JoyRun, a start-up company based in California, brings community members in college towns together with food delivery and instant jobs.
After starting in 2015, JoyRun has moved to many college campuses around the country, but the company’s ultimate goal is to expand around the world, according to the website.
Nikkaila Bain, an advertising major at the University of Idaho, is a student leader for JoyRun and has been working as an intern with the company since March.
As part of her duties as a student leader, Bain has been working with local restaurants to get them on board and get their menus as well as promote the app on the UI campus.
“The app right now should have all the menus of pretty much everywhere to eat, including coffee shops,” Bain said.
This service comes in the form of a mobile app and works as a social media platform to notify users of current food runs and requests, Bain said.
Working as a food delivery service, users can join or post their own requests for food from a choice of several restaurants in the area and anyone in the community can pick up the run to deliver that person their food and make some money for themselves.
If there are no run requests, users who want to earn some extra money can notify other users that they are going to a restaurant and other users can ask that person to pick something up for them, Bain said.
When a user orders food, they pay the runner the price of the order plus a delivery fee set by the runner of $0-$5, usually depending on hours. Users also have the option to tip their runner.
Since anyone can be a runner, users can give their runners trophies through the app for being friendly or on time to ensure that the runners are doing their job correctly, Bain said.
There is no application process to becoming a runner, so if a user was already planning to go out for food, they can post the run so anyone can order and the runner can make some money.
The buyer pays for the order, runner fee and tip through the app. When ordering, the runner will pay for the order with their own money, but will be reimbursed the money for the order and paid any extra profit within 24 hours.
Bain said runners make money from the runner fee they set along with any tips they get, and JoyRun will also pay the runner for simply picking up a run.
Each run can also earn runner’s points which can turn into money and other prizes from the company.
Bain said in places where JoyRun is more popular, runners have been making up to $1,000 a month from the app.
While it seems like JoyRun is just giving out money, the company actually earns income through investors and cooperation with the local businesses as well as from taking a small cut from the transactions through the app, Bain said.
“They have a lot of money from investors, $10 million so far,” Bain said. “So they are able to pay their runners the way they do.”
Bain said the app is convenient and useful for users because they can get just about anything delivered to them, and they also have an easy way to earn some extra money.
This app has opened up options for delivery from places that don’t deliver as well as offering a way to skip a line or to not have to leave the library in the middle of a study session for food.
JoyRun delivers more than just food, Bain said, they can deliver anything from groceries to snacks.
For those that don’t have a car, but still want to make some money, there is an option to become an ambassador for the company.
Signing up for the app gives each user a code and giving out the code to new users can earn an ambassador money.
While the app is still taking off in Moscow, Bain has high hopes for the company to succeed here, making it even more beneficial and useful at UI.
JoyRun is available on iOS and Android platforms. More information about the app and how it works can be found at joyrun.com.
Kara Billington can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @K_Billington3