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In case you missed it last week, check out our appearance on The Today Show.  The angle was supporting folks who are unemployed with a flexible way to make money on the side.  The reporters wanted to know if more Runners are getting involved during this ‘down economy’.  The truth is, that when we launched TaskRabbit in September 2008, it was the very beginning of this recession.  We have never known anything different, and we are happy to provide a flexible options for those in between jobs.

What’s even more interesting is the notion that in any recession or tough economic time is when entrepreneurs are born, and we are empowering our Runners at TaskRabbit to be entrepreneurs - in charge of their own schedules and work environments.  We’ve even got some very exciting functionality queued up on the product side 100% focused on this notion, so stay tuned!

Take super star Runner Briana B, who just opened her own retail shop in San Francisco called Urban Bazaar.  An active member of the Etsy community, Briana, is leveraging her special skills and passion to do something that she loves.  She is one of our top Runners at TaskRabbit, further underscoring how our Runners are entrepreneurs.  Go Briana, and go Rabbits!

We are thrilled to welcome First Round Capital to the TaskRabbit Team.  They’re joining existing all-star investors FLOODGATE Fund (formerly Maples Investments) and Baseline Ventures, who have teamed up before with much success, and we are honored to be supported by this prestigious group of smart and savvy investors.

Invaluable help from Ann Miura-Ko of FLOODGATE and Steve Anderson from Baseline has been crucial to our growth in Boston and recent launch in San Francisco.   With the inclusion of the partners from First Round Capital we are set up to expand even farther, even faster.

Did you see us on The Today Show and Wall Street Journal?  Wow.  We’re still riding the wave of excitement and we’ve been besieged with the same question, “When is TaskRabbit coming to my town?”  From Chicago to Austin, and Orlando to Seattle, we’ve heard from every corner of the U.S., and we also heard from folks all over the world too:  from South Africa to China and Germany to Melbourne.   We hear you and remember, rabbits are really good at multiplying quickly, so stay tuned!

As TaskRabbit’s founder, I am touched knowing that TaskRabbit is resonating with so many people around the world.  I started TaskRabbit a couple years ago in Boston when on a dark and cold night I ran out of dog food and just knew there was someone who would be happy and willing to help me, if I could only just find them.  Now, with TaskRabbit in two cities and planning on expanding to other major cities soon, it seems that not only was my vision spot on, but there are people all over the world who are looking for similar help, and lots of people wanting to help them. Go rabbits, go!

With technological innovations like smartphones now becoming commonplace, multitasking has become the norm. We’re expected to get everything done without thinking twice; not only answering emails/returning phone calls ASAP, keeping an eye on Facebook and the like, but also taking on multiple tasks (personal and professional) at the same time with no concern for how the number of coinciding projects may affect our ability to do them to the best of our abilities.

Multitasking, by its definition, means that our focus is split between tasks when it would be more productive to be honed in on one thing. Trying to get four different important assignments completed by 5:00pm can cause you to become overburdened; instead, put the things you need to get done in order of priority. If you aim to complete your responsibilities in stages, you’re going to improve your productivity, the quality of that work, and most importantly, you’ll save time because you won’t have spend any effort re-familiarizing yourself with a task and rebuilding any momentum you lost while switching back and forth between tasks (here’s a better explanation) Of course, if you’re a parent, multitasking takes on a completely different meaning than it does in the office.

Some multitasking is unavoidable; you’re going to have to check email while you’re doing other work, but there are ways to limit the damage of multitasking through a few helpful tips. If you curb the amount of things you are multitasking at any given time, you’ll find that your work will get done with greater quality and efficiency.

Yes the rumors are true, as Scott Kirsner reported this morning, Kevin and I have decided to move west for the launch of TaskRabbit.com in San Francisco. It was a tough decision to head west, and I’ve appreciated all the support from family and friends as we make this journey. I realize there is some rivalry between the two coasts, especially when we are talking about a certain city, but our reason for moving is simple. TaskRabbit has a somewhat unique model, in that we are hyper-local, we scale city by city. It is only natural at this early stage, as the Founder, I would want to ensure that everything goes perfectly in the second market. So in order to absolutely nail our launch in San Francisco, I want to be out there, learning the landscape, the neighborhoods, and the idiosyncrasies. After this second city, we will have learned enough about scaling of the model to go quickly after that. Our Boston-based operations team will remain in place the Cambridge office to support our East Coast growth. Look for us to bring on more Boston suburbs this summer.

