Dane Harris (20) the Founder of Servo Delivery dropped out of university after first year where he studied in Cape Town to launch Servo. Dane matriculated in 2017 at Clifton college in Durban. Dane launched Servo on the 26th April 2019 at just the age of 19. Dane came up with an idea of helping Laundries and giving them an opportunity to grow with a click of a button. The Laundry Markets contribution to the GDP is 5.9% to give you an understanding of the market size.

Servo is an Application based in South Africa where users may log onto the app and order their laundry to get collected and delivered with their local Servo certified laundry. Dane mentioned that the app is used for both individuals such as households, students, sports moms, pensioners, corporates and commercial customers such as guest houses, Airbnb, factory workers, restaurants, hotels and many more.

We asked Dane a few questions to find out more about Servo and the decisions he has made.

What was your vision with Servo and why did you drop out of University?

“The idea of Servo is ongoing, always growing, always finding was to make the process better. I wanted a business that would support local with the potential to expand global. As a 19-year-old when I launched this business with everything I have gone through with the process of launching and running Servo for the past 2 years from bringing an idea to life has taught me more than I ever would have at Uni. I decided to take a gap year and focus on Servo and give it my all. I see success in Servo when I see its working for people and the laundries we have on board, that’s what makes me happy. Success comes through making a process that works and makes customers happy, both laundries and users.”

What are some of the goals you have accomplished in the first year of running Servo?

Dane mentioned some of the extraordinary milestones Servo has accomplished in a year.

“Servo launched on the 26th of April 2019. From then we have reached some tremendous milestones that I am extremely happy about. We are now covering over 200 000 square meters of coverage space across the 4 major cities across South Africa (Durban, Cape Town, Pretoria, Johannesburg). We have 23 laundries on board who are Servo certified laundries, with those sign ups we have made great contacts in the laundry world with one of SAs biggest Laundry franchises. Lastly Servo has reached over 470 users that continues to grow every day and over 260 laundry baskets washed. In the next month Servo will be launching a high-tech Point of Sales system for all laundries and will be looking at launching in the UK and Dubai soon after. Servo is also looking at creating an API with a SA online logistics company that will connect online drivers to do pick-ups and deliveries for the laundries. Servo is also proud to announce their joint venture with Estate Mate, a community app that allows residences of large estates, complexes, apartment blocks and many more will be able to use Servo as a laundry service with their local laundry.”

However, we asked Dane what some of the difficulties and hard times he has incurred. And here is his reply.

“There have been many ups and downs and times I have felt like giving up. Servo took a very slow start in the beginning where I thought I had made a huge mistake, but I keep believing and keep pushing. You don’t fail by making a mistake, you fail by giving up. Marketing Servo with very limited capital has been very restricting trying to get the business known in the Market, I am however looking for investors who are willing to not only offer capital but knowledge and experience that will help Servos growth. Walking into a laundry a copious amount of times to owners not being there or getting rejected is a big demotivational factor that I went through, but there were times where I would do a conference or have a meeting with SA biggest laundry franchise (Pressed in time) in Johannesburg where they all loved the idea so much to even pitch it at their owners conference and add Servo to their national website, those are the moments that make up for all the hard times.”

With the way technology is changing in today’s world Dane has really seemed to have hit the nail on the head at such a young age. We look forward to seeing the growth and success Servo will have to offer in the years to come.