What is it about entrepreneurial success that’s so inspiring? Is it the entrepreneur’s determination, vision, and grit to persevere through tough times? Is it the ingenuity of noticing a market opportunity and acting on it? Maybe it’s the leap of faith into risky territory, betting on an idea against the odds?
Whether you’re an entrepreneur looking for inspiration or someone with the beginnings of an innovative idea, then you can learn a lot from the success story of Leah Busque Solivan, the founder of TaskRabbit– an online & mobile medium or rather marketplace, where people can outsource small jobs or tasks to someone in their respective neighborhoods.
An inspiration to many women around the world, Leah is a woman who started her career just like any other ordinary person does. But when you look at her today, she runs one of the most successful business models of her time and top of that, she has built all that by herself.
Where It All Started
TaskRabbit’s story started in the city of Boston in 2008 during the Great Recession. Late one night in 2008, Leah Busque Solivan ran out of food for her yellow lab, Kobe. Little did she know that would plant the seed for what would eventually become her $50 million company, TaskRabbit.
“When I realized I was out of dog food that night, I immediately thought, ‘There’s got to be a way to use my phone to pinpoint someone at the grocery store and connect with them and have them grab dog food for me, and I’m willing to pay them to do it,”
“And that was the moment where I realized I could get really passionate about this idea. I know that I can build it, and it’s something that I felt could help people all over the world.”
TaskRabbit was initially known as ‘RunMyErrand’ before it transformed into the household name we know and love today. After two years of service, “Runners” became “Taskers” and the company eventually moved its headquarters to San Francisco.
Soon after, the mobile app was launched which allowed its users to post a task with an iPhone and the company’s operations expanded into New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Orange County, California.
Additionally, they included a new tool for their ‘TaskRabbit Business” which allowed their corporate clients to hire temporary workers for a change of 26% commission.
TaskRabbit Challenges
No startup is ever shy off its own share of challenges, and TaskRabbit is no different. One notable challenge resulted from the launch of TaskRabbit Business tool. Leah did choose to shut down her Business Services portal in March 2014, after laying-off almost 20% of her staffing.
By the mid of 2014, her executives noticed the business was declining gradually and there were clear indications of frustration on the part of workers who used the site. To deal with that, the company added another 1.25 million users to its systems and doubled its force of contractors to 25,000.
Leah restructured the whole company and even expanded her marketplace’s operations team. She reorganized the whole business model of TaskRabbit and announced they were rolling out a complete reboot from its original task posting and bidding model to a direct hire only model.
By September 2017, the company was acquired by IKEA which launched a furniture assembly service from TaskRabbit in the US. And today, when you look at them from a broader angle, the company seems to be growing exponentially.
Busque Solivan is now a venture capitalist at Fuel Capital, dedicated to uplifting other industry-disrupting entrepreneurs.
