The requirement of help is most often inversely proportional to its availability. Have you ever had a sudden pipe-burst and not had a plumber at hand? Or had a wedding to attend, and you’re all dressed up, but there is nobody to drive you there? Did you have a hectic week at work and not have any time to tidy up the house, and you have a house party to host in a few hours?
To help get the lucky people of Chennai out of sticky situations such as these, there is a new aggregator platform offering odd job services such as plumbing, electrical assistance, driver services, appliance servicing and housekeeping services. Introducing Urbistant – the odd jobs people. Currently operating only out of Chennai, Urbistant is a new and innovative, one-of-its-kind odd jobs service provider, run by some of the coolest creative minds of Chennai.
With the aim of providing on-call odd job services to those who are in need of it, founders Maddy and Kumar, successful corporate business leader and experienced entrepreneur respectively, visualised Urbistant. Realising that there isn’t just one place where people could find solutions to their odd job problems, they came up with the concept of an on-demand aggregator platform. They wanted people to be just a phone call away from the services they really needed done, especially those in a limited time frame.
Maddy himself suffered the lack of help for several years, until the time he had two children and realised that he couldn’t manage the odd jobs by himself anymore. He then shared his idea of starting an on demand odd jobs service provider in Chennai with his partner, Kumar. While Kumar brought in his entrepreneurial expertise and valuable insight, Maddy brought his corporate experience in the field of new business ventures. And thus, Urbistant was born.
Operating on the USP of being an on-demand service provider, Urbistant works on a simple enough procedure. The person looking to avail a service makes a quick phone call to Urbistant, following which they can expect the service provider within a span of 30 minutes. Once the agent is finished with the service, the customer makes their payment – simple and efficient.
Urbistant is present over most of the popular social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest and Instagram. Though initially only covering Adyar, Thiruvanmyur and OMR, the start-up now covers all areas of Chennai and is operational between 6 AM and 8.30 PM. However the driving service is available till 12 AM to provide easier transportation to the clients. Launched just about two weeks ago, Urbistant has received brilliant response and has grown far more than ever expected – enough to warrant its own app, which is now nearly ready for launch. Though currently only working in Chennai, it hopes to expand to some of the country’s top cities in the near future.
Another unique feature of Urbistant is the extra step it takes for its employees, thus going above and beyond just providing services. It offers its employees flexible working hours so as to give them a life beyond just Urbistant. The service providers are given the freedom of choosing working hours which are convenient to them, thus enabling them to pursue more jobs on the side and expand their work base and experience. Additionally, people who have help for odd jobs can even refer Urbistant to them, so as to give them an increased chance of getting more out of life.
Offering a limited variety of services now, the venture hopes to soon expand into providing any and every kind of odd jobs or services which will help ensure that your effort is minimal as far as odd jobs are concerned.
