MyLackey.com

MyLackey.com was a short-lived American internet services company founded in April 1999 by Brendan Barnicle and Brian McGarvey, former executives of the internet startup eChange. Based in Seattle, Washington, the company emerged during the late-1990s dot-com expansion, when internet businesses were attempting to apply online coordination and marketplace models to everyday consumer services. The company focused on what it described as errands for busy professionals. Rather than performing the work directly, MyLackey.com arranged services through local businesses that had contractual relationships with the company. The service categories included car washing, dog-walking, shopping, and dry cleaning. MyLackey.com served as an intermediary: customers paid the ordinary market rate for a selected service, while the company retained the difference between that customer payment and the amount passed to the contracted provider. Its operating model depended on local fulfillment rather than a fully owned workforce. Participating businesses received additional orders through the platform but accepted a smaller share of the revenue than they might have earned from an independent customer. Contractors were also required to use MyLackey.com-branded livery while completing orders, making the service visible in the communities where it operated. The company’s principal geographic emphasis was Seattle and Portland, Oregon, rather than a nationwide rollout. MyLackey.com attracted venture capital during the period when online convenience and outsourced personal services were viewed as promising internet categories. WaldenVC was among the investors and provided $6.5 million in second-round financing, according to the company’s Wikipedia account. The financing supported the company’s expansion and staffing, but the business remained exposed to the structural weaknesses of many late-1990s digital ventures: substantial operating costs, dependence on consumer adoption, and the difficulty of coordinating offline services at scale. The company received negative publicity in June 2000 after an internal memorandum attributed to co-founder Brendan Barnicle was leaked to the technology-industry site FuckedCompany. The memo criticized employee attendance and called for a highly restrictive daily office schedule. A company spokesperson later disputed the authenticity of the portion imposing the specific working-hours requirement, making the episode both a management controversy and an example of the public scrutiny faced by internet startups at the time. MyLackey.com closed on October 20, 2000, after approximately sixteen months of operation. It reportedly employed 85 people at the time of closure. The shutdown occurred amid the wider collapse of the dot-com boom, which weakened investor support and eliminated many businesses built around rapid internet expansion. MyLackey.com therefore represents an early local-services marketplace model: it combined online customer acquisition and order coordination with offline fulfillment by contracted providers, but did not survive the financial and operating pressures of the period.

MyLackey.com was established in April 1999 in Seattle by Brendan Barnicle and Brian McGarvey, who had previously worked as executives at eChange. Its creation coincided with the expansion of consumer internet businesses that sought to convert traditional services into online-mediated transactions. Instead of selling a purely digital product, MyLackey.com attempted to use the internet as a customer-ordering and dispatch layer for physical errands. The company targeted busy professionals and offered to arrange routine tasks that customers might not have time to complete themselves. The described service categories included car washing, dog-walking, shopping, and dry cleaning. MyLackey.com did not generally perform these tasks with its own employees. It contracted with local businesses, routed customer demand to them, and structured the relationship as an intermediary marketplace. Contractors accepted a lower share of the transaction than they might have received from a direct order, in exchange for incremental business supplied by MyLackey.com. The contractors were also expected to wear company-branded livery while carrying out orders. Customers were charged the standard going rate for the selected service. MyLackey.com kept the difference between the customer payment and the amount paid to the local provider. This model gave the company a potential revenue stream without requiring it to own car washes, employ dog-walkers, operate a dry-cleaning plant, or maintain a conventional retail network. At the same time, it exposed the business to the complexities of coordinating independent providers, preserving service quality, and generating enough order volume in each local market. Seattle was the company’s home market, and Portland, Oregon, was another principal area of focus. The regional approach reflected the practical limits of local fulfillment, even as the broader dot-com environment encouraged companies to describe their ambitions in national or potentially global terms. MyLackey.com received venture backing during its expansion phase. WaldenVC was identified as one of its investors and supplied $6.5 million in second-round funding, as reported in the Wikipedia reference for the company. In June 2000, the company became the subject of a management controversy after an internal memo attributed to Barnicle appeared on FuckedCompany, a website known for publicizing failures and questionable practices among internet startups. The document complained that too few employees were present in the office and included a directive requiring employees to remain at their desks for most of the working day. A company spokesperson disputed the authenticity of that final directive. Regardless of the dispute, the incident illustrated how internal communications could quickly become public during the highly visible dot-com period. MyLackey.com ceased operations on October 20, 2000, after about sixteen months in business. The company reportedly employed 85 people at closure. Its shutdown occurred as the dot-com bubble was breaking, reducing access to capital and undermining many internet companies whose models required continued investment before reaching sustainable scale. MyLackey.com’s history is consequently associated with both an early attempt to build an online local-services marketplace and the rapid failure of many venture-backed consumer internet businesses of the era.

• 2000

  Internal memo becomes public

  [1]MyLackey.comen.wikipedia.org

  A memo attributed to Brendan Barnicle was leaked in June 2000, prompting public discussion of the company’s workplace expectations. The company disputed the authenticity of part of the document.

• 2000

  Operations end

  [1]MyLackey.comen.wikipedia.org

  MyLackey.com closed on October 20, 2000, with a reported workforce of 85 people.

• 1999

  Company founded in Seattle

  [1]MyLackey.comen.wikipedia.org

  Brendan Barnicle and Brian McGarvey founded MyLackey.com in April 1999 after working at eChange.

• 1999

  Second-round venture financing

  [1]MyLackey.comen.wikipedia.org

  WaldenVC was among the investors participating in a second financing round reported at $6.5 million, supporting the company during its expansion period.

An early internet-enabled concierge and local-services intermediary designed to outsource routine errands for busy professionals.

• Concierge and local-services marketplace · 1999

  MyLackey.com errand coordination service

  The company’s core offering arranged everyday errands for busy professionals through contracted local businesses. Service categories included car washing, dog-walking, shopping, and dry cleaning. MyLackey.com handled customer orders and retained the margin between the standard customer charge and the amount paid to the provider, while participating contractors fulfilled the work under the company’s branding.

• 2000

  Leaked workplace-expectations memorandum

  A document attributed to co-founder Brendan Barnicle was leaked to FuckedCompany. It criticized employee attendance and included a strict proposed office schedule. A company spokesperson denied that the schedule-related portion was authentic.

  Source

Read more

• 1999

  Adopted an asset-light local-services intermediary modelStrategy

  Background

  The company sought to serve busy professionals without directly performing every errand or owning the underlying service businesses.

  Action taken

  MyLackey.com contracted with local providers, routed customer orders to them, and retained the difference between customer charges and provider payments.

  Aftermath

  The model supported operations in Seattle and Portland but depended on sufficient local demand and effective coordination of third-party providers.

  Source

• 2000

  MyLackey.com closes after approximately sixteen months[1]MyLackey.comen.wikipedia.org

  Bankruptcy · Other

  The company shut its doors on October 20, 2000, during the broader collapse of the dot-com sector. It reportedly had 85 employees when it ceased operations.

1. 1MyLackey.comen.wikipedia.org