The Summer Internship Program is sponsored by Karp Associates.
Mills Legge, a 2024 New Canaan High School graduate, has launched a website that connects local families with college students home for the summer for help with myriad odd jobs such as yard work, dog walking, moving and party help.
We Have a Guy went live in late May.
A Villanova University rising junior, Legge said the idea for the business came from watching posts pile up on a New Canaan babysitter swap Facebook group.
“People miss posts and all sorts of things like that,” Legge said. “I knew my parents were always looking for help with odd jobs, and I knew it was the same with a lot of family friends around town. Everyone kind of always needs someone to come and help.”
He said he knew a number of college students who were also home for the summer, so he decided to put everything in one place. About 15 college students and more than 30 parents have signed up so far, and Legge said jobs have been getting filled steadily.
The site works like an online marketplace. Parents create an account with just their name, email and phone number, then post whatever job they need done. College students sign up with their school email address, their college and their graduation year, and can add a short note about themselves, before the We Have A Guy team can individually approve each application.
“Before we accept anybody, we verify that they’re from the area and that they’re a college student,” Legge said. Once approved, students can browse open jobs and apply. Parents get an email every time someone applies to their posting, and choose who they’d like to hire when there’s more than one applicant. From there, the two sides connect directly by text or email and sort out payment on their own, usually through apps like Venmo or Cash App.
“We Have a Guy doesn’t take a cut,” Legge said, and signing up is free.
There has been a lot of moving—he and a friend recently helped haul a large blue stone slab out of someone’s yard, and another job involved moving a dining set from Wilton to New Canaan—along with yard work, weeding, patio cleaning, dog walking, dog sitting and babysitting help.
“It can really be anything that a college student can help with,” he said. “It’s a very open-ended thing.”
The feedback from families has been strong, Legge said, pointing to positive ratings already posted on the company’s Facebook page and website.
He believes part of what has resonated with families is that everything now lives in one place rather than scattered across individual texts.
“As it is right now, you have to text someone individually, and if they can’t do it, you text someone else, and so on,” Legge said. “When you post a job, everyone who’s signed up gets an email right away, so everyone can see if something’s available. I think that’s the best part about it, the thing that differentiates it from everything else.”
Demand is high, and Legge said he’s seeking more student sign-ups. Looking ahead, Legge said he wants to open it up to New Canaan High School students so it can run year-round instead of just through the summer.
Asked what he’d most want New Canaan families to know, Legge pointed out the site’s simplicity.
“I put in a lot of effort to make it really easy for people, especially for parents,” he said. “All they have to do is go on there, put in their name, their email and their number, and they can post whatever they want. And for students, we don’t take a cut of anything, so it’s totally free to them. It’s easily accessible.”
To sign up or post a job, visit We Have a Guy’s website.
Love. This. Idea. Great work, Mills!