Archive for the ‘TaskRabbit Team’ Category

A TaskRabbit Engineer Does Laundry Day: TaskRabbit vs. DIY vs. Wash & Fold

May 16th, 2012

TaskRabbit Product Manager Will T. discovers the secret of laundry day.

Every two weeks for the last year and a half, I’ve hired my favorite TaskRabbit to pick up two loads of laundry from my house, wash, dry, and fold them at her place, then return them to mine. It cost $25 per Task, and I never had to think about laundry.  It was awesome. Regina A. would even remind me when laundry day was coming so I’d never run out of clothes.

Recently, Regina decided to take a short break from Tasking to focus on her new day job with the Oakland A’s. I knew I’d be able to find another amazing TaskRabbit, but was curious about how other methods of laundry would fit into my life. I decided to conduct some tests. Since I don’t have a machine in the old San Francisco Victorian I live in, I headed to my sister’s place. The laundering part went smoothly, but it took forever. I felt tethered to her place for several hours waiting for everything to finish; really annoying.

During the next laundry cycle, I thought I’d try a wash & fold service closer to my home. At 99 cents per pound, it ended up costing me $23, cheaper than Regina. The problem? I had to load the laundry into the car, drive six blocks, feed the meter, and run in — twice.  The whole process took several days, and it was really frustrating.

I was ready to post a Task.

I decided to post a Recurring Task, hoping to find a new Regina. I also knew that Recurring Tasks made it really easy to switch TaskRabbits in the future (just a button click) if I wanted. In my Task description, I specified that I’d like the TaskRabbit to have their own machine and supplies so I wouldn’t have to deal with reimbursements. (Note to TaskRabbits out there: it’s perfectly fine to include all these costs in your bid if you prefer to use a laundromat.)

Almost immediately after posting my Task I had two bids. One TaskRabbit said he had new machines and used eco-friendly detergent. Sweet! And at $31, totally worth the $8 difference to not have to haul my stuff around in a car twice. My little laundry experiment made me realize that, for me, outsourcing this Task is about the freedom. If I had machines in my own house, I would still hire a TaskRabbit to help me out with laundry. — Will Tungpagasit

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Posted in: Task Inspiration, TaskRabbit Team | 1 Comment »

The Evolution of Online Trust

May 11th, 2012

The only question we should have about trust should be: "How can my business inspire more of it?"

Cultivating a trusted marketplace is something we take pretty seriously at TaskRabbit, so much so that Leah decided to tackle this very topic in her latest Huffington Post column, “The Evolution of Online Trust.” She shares a bit about the efforts we make to build transparency and authenticity into the experiences of both TaskPosters and TaskRabbits, and also turns an eye toward the future by pondering what happens when online companies work together to make social reputation a currency. Here’s a sneak peak:

Trust is the mechanism that inspires people to expect good things from other people and products. Expecting good things isn’t just what keeps us coming back to brands we love, it’s what leads us to try new products and services in the first place. As an entrepreneur, it seems clear that this simple reality should fuel every decision about how to build a product, grow a community, and structure a business model. It’s foundational. We shouldn’t be asking ourselves if trust matters or how much, those things are self-evident. The only question we should have about trust should be: “How can my business inspire more of it?”

We hope you enjoy this read as much as we did. What do you think the future holds for trust in the online space?

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Posted in: TaskRabbit Team | No Comments »

Task of the Week: Show My Mom Some Love

May 8th, 2012

You know who’s awesome? Your mom. Moms are superheroes that shape our lives, nurture our dreams, and make possible all that we accomplish. Yet when it comes to Mother’s Day, many of us still rely on generic greeting cards or overpriced, impersonal flower deliveries to say “Thank you.” As we traded stories about the amazing moms in our lives around TaskRabbit HQ today, we realized the solution to dishing out an amazing Mother’s Day has been right under our noses this whole time: Why not hire TaskRabbits? Not only can TaskRabbits pick out local flowers for your mom (at a way cheaper price than ordering online), they can help you make this Mother’s Day the most memorable one yet by building a totally unique and personal experience. Here’s what some of us on the TaskRabbit team plan to hire TaskRabbits for this Mother’s Day:

“It’s hard living nearly 3000 miles away from your family (I live in SF and my family lives right outside NYC), particularly around holidays. As much as I want to celebrate with my incredible mom, a face-to-face Mother’s Day is often impossible. This year, I decided to use a TaskRabbit to deliver candy from her favorite New York chocolate shop right to her door, and to pick out some lovely flowers from a local shop. The prices online kill me and I love supporting a florist in my mom’s neighborhood.” — Jamie