In the 18 months TaskRabbit has been doing tasks for people, we have experienced tremendous growth. The company has expanded from me working alone in my apartment in Charlestown, to five full time employees and an office in Cambridge. We have more than 300 runners completing tasks in the Boston area. And we are continuing to grow. It’s a dream come true.

Both Boston and San Francisco are home to some of the brightest minds in innovation and venture and we will look to both coasts when we seek an additional round of funding to support our growth.

Kevin and I are pretty excited. We’ll be driving across the country, with our 100lb yellow lab Kobe in tow. The timing worked out that my sister is getting married in Nashville, TN this weekend – at 2:30pm on Saturday. We’ve got 24 hours to drive from Boston to Nashville staring Friday afternoon. Of Memorial Day Weekend. One of the busiest driving weekends of the year. And hitting New York City at rush hour. We should be fine, right?! I am a little concerned, but we have to make my sister’s wedding, so that’s what we’ll do.

After Nashville, we plan to get on either I-70 or I-80 to make the trek to San Francisco. Would love any recommendations here.

You can follow our progress on Twitter and I plan to checkin on Gowalla the entire way. Maybe even get a few video blog entries in. Kobe is ecstatic, he loves a good car ride. Hopefully he’ll love the 3,000+ car ride as well!

RTM Kills Your To-Do Lists

Fact: Life is busy.

While innovations like smartphones and laptops have made things more convenient in a number of ways, they have also managed to make our everyday lives more hectic, simply by virtue of the common sentiment that everything is easier to do, and you’re expected to get it all done, so how do you prioritize tasks? (*Must remember, take heartburn meds after eating Buffalo wings…)

Thankfully, someone turned me on to Remember the Milk. (Should have named it “Remember the Heartburn Meds…”)

The premise is simple: it’s a way to keep your tasks, duties, responsibilities, etc., organized and prioritized; a to-do list with some very clever features.

Simply type whatever task you’ve got to remember and RTM will add it to your list in order of priority and due date (you can specify all of these details when creating the task or you can edit them later on). There are folders for work, personal (eat fewer wings), study, and an “inbox” within your account.

In a feature I’m particularly fond of, for creating a due date and time, you can just type “next Thursday at 5pm” and it will appear in the proper place on your list. There’s the traditional RTM website as well as a smartphone App, which of course syncs up with your online account. I could write more about specifics, but you should just check it out yourself.

*Full disclosure, we’re not affiliated with them, but for me personally and for the TaskRabbit Team, it has been incredibly useful for making my life more organized and generally easier (that’s what we’re all about at TaskRabbit; making life easier). One final note, on my Droid phone, a light blinks green when the screen’s off to let me know that I have a text message, email, etc., but for the reminders I get from RTM, it blinks blue. I found this very exciting, maybe too exciting (ask my officemates), but it was just another great feature of a very useful tool.

Thanks Remember the Milk! And away I go to Remember the Tums…

Notice something different about us? No, it’s not our hair! It’s our HARE!

After two years of wonderful service networking, RunMyErrand has undergone a MASSIVE facelift! Out with the old, in with the new!

Welcome to TaskRabbit.

Our sleek new site, spunky new Runners (Rabbits!) and vastly improved functionality are everything you asked for and MORE.

We have improved our already awesome services, making the site easier to use for both Senders and Runners. From AWESOME Runner Rewards Programs to Senders “Favorite Runners” and “Auction Bid” options, your life just got a little easier.

Life is busy, we can help! With over 250 Runners in the Boston area (as far out as Newton!) you’ve got a Runner on call at all times, ready to help with any task!

Need help picking something up from Ikea? Got a pile of laundry? Building a shed? Need help getting to and from the Doctor’s office? Yep. We do that. SIGN UP HERE! We can help with ANYTHING!

Live Smarter! Let us help! The only thing to worry about is what you’ll do with all that new free time.

Exactly 2 years ago today (or 63 million+ seconds for the ruby geeks), the idea for RunMyErrand was born.  You may have heard the story before, but it all started with a dog.  A big yellow one.  His name is Kobe, and 2 years later he is our CIO – “Chief Inspiration Officer”.

