After raising half a million dollars in seed money and releasing its mobile app, Toronto startup AskforTask is announcing that it will expand to eight US cities later this summer.
The startup calls itself the “Airbnb for tasks,” and said it is changing the way people and businesses get their tasks done, anywhere in the world. Users post a task, with the amount they are willing to pay for the service, while people make offers on tasks they wish to complete – in a safe, organized, transparent platform. The company said it’s perfecting classified websites like Kijiji and Craigslist.
Now it’s ready to expand to Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Seattle, San Francisco and Washington.
Cofounders Muneeb and Nabeel Mushtaq said in a release that in less than two years AskforTask has “acquired over 120,000 active community members, created over $3 million worth of jobs in Canada and helped Canadians save over $15 million.”
“With AskforTask it is an open environment. It is for regular people with some time on their hands that may want to supplement their income,” said Muneeb Mushtaq. “We see people looking for someone to help with a beer run or share in a ride. It’s about people engaging over simple tasks.”
The brothers founded the company after struggling to find a plumber to repair a broken kitchen faucet. They tried several cluttered websites, eventually hiring an unreliable handyman that botched the job. As a result they created their own online reliable marketplace for job posters and job seekers alike.
The company claimed that its move into the US comes at a perfect time, as “the sharing economy is booming and companies like Airbnb and Uber are seeing enormous growth.”
AskforTask also stated it will be “well received in the USA” for both its accessibility and the fact that it takes 15 percent from taskers, rather than the 20 percent that competitors are taking.