Richmond virtual assistant platform Sherah gets a lot of interesting requests. A goat sitter might be the most unique.
“We have yet to find a single request that we can’t do,” founder Kristin Richardson said. “Some of them we do ourselves. Or we hire a specialist if it something we are not good at. We are not roofers. We are not nannies. We will find you a nanny. We will find you a roofer.”
Sherah was started last year and has around 60 clients, mostly in Richmond. Richardson declined to disclose revenue. The company helps busy families, especially mothers, manage day-to-day activities. Richardson said most of her clients are in their mid-30s to early 40s and married with several young children. Both parents are professionals and work demanding schedules. They often have aging parents.
“These families are so overwhelmed with their lives, which is exactly why I started this business,” Richardson said.
Richardson has seven virtual assistants to help with the individual requests. She said the goat request is a great story, because she and her team understood the situation: The mom is a busy doctor who lives on a farm. She and her family had not taken a vacation in years and needed someone to watch the goat while the family was away.
“What we see is a really stressed-out mom behind those requests,” Richardson said. “We know the stories behind those requests. We said, ‘She is taking that vacation, and we are going to get her a goat sitter. We are going to do this for her.’”
A goat sitter was located, and the family took the vacation.
Richardson’s company grew out of personal experience. She was a busy professional mom and had a husband with a career. She tried to hire a virtual assistant to help organize her life. Richardson said she was not able to find someone who could do the tasks she needed accomplished, mostly because the virtual assistants did not understand the local market.
She and her husband saved some money, and Richardson quit her sales and marketing job. She built the platform and started accepting clients. The company has grown slowly and is looking to expand into new markets.
“It makes sense to probably go to Northern Virginia next,” Richardson said. “We are already getting a huge number of inquiries from there.”
The company is looking to raise money in the near future as it expands. So far, Richardson has been able to run the company through the cash flow created by the business and her personal funds. She said she has been approached by several people who are interested in investing in the company but has not needed the money.
“In the next year, we will do a first round of fundraising,” Richardson said. “Right now, it is all self-funded. My husband and I saved up to get ready for this. We’ve had a few conversations with investors, but I am trying to hold off on that a little bit. We don’t have to have it right now.”
Clients pay a monthly or yearly fee and a per-minute charge. Richardson said the requests are varied and depend on the client. Some people need grocery shopping done or a birthday party planned. Others need an appointment scheduled with a dentist.
So far, none of the people who have signed up for the service have left, and she has not had a problem finding new virtual assistants. The virtual assistants are gig workers and are moms themselves who want to keep busy.
“It’s intentionally a gig workforce,” Richardson said. “These are people who work when they want to work. They take on the tasks that they want to take on and ones that they feel like they are really good at.”