TaskRabbit CEO on future of 'sharing economy'

Leah Busque imagines a workforce where employees are less reliant on traditional jobs and embrace what she calls "micro-entrepreneurship."

Busque's company, TaskRabbit, is among several companies including Uber, Lyft and Airbnb at the forefront, offering opportunities for freelance work and greater flexibility.

The road to cultivating TaskRabbit started with a search for dog food. On a snowy evening in Boston seven years ago, Busque (pronounced BUS-KEY) and her husband were getting ready to go to dinner when they realized they ran out of dog food for their yellow Labrador Retriever.

"That night, the conversation in the house turned into 'wouldn't it be nice if there was just a place online we could go, say we needed dog food, (and) name the price we're willing to pay," says Busque.

Four months later, Busque quit her job as a programmer with IBM to launch the first version of TaskRabbit, an auction-based website where users requested a service and other people, called "taskers," could bid to complete the job.

A lot has changed since that search for dog food in 2008. Busque helms one of the most familiar names in the "sharing economy," which focuses on companies that allow people to share their goods and services with others.

With Airbnb, it's their homes or rooms for rent. For Uber and Lyft, it's as taxi drivers. For DogVacay, it's sharing a space for a pet.

But the San Francisco-based TaskRabbit was one of the earliest to jump aboard the concept of the "sharing economy," well before the arrival of the iPhone and the rise in social networks such as Facebook.

"Technology has really enabled the sharing economy to not only become a major trend, but (also to) continue to grow and be successful," says Busque.

Busque notes 2014 was a year of "rebuilding and refactoring" for TaskRabbit, after undergoing several key changes.

In 2013, the company confirmed a round of layoffs as part of a realignment. Last year, an attempt at creating a version of the service for small business lead to one of TaskRabbit's biggest changes: shifting from auction-based pricing to a model based on hourly rates.

"Everybody hates change," says Busque of the decision, which sparked an early backlash among taskers. "It's tough to put people through change like that, but we knew the model worked. We knew they were going to be successful on the new platform."

Under the new platform -- which launched first in London before expanding to the U.S. -- taskers were receiving 400% more work than before. Busque also says by June, TaskRabbit is expected to double the size of their business based on revenue.

Busque says TaskRabbit initially served people who were unemployed or underemployed, but has now seen a "freelancer economy" emerge where people seek out more workplace flexibility. However, Busque thinks companies need to rethink how they support workers by offering long-term job perks like health benefits.

"If someone wants to be flexible with the way they work, they should also be able to own their benefits and carry them around with them to different jobs they take on," she says. TaskRabbit currently partners with Stride Health to help taskers get health benefits, and is also partnering with telecommunications and transportation companies on worker discounts.

Busque says the company is looking ahead to a broader international expansion, eyeing European and Asian markets. She also sees a growing trend of consumers wanting jobs completed more quickly.

"Up to 60% of jobs are posted for same-day services," she says. "People expect things to happen on demand. I think that trend will continue, and will get faster and better."

Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @brettmolina23