Listen to this articleBelow is our recent interview with Avi Shabtai, the Founder & CEO at SideAway:
Q: Avi, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and what peaked your interest in developing such a product?
A: First of all, I would like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to educate the world about SideAway.
I’ve always known myself as a questioner & developer, seeking solutions to problems. The business idea hit me when I began traveling to countries where I, as well as the locals around me, experienced many language barriers. The cab rides, ordering food, and some of my business meetings were strenuous, as I didn’t have someone I could trust to translate. Moreover, as evening had come, I had to scramble to find a good restaurant to dine in, and a faster solution to visit touristic locations. I wanted to make traveling, even easier.
Some of us have assistants back home, but how come we don’t consider assistance when we travel to foreign countries and or cities across the US as this would enhance our traveling experience.
But what about the flip side?
I questioned friends, colleagues & strangers and noticed that many are struggling to make ends meet. After acquiring this information and plugging it into my own puzzle, along with multiple sessions of R&D, I chose to create a platform that will connect executives & travelers with local freelancers that will act as assistants that can handle both their personal and business needs. Consider it a person at your need that can wear multiple hats and act as your personal chauffeur, translator, nanny, friend, tour guide, assistant and more.
In most 3rd world countries, when a tourist arrives and is not familiar with the area, the locals tend to take advantage of that, we are here to provide a solution to have an “inside/local” person in these countries advising on the best practices, how to stay safe and enjoy your trip the best.
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Q: How exactly does it work?
A: Everyone opens a profile on the platform free of charge. Users then fill out some basic information, go through a simple process of identity verification and fraud prevention. Assistants can then continue to browse for available jobs on the marketplace and executives can post jobs and browse potential candidates.
Executives can either post their budget for the job or choose to refrain from oversharing. The assistants set their own hourly rate and can negotiate terms in the process. Once a job is booked, SideAway collects it’s booking fee and the parties retrieve access to each other’s information. After the job is done, there is a short job completion form to fill and within 7 business days the assistant receives the funds. In Addition to this process, we also secure the funds for both sides.
One of the beautiful aspects of the product is, both assistants and executives can switch between accounts. For example, a member can act as an assistant in it’s own region and when traveling its can switch to Executive.
Q: What are the capabilities of your personal assistant?
A: The assistant’s skills and specialties can fall under some of the following:
- Dry clean pickup
- Shopping assistant
- Stylist
- Pick up from Airport
- Driving & Delivering
- Chauffeur
- Babysit
- Dog sit & Dog Walk
- Flights, Hotel & Restaurant Reservations
- Find last minute tickets for a game/concert
- Research
- Request quotes for local services
- Personal Training
- Bartending
- Respond to e-mails/calls
- Makeup
- Cooking
- MC (Master of Ceremonies)
- Cleaning
- Represent/ Join in Meetings
- Sales
- Social Media Content Creator
- Translating
- Atmosphere Models
- Assist in open house (for real estate agents)
- Butler
- Waiter/Waitress
Q: How can it help executives?
A: Executives and other employers that wish to hire on the spot and don’t want to go through the usual long and exhausting hiring channels, can just browse the database, post a job and wait for available candidates to reach out and or to hire directly and immediately. We had a case of a real estate agent with an assistant that couldn’t attend an open house, he went on our platform and found help immediately. This is a marketplace where you can see the other person’s pictures, credibility, past work, job rating and more while determining if this is the right fit for you. Imagine a more visual CV along with a large and growing pool of candidates.
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Q: Why is now the time for a technology solution like SideAway?
A: As more and more people are being laid off from their jobs along with the rising costs of living, SideAway can be a great solution for creating an additional and respected income. As for the traveler’s side, they want to know that no matter where they travel or work in the world, they can always have someone there for them to assist with any need.
More ways we increase our value propositions is by differentiation. We are the first of our kind to offer face to face meetings vs virtual. We believe that skills alone can only take you so far but personality can take you much further. Therefore, in addition to the valuable information that each member shares on its profile, they can upload a short personality video showcasing themselves and everything they have to offer.
Q: Can you give us any hints as to what else we might expect to see from SideAway this year?
A: Yes, as SideAway has currently only launched in the US, it has great plans to expand to Canada, the UK and South America in the near future. Moreover, our Apple and Google apps should be released in the upcoming months.
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