2011 has been quite a banner year for us at TaskRabbit…Since January, we have steadily and strategically expanded our service to various cities throughout the country – from SF  to LA and Orange County to NYC to Chicago. In May, we closed our Series A funding led by Shasta Ventures. This summer, we launched our awesome iPhone app. In September, we were honored to be featured on ABC World News with Diane Sawyer as a solution to the economic crisis in this country.  A month later, we hired a stellar CEO, Eric Grosse, to work with Leah as she focuses on the product strategy. Over the year, we have gained significant momentum – tripling our monthly Task volume and increasing our customer base seven fold. Phew, it’s been quite a year!

It is only fitting then that we would round out 2011 with even more exciting news – the closing of a $17.8 m round of financing led by LightSpeed Venture Partners. In addition to TaskRabbit’s existing investors - 500 Startups, Baseline Ventures, First Round Capital, FLOODGATE Fund, Collaborative Fund and Shasta Ventures - other firms, including Allen & Company and The Tornante Company, the investment firm led by Disney’s former CEO, Michael Eisner, have also participated in the round. We are so excited to partner with LightSpeed and our new investors.

So, how can we outpace our success in 2011 in 2012? Well, we are gonna keep up the momentum next year, focusing initially on geographic expansion. We have received thousand and thousands of requests via Twitter, Facebook, email, etc to bring TaskRabbit to cities around the world. In fact, moments after the ABC segment ran back in September, our site was flooded by folks who wanted TaskRabbit in their own neighborhood. We got such incredible demand that our servers went down briefly.

Well, we’ve been listening and are so excited to get going. Our new investment will help us respond to this overwhelming demand and allow us to bring the service to those who have been clamoring for it as a solution to their employment and economic situation and their hectic, crazy lives. So, where are we headed? Seattle, Portland, Austin, Houston, Atlanta, Miami, DC, Denver, Philly (just to name a few)… get ready for some easy living!

To ensure the most positive user experience in all our markets, we will also be focusing on making our product and marketplace even more incredible that it is today – that includes adding some cool new features and capabilities. For example, we will adding features that allow our users to more effectively manage their lives through a seamless Task posting process. We will also be building and enriching features that support the mobile experience across multiple platforms. And, as always, we will continue to refine our best-in-class safety features to ensure our community’s security.

To support our aggressive roll-out and growing community, we will be accelerating our recruitment and hiring. Yeah, that’s right! All you engineers and designers out there, we are looking at you! If you’re looking to work on a product that is revolutionizing the way people collaborate with others in their community, reach out to us.  As we’ve said before, we are bringing the neighborhood back. Now, we want to bring more talented folks on board to help us realize this vision. If you are interested, please send your resume to careers@taskrabbit.com.

It’s been more than 3 years since we launched TaskRabbit. Since then, we have redefined the way people collaborate with folks in their own community to get things done.  With the support of our new and existing investors, we will bring TaskRabbit to additional markets and continue to realize our vision of empowering everyone to live a smarter, more fulfilling life by once again relying on their neighbors.

Here’s to continued success in 2012!

Leah & Eric