“Time shouldn’t be a luxury,” says Sapone, who designed Hello Alfred to be affordable, at about $30 to $60 per week, depending on the number of visits. You get your personal Alfred to help keep your Batcave in top form, freeing you to discover your own superpowers-or at least to live your life with more focus, efficiency, and purpose. Inspired by Batman’s trusty tux-clad ally, Hello Alfred is designed to handle a slew of day-to-day necessities, from grocery shopping and dry cleaning to tailoring and pharmacy runs. The start-up operates in Boston and New York City, with plans to expand to San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC. After winning TechCrunch Disrupt 2014, a competition where start-ups compete on stage in front of potential investors, Hello Alfred raised $12.5 million in venture capital. There are more than 100 Alfreds actually, and they all work for Sapone, who is the CEO and cofounder of Hello Alfred, a tech-driven butler business.

“I was working with a bunch of friends,” she says, “and we explored a different idea each day-five days, five ideas.” Stickman was the winner, and he has a name: Alfred. It was spring break and Marcela Sapone (BSBA’08, UNI’08) was brainstorming about possible business ventures.

IN THE BEGINNING, there was “stickman”-a rough idea for an affordable, on-demand butler service sketched out on a piece of scrap paper. “BU TEACHES YOU TO BE SCRAPPY, TO BE A PROBLEM SOLVER, TO FIGURE IT OUT.”

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