The micro-entrepreneur: the untold story of digital transformation

When talking about digital transformation and the impact of the covid-19 pandemic, we like to think about how large companies transformed themselves, but equally important is the untold story of digital transformation happening with micro-entrepreneurs during the pandemic. I’d like to tell the story of a small residential cleaning business owned by Renato and Veronica and how they transformed an traditionally manual business with a digital-first approach.

Hello Alfred: automating the on-demand economy

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In a world crowded with on-demand apps and services, Hello Alfred created an aggregated service platform for recurring and widely demanded services to simplify the life of their customers. The platform is assisted by company employed “Alfreds” who coordinate the delivery of the services. The company adopted a B-to-B-to-C business model where it leverages on the proliferation of on-demand service providers and the relevance of local specialized vendors by using them as suppliers. To capture users, Hello Alfred partners with landlords of buildings that cater to young professionals. Hello Alfred profits from the difference between the wholesale prices it negotiates with its vendors and the retailed price charged to customers.

As of today, Hello Alfred has raised $63 M in venture funding, has completed 4.5 million to-do’s and saved 50 years time to its members. In this post I will discuss the evolution of Hello Alfred’s business model and the strategic decisions they made to scale the business.