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A recent college graduate on a scooter, zipping between Manhattan apartments and mounting TVs, probably does not picture himself as a case study in the future of work. But TaskRabbit<\/a>\u2018s CEO, Ania Smith, often thinks about one New York City worker who cleared more than $200,000 <\/strong>in his first year on the platform doing just that. Artificial intelligence can\u2019t mount TVs, after all.<\/p>\n TaskRabbit is an online and mobile marketplace that connects freelance workers (called Taskers) with local consumers to complete everyday household tasks, like moving, cleaning and furniture assembly.\u00a0<\/p>\n Before becoming TaskRabbit\u2019s CEO in 2020, Smith worked at Walmart, Expedia, Uber and Airbnb. The last six years of her career at TaskRabbit have been devoted to optimizing the match between supply and demand of the gig marketplace.\u00a0<\/p>\n The following conversation with Smith has been lightly edited for clarity and concision.\u00a0<\/p>\n Early on, you sold newspaper subscriptions door to door. What did that scrappy job teach you that you still apply as a tech CEO today?<\/strong><\/p>\n Yes, that was many years ago. I was still a child. I not only had to sell the newspapers, but then I had to deliver them. First and foremost, that teaches hard work, commitment, and resilience \u2014 traits that are really important for any leader. It also taught me how to start influencing people, how to sell, and how important that is, and to have empathy for your customer and understand their needs. Those are early lessons you carry through your career.<\/p>\n When did becoming a CEO become a concrete goal rather than a vague aspiration?<\/strong><\/p>\n It was neither, ever. I never thought I could get to the level of CEO \u2014 I just wanted to have an impact. I was focused on being at high\u2011growth companies that were doing new and innovative things and thinking differently than the majority of the industry. That gave me lessons in becoming a better problem solver. I focused on continuing to learn, grow, and have an impact.<\/p>\n What\u2019s an example where you have had an impact?<\/strong><\/p>\n In my current role, our business is now five times the size it was when I started. That means we are providing meaningful income to thousands of Taskers. We completed over 3 million tasks last year, and we\u2019re on track to complete close to 4 million tasks this year. That\u2019s an incredible amount of ways we help our clients solve everyday problems in their homes, while also helping our Taskers earn a meaningful income.<\/p>\n How much do Taskers earn on average?<\/strong><\/p>\n It often depends on the market. Some markets have different average hourly rates. In the U.S., it\u2019s close to $50 per hour, but in markets like New York City, it can be close to $55 per hour.<\/p>\n How many Taskers does TaskRabbit have?<\/strong><\/p>\n We have thousands of taskers globally. Our total population is well over 50,000 today. These are taskers that are billing on our platform, meaning they do some sort of job, have onboarded, or have scheduled a job.<\/p>\n What would you tell people who want to start a side hustle, as an authority in this space?<\/strong><\/p>\n I would say first, sign up. Look on the platform and see the types of jobs that are available and the categories we provide services in. Understand your skill set and think about how to best market yourself. We allow you to add photos and describe your skills. Be prompt in answering when you get job requests, be reliable so you\u2019re there when you say you will be, and set your hourly rate within the right range so people want your services. And then be good and courteous when you show up and do the job well.<\/p>\n How can someone maximize their earnings on TaskRabbit?<\/strong><\/p>\n There are many ways, depending on their skill set and what they want from the platform. They can focus and become great at one category, or expand into multiple categories; they can focus on one geographic area or expand their area. They can decide whether they want to do more jobs at a lower base rate, or fewer jobs at a higher base rate depending on their skills. There are many ways to think about maximizing earnings on our platform.<\/p>\n Do you have an example of a Tasker who found extraordinary success on the platform?<\/strong><\/p>\n There are many. One I often come back to is a Tasker I talked to a couple of years ago. He was a student at NYU who was just graduating and didn\u2019t yet have a full\u2011time job. He had heard of TaskRabbit, figured out how to mount TVs and knew Manhattan really well. Also, he got a mini scooter so he could get around quickly. Sometimes he was able to do two TV mountings an hour, sometimes even three, and he would group jobs close to one another. He made well over $200,000 on the platform, even in his first year. There are many success stories like that.