This Malaysian startup can help you with your to-do list, on demand

Francesca Chia, co-founder and CEO of GoGet

This article is part of Tech in Asia’s partnership with The Jay Kim Show where we publish the revised transcripts from the show’s podcast interviews with top entrepreneurs. This is heavily revised from the original show transcripts. For the full interview, go here.

Francesca Chia is the CEO and co-founder of GoGet, a marketplace for on-demand errands and deliveries powered by a community of runners called GoGetters. Chia and her co-founder started GoGet to help busy people outsource their to-do list to a trusted person in the community.

In this interview, we talk about her journey from corporate to entrepreneurship and how GoGet works.

Give us a background of yourself.

I was raised in Malaysia, but I went over to England to finish my high school education. Then, I went to Chicago, where I got my degree in economics, with a minor in Chinese language and culture.

I worked in management consulting at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), traveling around Southeast Asia. After four years, I jumped into building GoGet.

What made you jump into entrepreneurship?

I’d start off by saying that I’m not a planned entrepreneur, but an accidental one. Having my own company just never crossed my mind.

I decided to jump ship during my fourth year at BCG. I was wondering what to do, and I thought, “I would like to do something I would never be able to do if I was not in BCG.” I had three options: do something with social impact, be a stay-at-home mom, or be able to execute and make decisions.

I actually tried applying to startups, and during that time, my friends and I discovered the idea for GoGet. We thought it was just a silly thing that we would never actually end up doing. But the coffee chat turned into a Powerpoint presentation, the Powerpoint presentation turned into a spec for a tech outsourcing team to do, and the spec turned into a prototype.

About three weeks into trying to execute it, there were some serendipitous things that happened. One event happened at an ice cream shop, at a time when I was looking for a partner company. I don’t usually bring my dog when I get ice cream, but on that random day, I did. The shop’s owner really liked dogs, so he talked to us and asked, “What do you guys do?” I told him about GoGet and that I was actually looking for a partner, then he said, “I’d love to do the first partnership.” So, we ended up delivering ice cream for them.

What’s the basic structure of GoGet?

GoGet is a platform that connects users to people who need to get things done. We have two main products: one is GoGet for personal use and GoGet Business.

Businesses, especially SMEs in Malaysia, are actually one of the biggest use cases for GoGet. These small businesses don’t have their own fleet or a huge team to help with their operations. So, they use GoGet to do deliveries, marketing, and even some operational tasks. We connect them with reliable part-timers to get these things done.

The bread and butter at the moment is picking up and dropping off things. We’re known in the market for transporting perishable and high-care goods (e.g. cakes, flowers, balloons, plants, etc.) because you don’t want to put these items in a distribution center or on a conveyor belt where they can get damaged.

As for revenue, GoGet is a typical marketplace, so we take a cut from the transactions that go through the platform. For GoGet Business, we charge a 10 percent management fee.

Tell us more about the GoGetter side.

Any expansion plans?

You went through the Alibaba eFounders Fellowship. What are some takeaways you’d like to share?

What’s your advice for entrepreneurs?