This is a First Look: It's the first time any news outlet or blog has covered this startup. You can read more First Looks here. (We do this a lot.)
When you hear Boston entrepreneur Chris Barry describe his new smartphone app, Yeti, you'd instantly think he got the idea from the mythical Boston Yeti that was spotted shoveling cars out from this past winter's stupidly evil snow.
It's like Uber for snow removal.
But Barry said while he had known about the Boston Yeti in general, he didn't realize that it had been shoveling out cars until I told him a few days ago and sent him a link of our Boston Yeti coverage from this past winter. (When the Boston Yeti was first sighted at the beginning of this year, it was only seen walking the streets, not shoveling out cars, like it would later become known for.)
So what is Yeti? It's not the app that lets college students anonymously post messages and photos—that's something entirely different. What Barry's app plans to do is provide an online platform for people to ask for help with snow shoveling, particularly for shoveling out cars on Boston's streets. In other words—and I know some people are probably tired of this phrase—it's like Uber for snow removal. And yes, that means the shovelers get paid (but they don't have to wear yeti suits).
"Much like Uber, you pull up our app and mark the location of your car during/after a snowstorm and we'll match you with a 'Yeti' who'll go dig your car out," Barry told me over email. "The app will update you when the job is complete, you then rate the job and can drive off having avoided everyone's least favorite winter task."
The app is currently expected to come out late January, which will be bring us close to the middle of snow-hell. For updates, you can follow Yeti on Twitter in the meantime. Update (1/23/16): The app's website is now live, but its expected release date is now mid-February, according to Barry.
"The app functionality is complete," he said, "we're just polishing up the UI and testing right now, hope to submit to the app store for review by the end of next week. "
Barry, who graduated from New York University with a degree in economics, said he has been working as a management and technology consultant for Fortune 500 companies in the past few years, and that he decided to found his own startup after seeing some NYU friends launch and grow successful startups.
"Seeing them succeed made me realize how achievable it is, that it's largely just a matter of effort and determination," he said.
So how did Barry come up with the name if he didn't know about the Boston Yeti's snow shoveling deeds? Turns out, he knew of the Boston Yeti, but that wasn't the main reason.
"All I knew was a guy in a costume was wandering the streets during/after snowstorms and he had a huge Twitter following, but yeah, I think that influenced the name choice," Barry said.
"I wanted the name to be kinda playful, something memorable that might make people crack a smile, all in the name of our mission to make snow days a little less miserable," he continued. "So given that yetis are also known for being big and strong it seemed like a good fit for a business based on manual labor in the snow, the 'Boston Yeti' just brought it to top of mind."
