanding into San Francisco and we couldn’t be happier for them. They may be going bi-coastal, but they’re participating in one of the East Coast’s biggest events soon: The Boston Marathon
With all this talk about running and expanding, what is RunMyErrand?
RunMyErrand matches busy individuals who don’t have time to do errands with “runners” who have been trained, background checked, and rated by the RunMyErrand community. When a RunMyErrand user posts an errand, a runner is notified, and the errand is completed.
It’s that simple.
It only made sense for RunMyErrand to run in the Boston Marathon (Hello! it’s a running race!) They’re calling the project “Run My Marathon” and they’re motto is “outsourcing an experience,” as Community Director, Amanda Smyth Connor explained. To fit in with their business model, RunMyErrand is assigning runners who qualified for the marathon to run on behalf of those who otherwise can’t participate. Right now, you can share your story about why you can’t run in the marathon; the RunMyErrand team will pick their favorite story and sponsor a runner to run in the race for you. The kicker? RunMyErrand will donate the money raised to the charity of your choice!
I sat down with founder and CEO Leah Busque to talk about the marathon and the company’s growth into other cities. Starting small with Charlestown, Mass., and relying solely on word-of-mouth marketing, Leah grew RunMyErrand into a Boston phenomenon. With advisers like Tim Ferriss, author of the Four-Hour Workweek, and Scott Griffith, CEO of Zipcar, RunMyErrand is a project well-known and bright entrepreneurs have weighed in on.
Not only is RunMyErrand well advised, they also have some serious West Coast connections. Last summer Leah participated in Facebook’s incubator program, fbFund. The program specializes in startups who have a social networking focus; RunMyErrand was the only East Coast company accepted into the summer-long course. All of RunMyErrand’s investment money has come from California as well; Baseline Ventures and Maple Investments have brought RunMyErrand’s funding to a total of $1.15M.
With all of these connections out west it only made sense for San Francisco to be RunMyErrand’s next city to launch in.
Boston wastes too much time pointing the finger at Silicon Valley — blaming them for Facebook’s departure and poaching all of our talent, but Leah is out to change that. This is not a Yankees vs. Red Sox situation; stop crying Boston.
“We love Boston,” Leah said, but she’s confident San Francisco will be a successful launch and a great addition to RunMyErrand’s platform. “This is a story about expansion,” Leah told me. Pouting about the move of one of Boston’s finest entrepreneurs, isn’t going to help much. Instead let’s figure out more ways to turn out companies like RunMyErrand who will expand rapidly and show the country Boston means business.
Have you ever used RunMyErrand? what was your experience like? How do you feel about RunMyErrand’s expansion?
Want to keep tabs on RunMyErrand? Follow them on Twitter and fan them on Facebook. (This startup knows what they’re doing when it comes to social media).