“I love my mom very much, and appreciate everything she has done for me; her efforts have molded me into the man I am today. Even though every day should be ‘Mother’s Day,’ I certainly want to acknowledge my Mother on this dedicated day. To make it extra special, I hired a TaskRabbit to hand-deliver beautiful flowers from a nearby farmers’ market. It’s the next best thing to having me show up at her door!” — Kevin 

“Since my mom is traveling the weekend of Mother’s Day and won’t be in town to celebrate, I’d love to use TaskRabbit to help me create a special day for her when she gets back. I’d hire a TaskRabbit to bring her flowers, pick her up, and take her to get a mani/pedi the Friday or Thursday after Mother’s Day. After my mom’s been pampered for the afternoon, the TaskRabbit could drop her back at work.” — Erika

“My mother is a busy woman, so the odds of me successfully giving her a surprise visit are pretty close to none. She’s also not one for extravagant gifts and surprises — we usually have to force her to attend her own birthday parties! I want to get her something simple but unique, so I’m going to have a TaskRabbit pick up her favorite cupcakes and deliver them (with flowers, of course) to her this Mother’s Day!” — Ian

“My mom has a lot on her plate, and it’s hard to convince her to take a day off while the work piles up. So for this upcoming Mother’s Day I plan on using TaskRabbit to give her a break. On a daily basis, Mama O’Neil cooks, cleans, grocery shops, and runs errands. Normally I would give her one coupon good for me to take care of these things, but this year I’m hiring a TaskRabbit to handle them for me, so my mom and I can spend the day together!” — Mary 

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Posted in: Task Inspiration, TaskRabbit Team | No Comments »

Cinco de Mayo at TaskRabbit HQ

May 4th, 2012

Who will win that bottle of tequila?

To celebrate Cinco de Mayo, we scarfed down burritos from The Little Chihuahua while our product team regaled us with ukulele music and feature updates.

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The TaskRabbit Credo

April 20th, 2012

Our mission is to connect busy people with entrepreneurs who can help them get things done. In the process, we’re bringing back that old time neighborhood spirit. In celebration of these incredible entrepreneurs who are the heroes of the TaskRabbit community, we’re thrilled to introduce the TaskRabbit Credo. This statement is a living document that reflects the spirit and mission of what it is to be a TaskRabbit.

The TaskRabbit Credo

We’re entrepreneurs. We decide when we want to work and how much we want to bid for each Task.

We master every single Task because we love to make TaskPosters say “wow.” If things go wrong, we make them right.

We’re awesome communicators because being that way makes every Task better. We know how to listen and ask the right questions, and TaskPosters love us for it.

We think creatively to solve little problems before they become big problems.

We’re trustworthy, not just because we’ve been vetted through formal channels, but because we’re dedicated professionals on a mission.

We’re part of the movement working toward building a more collaborative economy.

We’re friendly neighbors, and we’re working hard to bring back that neighborhood spirit to our communities.

We have the right to safe Tasking environments, respectful interactions with TaskPosters, and support from TaskRabbit Member Services.

There are thousands of stories in the TaskRabbit community and we’re the heroes of them all.

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Posted in: Community + Neighborhoods, Micro-Entrepreneurship, TaskRabbit News, TaskRabbit Team | 2 Comments »

Introducing TaskRabbit Ambassador Erika Murdock Balbuena

April 12th, 2012

Bringing back that old time neighborhood spirit is easy when there are good neighbors involved. We’re lucky to have a whole army of them in the form of friendly, talented, and entrepreneurial TaskRabbits. Every day, TaskRabbits in cities around the country put smiles on faces, scratch errands off To-Do lists, and save the day for busy people right in their own communities.

Supporting TaskRabbits in every way possible is a top priority for us, which is why we’re thrilled to welcome Erika Murdock Balbuena to the team as our new TaskRabbit Ambassador. Say hi, Erika:

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Posted in: Micro-Entrepreneurship, TaskRabbit Team | 9 Comments »

How the Sharing Economy is Helping Small Businesses Thrive

April 11th, 2012

Collaborative consumption companies help small businesses set up shop.

Businesses within the sharing economy help busy people live more efficiently while supporting micro-entrepreneurs. But did you know they can also help small business owners set up shop, struggle through the lean times, scale their companies, and even improve their product offerings? Leah’s latest column in The Huffington Post is about just that. Here’s a look:

When a person decides to open up a brick-and-mortar business, push “go” on a startup concept, or venture in any other way into full-fledged business ownership, a lot of questions pop up. Questions about money, product viability, staffing, working space, equipment costs, and about whether their company will be welcomed into the market. One question in particular overshadows the excitement of having a great business idea: Is it worth the risk?

