Life/Work - Issue 36

They are the obligations that I keep putting off, that I keep watching accumulate like one more pile of papers on my desk. You know what I'm talking about -- bringing my car in for service because it's 6,000 miles past due for its 30,000-mile check. Or finding a dog groomer who won't charge me an arm and a paw. Or getting a subscription to a trade magazine that isn't on newsstands. Or buying a long-overdue wedding or birthday gift. Or finding tickets to a concert that has sold out by the time I get around to looking for them. Or deciding where to go for summer vacation -- and actually planning the trip in advance, rather than waiting until the absolute last minute, which is what I inevitably do.

Rich people know how to get those sorts of tasks done: They have household managers and house cleaners, chefs and drivers, personal shoppers and executive secretaries. But what about those of us who are trying to juggle everything ourselves -- and who still end up devoting Saturdays to a list of errands that we never seem to make a dent in, never mind finding time to kick back and read a novel? What if you turned over your uncompleted wish list to someone else? What would your life be like if you delegated your unmet obligations to someone who made a cheery promise that those chores would be taken care of at little or no cost within 48 hours -- sooner if you were really in a rush?

Well, I'm here to tell you that I did just that. Two recent graduates of Stanford University's Graduate School of Business are building a company around people like me -- by selling their service to other companies, which then offer that service to their employees as a benefit. Janet Kraus, 34, and Kathy Sherbrooke, 32, who graduated from Stanford in 1994, call their business "Circles." Like most of their fellow students, they were hungry to make a mark in the new economy. "We were interested in starting an e-company that related to our lives, that could have a major impact on people, and that represented a huge market opportunity," says Sherbrooke.

Kraus and Sherbrooke began with a simple notion -- that "time starvation" is the hottest trend around. "All of our friends and colleagues talked constantly about how busy and chaotic their lives were," Sherbrooke explains. "When we started doing focus groups with professionals about what they needed in their lives, we kept hearing responses like, 'It would be great if only I could hand over my To Do list to someone else.' We realized that people needed a resource that they could trust to do all kinds of stuff for them." Kraus and Sherbrooke's research showed them that workers in the United States considered a work-life balance to be a major priority, and that concept became their market opportunity.

Circles isn't alone in trying to give relief to the growing population of the overburdened. San Francisco-based LesConcierges Inc., for example, has offered high-end services for 13 years to employees at such companies as Charles Schwab, Netscape, and Texas Instruments. Dozens of Web-based companies offer similar services within specific niches. Peapod Inc., Streamline.com Inc., and Webvan Group Inc. all provide such services as food shopping and home delivery in a rapidly growing number of cities. Kozmo.com Inc. will deliver whatever you need, whenever you need it -- from pizzas to videos, from toothpaste to books. Quixi Inc., which raised $27.5 million in VC financing, will function as a 24-hour personal assistant. Upload your address book into its system, call a single number from your cell-phone when you're on the run, and your instant assistant will connect you to whomever you want -- and provide suggestions for and directions to restaurants.

What sets Circles apart from its competitors is the breadth of its services. "We are really talking about life management," explains Sherbrooke. "We're trying to provide a full-service application for managing all of the personal tasks in your life, from leisure and luxury all the way down to drudgery and mundanity -- settling a bill dispute, waiting for a repairman to show up, or finding a house cleaner." What Circles personal assistants won't provide, besides child care and elder care, are services that cross a certain line -- sending a dead fish to an ex-wife, for example, or hiring a stripper for a bachelor party. "If we have any question about whether a request is legal or ethical, or whether it seems mean-spirited, we won't do it," says Sherbrooke.

Circles sells its service to companies for an annual cost of between $50 and $200 per employee. Offering such a benefit, Circles tells employers, is a way to attract and to retain employees -- and a way to reduce the number of distractions in employees' lives during the workday. Most companies provide the service to their employees at no cost. If an errand option is included, employees are typically responsible for paying a $10-per-hour copayment. Revenue at Circles has increased by 700% in the past year. The company recently closed on $15.2 million in financing, and it intends to increase its number of personal assistants from 50 to 175 this year. If all goes according to plan, Circles is targeting 2001 for an IPO.