If it can be found in Greater Victoria and it’s legal, you can have it delivered to your door thanks to a new Victoria company.
Accio has hit the streets, acting like a personal assistant on demand. In Latin, Accio translates to “send for” among other things — and is a spell used in the Harry Potter movies to summon things,
“It’s a concierge for everybody,” said co-founder Mike Rowe, who started Accio (myaccio.com) with partner Carla Smart.
Rowe is best known for a dispute with Microsoft in 2004, when as a 17 year-old he battled the software giant over his Internet domain name, mikerowesoft.com.
Rowe and Microsoft settled amicably. He agreed to give up the soundalike Web name and the company gave him an X-box with games, a trip to Seattle, a Microsoft course and helped promote his new Web domain.
Accio is rising out of Rowe’s failed start-up ForkJoy. ForkJoy was a website and iPhone application that offered searchable restaurant menus with photos and ratings. The plan had been to offer a delivery service with it, but the company didn’t have a workable business model.
“But we did have the idea to deliver food, so we thought we’d go for it but not limit ourselves to just food,” said Rowe.
The company started with $300, a car and a business licence two weeks ago, and Rowe said without telling the world about it they’ve already had to start searching for an employee to help with deliveries.
“We are starting to get traction. We are $200 away from being profitable which is the best I’ve done with a start-up so far,” he said with a laugh.
To use the service a customer texts ACCIO to a phone number, they then sign up with a name, address, and credit card information using a secure link.
That process only needs to be done on first delivery. Once an account is set up, the customer texts a request. Accio staff will then find it, price it and provide a quote the customer can confirm or decline.
If the customer confirms, the credit card is charged and Accio buys the item and delivers.
Accio charges a 10 per cent premium on the cost of the item, a $5 delivery fee and a 20 per cent tip.
For a $50 dinner order, for example, that would mean a cost of $70.
Rowe said some pricing on higher-end items could be negotiated and they are working on establishing a cap on how much they will charge.
“We haven’t run up against that yet,” he said, noting most deliveries have been food to the high-tech community. “We have delivered U-Haul boxes to a guy packing up his apartment and moving, that was the most unique one so far.”
To date, Accio has acquired 53 items and made 16 deliveries.