<\/p>\n How is AI changing gig economy jobs?<\/strong><\/p>\n This is a great example of where, still today, in order to mount your TV or clean your house, you need a human, and you need a human with some help. We use technology, including AI, to figure out what type of tasker to put in front of clients so they have the best experience and so taskers have the best experience. But at the end of the day, the actual task is still using someone\u2019s hands and is very human\u2011centric. I see that continuing for many years to come.<\/p>\n AI is already shaping discovery, matching, and support on TaskRabbit. What\u2019s one aspect of AI that surprised you?<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s changing so quickly every day. We started on the customer\u2011service side, which is where everyone else started, but we\u2019ve moved AI into engineering, marketing, and many other functions within TaskRabbit. What surprises me most is how fast it\u2019s changing. You have to stay on top of it to understand how to best leverage new tools and technology so you can automate more and become more efficient.<\/p>\n The more exciting part is how we drive more revenue using AI. We\u2019ve had machine\u2011learning models for years; AI just allows us to become much smarter in figuring out how we can do it. We\u2019re also using large language models to turn unstructured data into structured data that gives us more detail and allows us to make quicker, faster decisions. That\u2019s been really fun.<\/p>\n TaskRabbit sits at the intersection of tech, labor, and home services. What\u2019s the hardest part of running the marketplace?<\/strong><\/p>\n It comes down to having a balance between supply and demand. In our case, that means balancing Taskers and clients. If you don\u2019t get that right, the entire marketplace falls apart.\u00a0<\/p>\n Another important thing about marketplaces is that, at the end of the day, they\u2019re very local. If you look at averages, you might say you have the right number of taskers for the number of clients. But unless you\u2019re looking almost at a zip\u2011code level, you might miss the fact that, for example, in Seattle, you have many clients who want cleaning but not many Taskers providing cleaning services. It\u2019s important to look at it market by market, zip code by zip code.<\/p>\n When you perform that kind of analysis and find that one market lacks the supply of Taskers, what do you do?<\/strong><\/p>\n We always have many options. We have current Taskers and can see whether they can do more jobs, or we can acquire new Taskers. There\u2019s usually a balance between the two. It depends on whether we need Taskers in a certain category, region, price point, or time. Based on that, we try to manage it either by ensuring that current Taskers on the platform can fulfill those jobs or by acquiring new Taskers who can.<\/p>\n What are key traits or skills that you look for when hiring?<\/strong><\/p>\n For me, it\u2019s about having the ability to change your mind\u2014being flexible and being a lifelong learner. It\u2019s about having curiosity and knowing there\u2019s always more to learn.<\/p>\n How do you assess for that?<\/strong><\/p>\n There are different ways. Usually, we have a conversation around a business problem, either a current problem TaskRabbit is facing or a challenge they had with a previous employer.<\/p>\n What are some long-term challenges that TaskRabbit faces?<\/strong><\/p>\n The same challenge everyone faces: how do we continue to accelerate our growth rate? For us, there are many ways to do that \u2014 launching TaskRabbit in new countries, launching new categories, or optimizing our current marketplace.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n A recent college graduate on a scooter, zipping between Manhattan apartments and mounting TVs, probably does not picture himself as a case study in the future of work. But TaskRabbit<\/a>\u2018s CEO, Ania Smith, often thinks about one New York City worker who cleared more than $200,000 <\/strong>in his first year on the platform doing just that. Artificial intelligence can\u2019t mount TVs, after all.<\/p>\n TaskRabbit is an online and mobile marketplace that connects freelance workers (called Taskers) with local consumers to complete everyday household tasks, like moving, cleaning and furniture assembly.\u00a0<\/p>\n Before becoming TaskRabbit\u2019s CEO in 2020, Smith worked at Walmart, Expedia, Uber and Airbnb. The last six years of her career at TaskRabbit have been devoted to optimizing the match between supply and demand of the gig marketplace.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nBecoming a CEO<\/h2>\n
Advice on starting a side hustle<\/h2>\n
AI and the gig economy<\/h2>\n
Running a marketplace<\/h2>\n
Hiring philosophy<\/h2>\n
Long-term challenges<\/h2>\n
Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n
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