It's time to stop sending the interns to pick up your dry cleaning.
In 2008, after running out of dog food on a winter evening, a lightbulb went off in Leah Busque's head. One of my neighbors is probably at the store right now — wouldn't it be great if I could connect with them online?
See also: 7 TaskRabbit Jobs to Outsource Your Dirty Work
Cut to five years later, and that lightbulb of an idea has evolved into TaskRabbit, the popular online and mobile marketplace that connects the not-enough-hours-in-the-day professional, family or small business with background-checked "TaskRabbits" that receive payment for running errands like grocery shopping, house cleaning — even birthday gift deliveries.
In the five years since TaskRabbit's inception, CEO and founder Leah Busque has built the concept of "redefining what it means to be neighborly" into a successful, international business. TaskRabbit gets a ~20% cut of each task's price, has just under $40 million in funding, and has reported 5x revenues over last year. We caught up with Busque to ask her about the early days of TaskRabbit, some of the challenges and rewards of building and pivoting the business and what's next for the company.
Image: Flickr, taskrabbit
The idea for TaskRabbit came about one night when you ran out of dog food. What were the next steps in launching the idea?
The first thing I did after conceiving the concept for TaskRabbit (and building the first version of the site) was to share the concept with as many people as possible. Many founders are reluctant to share their idea or concept with others because they are concerned that these people will "steal" their idea. I took a very different approach. I realized early that the information I gathered from talking to other entrepreneurs and potential customers and partners was far more valuable than the risk that someone would "steal" my idea.
Sharing my idea helped me gather product feedback, identify issues early on and bring the "right" people into my orbit. For example, as a result of a brief conversation regarding the TaskRabbit concept with an acquaintance, I was introduced to Scott Griffith, the former CEO of Zipcar. Scott helped me take TaskRabbit to the next level. Not only did he give me the confidence to quit my job at IBM by telling me "to take the idea as far as I could," he even incubated the company in Zipcar's Boston office while we got things off the ground.
What were some of the early challenges you faced starting TaskRabbit?
One of the biggest challenges of building any marketplace, but especially those in the peer-to-peer space, is ensuring the community's trust and safety. The safety and security of our community has been our utmost focus and priority since I started the company in 2008. To this end, each and every TaskRabbit goes through an extensive vetting process, including an application and criminal background check , before they can be active on the site.
Additionally, we've built a robust reputation engine to inspire even more trust and transparency. After each task is completed, our TaskRabbits are rated and reviewed by the person who hired them (who we call TaskPosters). These reviews provide customers with insight into what it is like to work with the individual TaskRabbits.
What is that vetting process like on the company's end?
In order for a TaskRabbit to become active on the site, they must be approved by our internal team as well as pass a multiple-layer background check (powered by an organization called Sterling). This is something that we invest heavily in to ensure that TaskPosters are comfortable inviting strangers into their home. That, combined with the vast reputation engine on the site, as well as the self-policing capabilities we have that enable users to flag things they view as inappropriate, create a safe and trusted marketplace for people to get things done.
TaskRabbit has grown quickly. Are there any plans for expansion?
Since September of this year, we have doubled our geographic footprint. We're now live in 19 U.S. cities as well as one international market, London. We receive requests every day from people all over the world desperate to have TaskRabbit come to their city, and we look forward to continuing our geographic expansion.
TaskRabbit works with a couple big brands (Gap and Pepsi) on various promotions. What has been the takeaway from these sorts of partnerships?
Brand partnerships are a key part of our marketing strategy. We've worked with Bravo TV for SXSW 2012, Pepsi Next, Gap for the 2012 holiday season, and more recently, General Electric and Disney/DreamWorks. We've found that brands are eager to work with us to execute on various experiential marketing campaigns. In return, these partnerships have been very effective at raising brand awareness and driving customer acquisition.
What are some of the strangest tasks that have been requested?
The stories that take place on the TaskRabbit platform are one of my favorite parts of building the company, particularly around the holidays. Here are a few of my favorite examples:
A TaskPoster in Boston hired a TaskRabbit to help him prank his coworker by wrapping everything in the coworker's office in cellophane — desk, desk chair, computer, even pens.
A TaskPoster in San Francisco hired a TaskRabbit to dress up as an elf and drive around the city hand-delivering his Christmas gifts to his friends and family.
A TaskPoster in San Francisco hired a TaskRabbit to deliver a birthday/holiday singing telegram to a friend who lived in New York City.
Can you explain a little bit about the advantages of TaskRabbit for Business? How does this platform differ from the original service intended for individuals or families?
Last spring, we found that about a third of our revenue was coming from small businesses. These companies were using TaskRabbit to help with things like office cleaning, IKEA furniture assembly and setup, as well as general administrative duties. We found that often times, these companies simply didn't have the internal resources (i.e., staff and budget) to get the work done. As a result, we built a product experience catered to the specific needs of these businesses: A streamlined user interface and dashboard make it easy for businesses to quickly post, hire multiple TaskRabbits and manage several tasks at once.
What would you say has been the most rewarding experience about building TaskRabbit?
What keeps me going everyday is providing a platform that enables people to do what they love — whether that be a TaskPoster spending time with their child rather than cleaning the house or a TaskRabbit working a task that leverages his unique skill set — and facilitating meaningful offline human connections. I'll share one of my favorite stories from the community to demonstrate what I mean:
About a year after TaskRabbit was founded, a mom in San Francisco had a 20-year-old son who was living in Boston. Unfortunately, he was going through chemotherapy treatment. She couldn't be there to be with him herself, so she posted a task on TaskRabbit, and asked someone to visit her son everyday in the hospital for a week. She wanted the TaskRabbit to bring him a healthy meal and cozy blanket, and sit with him for 30 minutes to see how he was doing, and then call her afterwards, every single day.
The TaskRabbit who picked up the job was another mom in the Boston area who was honored to help this family in a time of need. The bond that was formed between these two moms was incredibly powerful, and proves that the service network we've built goes far beyond just tasks, small jobs and errands .
What's next for TaskRabbit?
We are constantly changing and optimizing the TaskRabbit product to meet our users' needs. Keep an eye out for some exciting changes to our web and mobile product suite in 2014. We're also very excited to release an Android app early in the year.
Have you used TaskRabbit for daily errands or an eccentric task? Tell us in the comments.
Image: iStock, gpointstudio