Since its expansion to the U.S. a year ago, Airtasker’s posted task volume in the U.S. has grown tenfold – a sign that the Australian-based company is on the right track, U.S. CEO Bo Fishback said.

Airtasker acquired Fishback’s Prairie Village-based company Zaarly in 2021, which enabled Airtasker’s foray into the U.S. While Zaarly created an online marketplace connecting homeowners to vetted home service providers, Airtasker’s online services marketplace is broader, which offers bigger revenue opportunities.

“If you can dream it, you can post it,” he said.

expand

Zaarly

In the Kansas City market alone, Airtasker has nearly 2,000 users whose posted tasks have been fulfilled by area residents and small businesses. Local tasks have included scooping up dog poop in the backyard, cleaning the garage, salsa dancing lessons and assembling a basketball goal.

“There’s all kinds of needs where there is not an obvious place to go,” Fishback said.

Airtasker, however, solves that challenge.

“A really cool thing we’ve learned along the way is that the long tail of local services is still a very untapped piece of the economy,” he said.

When Airtasker acquired Zaarly, it started in two markets: Kansas City and Dallas. It has since expanded to Miami and Atlanta and plans to add two to five markets over its coming fiscal year, which starts in July. Airtasker views Kansas City as a test market that can help it avoid “painful mistakes down the road.”

One lesson Airtasker learned is paid search engine ads aren’t the best fit for marketing, because the company fulfills a vast array of odd tasks that are tough to predict. It’s now working with social media influencers, identifying special interest communities and is rolling out a marketing initiative called “Awesome Tasks” to showcase interesting use cases, including some of its own. In Kansas City, for example, Airtasker is on the hunt for an individual to try the best local barbecue restaurants and rate the best burnt ends.

“It’s a marketing expense that starts to let people think how to use the platform in ways they may not have thought of. That just creates all kinds of opportunities,” he said. “We have one that’s currently assigned for someone to make the coolest Kentucky Derby hat. Where else can you go find that?”

Airtasker stands out from other companies, such as Angi (formerly Angie’s List) and TaskRabbit, with its breadth of tasks, he said. Although TaskRabbit previously offered a wide range of services, IKEA’s acquisition of the company shifted the focus to more home-based services, such as furniture assembly, lawn care and handyman work.

“Airtasker is what Craigslist should have grown into if it cared about improving its product and customer service experience,” Fishback said.

Through Airtasker, users can facilitate payments, share their identity and use the platform’s messaging feature instead of email aliases that encounter spam filters, he said.

“This is a marketplace that is fueled by creativity, and that is what makes it an interesting and unique business,” he said.