It’s fair to say we’ve all felt a little overwhelmed this year. “When you add a global pandemic, homeschooling, and working from home to already overloaded schedules, the stress is very real,” says Denverite Megan Trask.

That sense of being overburdened is part of what inspired Trask and her business partner Cody Galloway to create TULA, an on-demand personal assistant service that allows clients to request help with tasks like grocery shopping, buying grandma a Christmas gift, organizing a junk drawer, or meal planning.

“It was what I needed myself,” says Trask, who spent nearly 20 years as an executive in the oil and gas industry before founding the business. “I wanted somebody else to take that to-do list of things that either stressed me out at work because I was trying to cram in personal things during the day or that I was doing at night when I should have been more present with my girls.”

TULA clients can select a monthly package, ranging from four hours of help at $175 a month to eight hours for $300 a month. Then, they add their to-do list to their account on the company’s members-only platform, which launched on December 1, and request assistance.

The business has five assistants, five chefs, a culinary director, a director of all things family, and two wellness contributors. A background check and driving record are reviewed for each potential assistant. “We’re really trying to check all the boxes that allow us to feel comfortable enough with the person that we would have them in our homes,” Trask says.

Trask and Galloway, who is also an event planner for Collaborative Events, have created a list of tasks they know those assistants can help with, including errands like dry cleaning and research and planning for things such as your next trip or what karate class to enroll your kid in. But they are open to hearing about other ways TULA can assist you. “If it’s something that’s not on our list, we’re certainly up for entertaining a way that we can help a client feel relief,” Trask says.

The pair also spent time researching other companies before launching TULA, which means balance in Sanskrit. Most personal assistant companies they found had one person working consistently with a family for a set number of hours each week or month. “That didn’t feel incredibly accessible,” Trask says. “Not a lot of people have room in their budget for another person on staff, if you will.” On the other end of the spectrum were efficiency-focused businesses that sent whoever was available to complete the requested job. That meant there wasn’t an opportunity to form a relationship with the same assistant. They designed TULA so that members can find a way to work with the same assistant on an as-needed basis.

Ultimately, though, Trask and Galloway are hoping TULA helps members find more balance in their lives. “Basically,” Trask says, “you’re just sending somebody your to-do list now.”