Your Concierge NYC offers membership-based personal concierge services and lifestyle management throughout New York City and the Hamptons. We caught up founder Gail Kresge and director of sales and marketing Robert Altmann to learn more about the company’s background and its services.
What inspired you to start Your Concierge NYC?
Gail: In 2016, I left behind a long career in Mortgage Finance to pursue entrepreneurship and my passion for helping people. During my career I was an executive, wife, and mother who struggled to balance the demands of everyday life. My inspiration was to create a company designed around meeting the needs of busy people. We are known as personal concierge and lifestyle managers because we step in to help those we serve accomplish their personal and professional goals while creatively solving their everyday needs. Our existing client roster tends to be high-net-worth individuals and families and high-profile individuals and families, but our services are open to everybody.
Robert: I merged my event and production company Third Wave Events with Your Concierge NYC about three years ago. I received a call from my older sister Sharon who coincidentally is my partner Gail’s best friend from grade school and a close friend to my whole family for years growing up. She had told me about Gail’s company and how she truly believed we should meet and talk about working together. At the time of the call, I was emceeing a fundraiser at the NBA store in New York City and gave Gail a call to see if we could meet up when I finished the event.
We met and shared both, fond memories and what our vision for a combined business could look like. You could say, she was the Ying to my Yang!
All my strengths and creativity are a perfect fit for the business. I am a people person and really enjoy providing both friends and clients with things that bring joy and happiness. Our clients become our friends and it gives me a continued attitude of gratitude.
Tell us a little about your business and the services you offer.
Gail: We have several monthly clients who have entrusted their needs to us for several years. For these valued folks we have a philosophy that there is no task too big or two small. They can ask us for anything, and we’ll get it done. We greatly value the relationships we’ve created, and we are continually excited to create more. We are experts in private travel and jet charter. We love to curate unique and personally tailored itineraries. We serve as property managers for clients whom either expect to be away from their primary residence for an extended period, have a second home needing supervision, or need a chief of staff to manage their home, affairs and staff. We love to create special events, bringing our creativity and attention to detail to everything from backyard parties to lavish celebrations. We come along side our clients and provide them exactly what they need at exactly the right time.
Tell us a little about your background and what brought you to this point.
Gail: I have a business background, coupled with the experience gained by raising a family. The struggles are real, and I’ve seen many of them. When I decided to leave the business world and pursue my passion as an entrepreneur, while creating the business infrastructure, one of the preparatory steps I took was to attend the British Butler Institute. I wanted to become an expert in the domestic arena. It was a joy to learn and apply many aspects of home management. In the spring of 2019, Rob and I joined forces blending Third Wave Events into Your Concierge NYC, Inc. to create an unstoppable collaboration.
Robert: My background, forte and strengths include being a certified national motivational sales trainer for Sprint, professional voice-over, and public speaker. I have worked closely with several marketing and advertising teams over the years allowing me to showcase my creativity and ability to captivate audiences on a grand scale. Along with being a lifestyle management company we can provide extraordinary events and experiences for people from backyard celebrations to hosting fundraisers that give back to those in need. It’s rewarding and fulfilling to really do what you love and go the extra mile. Something Gail and I both feel deeply committed to.
How have you had to pivot your business due to Covid-19?
Gail: We are so happy to see the world returning to normal and will be more thrilled to see Covid-19 in the rear-view mirror. The nature of our business is one that provides personal service. That said, at a time when the world was shutting down and infection rates rising, we like many others, were forced to look for creative ways to pivot our services. During that time, we offered many of our services virtually, we also collaborated with Broadway experts to provide unique virtual Broadway experiences, we arranged private and safe air travel for clients who needed to travel, and when it was safe to do so, we followed our clients out-of-town to better support them.
What’s next for you and Your Concierge NYC?
Gail: We are growing and expanding our service areas. While we initially followed our clients out-of-town, we have found great reception in both the Hamptons and South Florida. Our current areas of focus are New York City and the Hamptons, with further expansion to South Florida in the future. We are very excited by the new friends and contacts we have made in the Hamptons market and the opportunities are amazing. It’s our pleasure to look for ways to be of value to the community in addition to supporting our clients. This summer we are offering our time to various non-profit groups with events in town, while also participating in events that are grass roots to the community.
To learn more, visit yourconciergenyc.com.
