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Pioneers & Protagonists

Leah Busque, Founder and CEO of TaskRabbit

TaskRabbit aims to…
connect people and get things done.

The idea came …
while waiting for a cab on a cold night in Boston - my husband, Kevin, and I realized our 100 pound Labrador retriever, Kobe, was out of food and we thought, “wouldn’t it be nice if there was an online place we could go to pay someone from our neighborhood to get Kobe his food.” That was the moment of conception for our baby, TaskRabbit.

I believe it’s the right moment for TaskRabbit because …
connecting neighbors as a community continues resonating as TaskRabbit grows. Even just five years ago the technology didn’t exist to power what TaskRabbit is today: a technologically innovative company connecting a community in real-time via social, location based, and mobile components, which is what we call a “Service Network.”

The easiest way to explain TaskRabbit is …
neighbors helping neighbors. There is always someone out there that needs help and at any give time, there is another person in that community that can help. We make the connections happen.

The biggest misperception about TaskRabbit is…
that it’s for lazy people, which is not the case. TaskRabbit is about smarter living and spending time on the things you’d rather be doing. Would you rather spend time with your kids or do 10 loads of laundry? We ask the question, what is your time really worth, and if you could outsource the little stuff, getting that time back in your day - what is that worth to you?.

The biggest challenge to overcome is …
keeping TaskRabbit top of mind and empowering people to integrate it as a regular resource into their lives. We can help with anything from normal errands, like grocery shopping, to getting connected with someone in your neighborhood that loves to garden. The power and possibilities are endless in a Service Networking Community.

The best TaskRabbit moment so far was…
The day I received this email from a super Rabbit in Boston: “My best story in 3+ months of tasking was helping out a woman whose 20 year old son was receiving chemo and treatment for cancer at MGH. She wanted fresh, healthy food delivered to him from Whole Foods as well as a bunch of herbal and natural remedies and a soft, cozy blanket. She couldn’t make it out from California to take care of him, but asked me to give her a report on him each time I did a task for them- how did he look? (tired) Had he lost his hair (no - still very fuzzy) Was he enjoying the food and other goodies I was bringing him (yes - better than hospital food for sure). We talked almost daily for a week until he was released from the hospital. I felt that the tasks I was doing was vital to this family and that in a way, I had become very close to them in a very short time. It was a great experience. ” - Michele A.

Another example of Collaborative Consumption I admire is …
Airbnb - empowering people to share their personal space! We used Airbnb.com over Christmas and rented a small cabin in the woods of Yosemite National Park. It was a seamless experience and I was really impressed with their platform.

In the future for TaskRabbit …
we believe our idea of Service Networking will resonate around the world. We will see more and more communities empowered to share their free time and special skills with other people in their neighborhoods. TaskRabbit is shifting toward a platform making it easy for people in any community to create their own service network, creating even greater opportunities to leverage the power of communities and fuel the entrepreneurial spirit. It is an exciting time to be building a Service Network!

Archive of Pioneers & Protagonists Interviews

  10 Questions for Benita Matofska, founder of The People Who Share

  10 questions for Marta Nowinska, founder of Swapsity

  10 questions for Ryan Rzepecki, founder of SocialBicycles

  10 questions for Jamie Wong, founder of Vayable

  10 questions for Theo Kitchener, founder of The ShareHood

  10 questions for Kelly Scales, founder of Bid & Borrow

  10 questions for Campbell McKellar, Founder of Loosecubes

  10 questions for Marcio Nigro, founder of Caronetas

  10 questions for Jess Ratcliffe, founder of GaBoom

  10 questions for Philipp Rogge, founder of frents

  10 questions for Tim Hyer, founder of Rentcycle

  10 questions for Barbara Pantuso, founder of Hey, Neighbor!

  Ella T. Gorgla, Founder of I-ELLA

  Cathy Tao, co-founder of Tourboarding

  Mike Karnjanaprakorn, cofounder of Skillshare

  Juha Koponen, Founder of Netcycler

  Michelle Shearer, Founder of MamaBake

  Leah Busque, Founder and CEO of TaskRabbit

  Ron J. Williams, founder of SnapGoods

  Stephen Rapoport, founder of Crashpadder

  Anthony Eskinazi, founder of ParkatmyHouse

  Drummond Gilbert, founder of goCarShare

  David Mahfouda, Founder of Weeels

  Andreas Randow, Founder of StudioShare.org

  Emma Jamvold, Founder of SwapItBaby

  Dave Llorens, CEO of One Block Off The Grid

  Orli Cotel, co-founder of Swap for Good

  Owen Rees-Hayward, Co-founder of Thingloop

  Juliette Anich, Co-founder of The Clothing Exchange

  Keara Schwartz, Founder of Share Some Sugar

  Hans Schoenburg, co-founder of GiftFlow

  Meriel Lenfestey, Co-founder of Ecomodo

  Steve Sammartino, Founder of rentoid.com

  Micki Krimmel, Founder of NeighborGoods

  Shelby Clark, Founder of RelayRides

  James Reinhart, Founder of thredUp

For a complete archive of Pioneers & Protagonists Interviews click HERE.