Peekaboox: the digital assistant for every business

“Let’s help SMEs go digital, streamline their internal processes and reach consumers faster. And all that in a few simple steps, on a single cloud platform.” It sounds like the simplest, most obvious thing in the world, as Alessandro Rinaldi tells it.

And actually all it takes is filling out a short registration form, and a few clicks later, we enter the world of Peekaboox, a cloud space that enables microenterprises (SOHOs - Small Office Home Office) and freelancers to use myriad digital services that are vital to their business. 

An alumnus of the 2014 Executive MBA at SDA Bocconi School of Management and an expat to Dubai, Alessandro has recently come back to Italy, joining his partners Edoardo Crotti and Roberto Cecchia, who are also Executive MBA alums. Together they’re growing Alessandro’s big idea, which has already achieved impressive results in the Emirates. 

In Alessandro’s words: “I’d been in Dubai for a few months when I realized that what was missing on the market was a platform that would enable SOHOs to communicate with their consumers. That was the inspiration for Help4u, a marketplace that brings together a variety of offerings – from the plumber to the painter to the personal trainer to the baby sitter – and gives end users all the information they need to compare offerings and book and pay for services directly online.” 

“And at that point,” recalls Alessandro, “with Edoardo and Roberto we realized that we could do even better, beyond having a window on the marketplace, SOHOs needed more across-the-board support. They needed to digitalize a whole series of activities that were indispensable to streamline and modernize their business.” 

This is the origin story of Peekaboox, a cloud platform that offers integrated, easy-to-use digital services: from creating a website to handling online bookings, from managing staff to electronic invoicing to tracking sales data, from scheduling appointments to organizing sales promotions.  

An initial hurdle was attracting SOHOs to join Help4u and Peekaboox. But in a few years the two services have logged record numbers with growth from 2015 to 2019 of 210% in turnover and 500% in subscribers to the platforms. 

The success in the Emirates convinced the three partners that the time had come to launch the platform in Italy too. “With Covid-19, companies had to face the need to digitalize their businesses as much as possible,” recall Edoardo and Roberto.

“We realize that for SOHOs, which account for the largest portion of the Italian entrepreneurial landscape, this represents a huge effort, both mentally and practically. But in the post-pandemic period, digitalization processes will become even more essential. Companies will need to be good at attracting new customers, who by now are more and more used to digital platforms, and internal processes will have to be streamlined and accelerated.”  

Beyond looking for additional financial backers to shore up marketing investments for the Italian market, the aim for in the next few months is to open a physical location in Milan, to recruit new resources, and to start expanding in the European market. 

“If there’s one thing we’ve learned from the Master at SDA Bocconi, it’s to keep on evolving your business idea, adapting it to the needs of consumers. Only through this process of continually rethinking and discussing opportunities and strategies were we able to come up with a product that’s hugely popular on the market.” 

Peekaboox: the digital assistant for every business