How To Throw An Instant Party: With Drizly, Push For Pizza And Handy Mobile Apps, You Won't Have To Leave The House For Supplies

Picture the scene: It’s 8pm. You’re in your apartment. It’s mid-June and rain is pouring down. You hear a shriek from the other room. Your roommate just got offered their dream job! Fantastic! Of course, they want to celebrate now. Too soggy to go bar hopping, and lugging back supplies sounds like an instant mood killer.

Thankfully, the app market has you covered. At last week’s Northside Festival in Brooklyn, New York, three app developers demonstrated their ideas with the potential to revolutionize party planning: a one-hour booze delivery catalog, a 24-hour cleaning service and a big button to order pizza. These apps are growing at an astonishing rate, and if it continues, pretty soon we’ll be wondering why we ever left the house for party supplies.

Drizly

Launched in 17 cities so far, Drizly promises to deliver a wide selection of booze in under an hour. The app is catching on at rapid pace: The company claims a 30 percent month-over-month customer expansion rate. The company works with local retailers to fulfill orders, offers a wide selection of drinks and charges a flat fee of $5 for delivery (free for NYC customers).

Beer, wine, liquor, soda and garnishes. Stock up on what you need, push the order button, sit back and relax. Drizly’s advantage is the ability to cater a party at the drop of a hat: whereas before you would have to depend on booking in a retail delivery, or getting several pairs of helping hands together, you can now stock up the virtual basket, order, and relax.

Push for Pizza

“Gang, gang!” This is Push for Pizza co-founder Max Hellerstein’s rallying cry to his staff, and it shows the fast, straightforward philosophy behind the app. Push the button, select a series of toppings, choose a pizza place, and await a delivery of hot food supplies for your guests. With a 10% week-over-week expansion in user base, Push for Pizza is clearly resonating.

Looking to the future, it’s hard to see how an app solely focused on ordering pizza can thrive. Pizza is good, but an app like Seamless could potentially bulk up its offering and rival Push for Pizza. Nevertheless, the developers have big plans, launching in South Africa, the UK and other European countries by the end of 2016.

Handy

So the food and drink is sorted, but what about the inevitable mess the morning after? Picking out pizza crusts from the recycling, wondering how the floor got sticky…who wants to handle that the morning after a party? No problem. Handy is an app that will allow you to book a cleaner with 24 hours’ notice. A two-hour home cleaning is $19 for the first time, and usually between $50-60 thereafter. Handy also offers a discount for monthly bookings. Available in 30 cities, users can go to the iPhone app, order a cleaning with 24 hours’ notice, and relax as the party gets messy.

“We’re the biggest on demand home service globally,” said Charles Kirby, operations assistant at Handy.

In October, Handy reached $1 million per week in bookings, two years after launch. In March, Handy raised $15 million from a round of investment that included Ashton Kutcher’s new venture fund. Handy now processes over 100,000 transactions per month.

“We have a fully vetted team of cleaners,” Kirby said. “We have a 3% hiring rate for our cleaners.”

Party time

Consumers are taking to these apps at speed. Whether the above scenario will ever take place is up for debate, but the fact remains that these home delivery apps are making an impression and changing the way people use their phones. No longer tied to ordering from a computer, these apps mean that people can order a one-hour booze delivery when walking down the street. Or book a cleaning service waiting in line for a coffee. Or “push for pizza” while in a meeting. It’s a brave new world.