I’ve witnessed case study after case study of the sharing economy taking this risk off the table for small business founders, and let me tell you: I’m inspired. There used to be only a few inconvenient answers to the question, “How will I finance this?” A founder could get a small business loan from a bank, something that’s now so rare it’s akin to stumbling upon a unicorn at your local Starbucks. She might be lucky enough to find a willing investor or beg a personal loan from friends and family, but these options aren’t available to everyone, particularly on the heels of a recession. She could finance it herself, cash in a 401(k) plan or drain a savings account, but in this economy she may have already used any spare funds to make ends meet. Alternately, if this fledgeling founder is hip to the collaborative consumption movement, she could activate her existing idle resources to generate some startup funds and pare down or offset her living expenses during those first lean years. That’s exactly what Jamie Wong of Vayable did. Jamie boot-strapped her collaborative consumption business by renting her spare room out on Airbnb and participating in car sharing programs to save money. Now that’s walking the walk. Read the entire column here.

If you own a business, dream of starting one, or simply want to know how lean companies from cupcake shops to gaming startups are leveraging the sharing economy, this one’s worth the read.

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Posted in: Collaborative Consumption, Micro-Entrepreneurship, TaskRabbit Team | No Comments »

When TaskRabbit and Skillshare Meet…

March 29th, 2012

Last night at The Hub in San Francisco, our marketing maven Jamie V. handed out some lessons to a sold-out Skillshare class. The topic? How to be a lean, mean marketing machine. Entrepreneurs, marketing and PR pros, and representatives from other collaborative consumption companies all showed up to see how we do it at TaskRabbit.

Jamie’s core message was simple: “Give your customers amazing experiences, that’s what’s going to drive your business.” She spoke about the power our community members have in the development of TaskRabbit — pointing out that customer feedback is the most important element to making us better and better each day. At TaskRabbit, we test everything to see what works best for the TaskPosters and the TaskRabbits at the individual level. We also closely monitor community feedback on Twitter and Facebook to continuously improve the user experience.

Jamie also talked about the importance of knowing and believing in your mission. Our mission at TaskRabbit is to bring back the neighborhood by providing a marketplace for micro-entrepreneurs to help their busy neighbors get things done. Since the audience was hoping for inside tips, Jamie told them what our secret marketing weapon is: Leah. As a startup, we’re lucky to have a brilliant, personable, and engaging founder who evangelizes the TaskRabbit mission to our community and the broader public.

Not only did Jamie’s talk help a talented group of Skillshare students expand their knowledge, the event itself demonstrated some of TaskRabbit’s core values: Helping entrepreneurs thrive, sharing ideas within a collaborative working environment at The Hub, and participating in Skillshare’s peer-to-peer skill exchange marketplace.

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Posted in: Collaborative Consumption, Micro-Entrepreneurship, TaskRabbit Team | No Comments »

The New Model of Work: Why Independent Employment Is Killing the Nine to Five Job

March 28th, 2012

Punching the clock is swiftly becoming a thing of the past.

We’re thrilled to report that Leah’s very first column for The Huffington Post’s Small Business section was published this morning. It’s only been live for a few hours and has already trended to the front page. And no wonder, Leah discusses a very cool and exciting vision for the future of work: no more 9-to-5 jobs. Here’s a quick teaser:

The term “nine-to-five” has long symbolized a kind of drudgery that sucks up our lives and eclipses our identities, but it wasn’t until the Great Recession that the pejorative phrase was crowned with an entirely new distinction: old-fashioned. Even as the jobless rate continues its slow decline, the still-anemic U.S. employment market is prompting more and more people to do the math: There are 12.8 million workers looking for jobs – that means multiple candidates for every open position. Summation? The paths of least friction and risk are increasingly leading away from traditional employment. Read the entire column here.

This installment is the first of many: Leah’s column is dedicated to topics like collaborative consumption, peer-to-peer marketplaces, micro-entrepreneurship, redefining the neighborhood, and living a more efficient and productive life. Basically, all the awesome stuff that TaskRabbit helps make possible as a pioneer in service networking.

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Posted in: Collaborative Consumption, Micro-Entrepreneurship, Productivity + Life Efficiency, TaskRabbit Team | No Comments »

TaskRabbits Head to The Hunger Games

March 26th, 2012

Leah, after Emmanuel L. handed off our spot at the front of the line.

Many of us here at TaskRabbit HQ are more than a little obsessed with Suzanne Collins’ trilogy, so we geekily snapped up tickets for opening night of The Hunger Games. Inspired by the smarty-pants TaskPosters who managed to snag third-generation iPads without waiting in line, Leah posted a Task for someone to show up early to the theater and hold a spot for 20 of us. It worked like a charm. Level 22 TaskRabbit Emmanuel L. showed up early to San Francisco’s Century Centre with this awesome handmade sign and scored us a place at the very front of the line.

TaskRabbit Emmanuel L. made this awesome sign.

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Posted in: TaskRabbit Team | No Comments »

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