![]() You have to write your own playbook while you’re playing the game.Īt the end of 2015, Ikea wanted some in-store installation help, and I thought it would be great to try a partnership in-store. I would gather information but made calls based on my own instincts. I realized I was going to be the only one who could make the call about my business. One of the things that surprised me at first was that if I had a problem, I could go to three different people and get three different kinds of advice. The things that kept me up at night were hiring the right people and not running out of money. At times, I hired too quickly or hired for roles we didn’t need yet. I’d never hired, fired, or managed anyone at IBM. In the early years, one of the things I had to learn was how to build a team. No one wanted to change it, but their second favorite name was TaskRabbit. I hated RunMyErrand, but when we did a survey of our Boston users, they all loved it. We did some brainstorming and whittled down the options to five names. It was taking risks like that that changed the trajectory of the company.Īt the end of 2009, I decided we needed a new name. I thought, “If I could turn that into making him an adviser or investor, it would be worth it.” He ended up introducing me to Ann Miura‑Ko, a cofounding partner of Floodgate, and she led the seed round for TaskRabbit, which totaled $1.8 million. It would cost $700 to turn around and fly back to Palo Alto for a 15-minute time slot with him. You’ve got to invest in your own exercise, sleep, and nutrition, as well as your company’s needs. I ended up in the hospital with stress-induced colitis, and my colon almost burst. TaskRabbit’s last round of funding was the hardest to raise. Best Advice Leah Busque, 39, founder of TaskRabbitĪ founder’s health is really important to the company’s health. I had just returned to Boston one week when I learned that Tim Ferriss, the author of The 4-Hour Workweek, was going to be in Palo Alto the next week. I maxed out my credit cards, so every purchase had to count. On the West Coast, people were more willing to take risks with new entrepreneurs. I’d spend a week in Boston, working on the program, then a week in Palo Alto. I ended up securing $150,000 from two Boston-area angel investors and was invited to join fbFund, a 12-week incubator boot camp in Palo Alto for entrepreneurs. I ended up spending a year working out of Scott’s office for free while I was bootstrapping. I locked myself in my house for 10 weeks to make the beta platform. I had about $27,000 in my IBM pension fund, so in April 2008, I cashed it out and quit my job. We brainstormed once a week, until he asked, “Why don’t you just go code this? Why are you still at IBM?” ![]() One day, I met Scott Griffith, the CEO of Zipcar, who was a friend of a friend. If I met a handyman, I’d ask how much he would charge. I started talking to potential users, asking people what kinds of errands they would outsource and how much they’d pay. I saw the potential of combining emerging mobile and location technologies with the social graph and decided to build a platform for what I called service networking. The domain name was available, so I bought it on the spot. I thought it would be great if I could find someone to help, maybe someone who was at the store that very moment. We were getting ready to go out to dinner one night when we realized we were out of dog food. I was living in Boston with Kevin, and we had a 100-pound yellow Lab. In early 2008, there was no Apple App Store yet. I worked on messaging and collaboration products for about seven years and learned how to create software that was used around the globe on a daily basis.Īs an engineer, I was passionate about technology. I graduated from Sweet Briar College in Virginia in 2001 and worked at a startup that was quickly swallowed by IBM. When it was time to go to college, I majored in computer science and mathematics with a minor in dance. I started a recycling program in our elementary school and set up an office in our basement, where I was the CEO. When I was 8, I asked my dad what was the highest role in a company, and he said, “It’s the CEO.” That’s when I decided what I wanted to be.
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