It was a cold February evening in 2008, when we were out of dog food for Kobe, and came up with the plan for RunMyErrand.  We were meeting my dear college friends at Masa in the South End – Brie, my roommate from Sweet Briar who I hadn’t seen in years, and Jen another SBC alum.  I remember barely being able to contain my excitement over dinner and margaritas that night as I shared our idea with friends.  They were the first to hear about RunMyErrand, and it was wonderful to have their support from the start.

I was still at IBM at the time, and I would have never guessed that two years later, this is where we would all be.  A company launched, funded, with an amazing team (including advisors), behind us.  My house in Charlestown sold – the one we were going to “settle down in” – with plans for a launch in the San Francisco market imminent.  Not to mention a special dog food delivery partnership that solves the original problem that inspired RME!  Craziness!

Reflecting back, I’m not sure I realized at the time, how fast two year would go, and how much work it would be to get to this point.  I myself have learned a ton in this time, expanding my skill set beyond engineering, and finding a passion for entrepreneurship that I realize was always a part of me.  I have never felt more alive.

I am so grateful to advisers, mentors, and new team members that have supported this company, and a very timely update to our team page was just pushed live yesterday featuring then entire RunMyErrand Crew, including our CIO – Kobe.  A celebratory margarita will be made in the Busque house tonight – here’s to the next 31,556,926 seconds ….

ps – You might be hearing from our CIO in the very near future as a guest blogger.  He’s so vain!

Good day RUNmyERRAND! It’s Steve here wishing everyone a season’s greetings from London, UK where I’m studying for the year. Among other things, I’ve been checking out the entrepreneurship scene here and there’s some pretty cool stuff going on! Here’s four companies to give you a taste of what the Brits have to offer. Who knows, you might even start seeing these names in the States soon:

7digital: When it comes to digital music, the market is dominated by iTunes and Amazon, but 7digital is trying to break their dominance. The company has secured rights to a fairly large library with many of the mainstream hits of its larger rivals as well as some indie artists. However, 7digital is trying to differentiate itself with its online locker feature, which remotely backs up all your music. It also has a pretty strong B2B business going and there are plans to add video and ebooks soon. 7digital is available in the U.S., so check it out!

eCourier: This one has a strong American connection (founded by Dartmouth grads) and may be particularly interesting to RUNmyERRAND fans. Unlike traditional family courier operations, eCourier uses GPS, algorithms, and scale to optimize the effectiveness of its courier network. The company’s main clients are banks, law firms, and other business clients who need to send highly sensitive documents. They hope to become the UPS of same day local deliveries. eCourier is only available in London right now.

DIY KYOTO: DIY KYOTO makes the WATTSON, a cool little device for all those environmentally conscious consumers out there. It plugs right into your electric meter and helps you monitor how much electricity you’re consuming. You can also hook it up to your computer and get additional details about your energy consumption and effect on the environment. The WATTSON is not available in the U.S. yet, but as people become more conscious about the energy they use, don’t be surprised if you see this and other devices in a Brookstones in the near future.

Skimlinks: Calling all bloggers and online retailers out there! Skimlinks provides an innovative way to advertise on the Internet. It places links for products mentioned on a certain website to a retailer that sells it. In exchange, the webmaster earns a commission for every successful conversion. This works great for sites and blogs that review products and services. Skimlinks should be available in the U.S., so this could be a good way for some of you to earn some extra bucks!

Of course, one thing we don’t have here is RUNmyERRAND! With the crazy London weather and traffic, I sometimes wish we did. For those of you in Boston, take full advantage of it!

Have a safe and happy holidays everyone! Cheers!

The word on the street is true, RME closed a $1 million financing from West Coast firms, including Maples Investments and Baseline Ventures.  Team RME is just thrilled.  Both have impressive portfolios including Twitter and Digg, and we are excited to be working with these two firms because of their expertise in the field.

We’ve got a lot of work to do, but it is very exciting to think about all the possibilities and potential that lie ahead.  We will be focused on aggressively scaling the business here in Boston, and plan to open an office in San Francisco in due time.  Many, many, people along the way have helped us get to this point, and especially the current RME community of Senders and Runners have been fantastic supporters.  We are so grateful to have such wonderful users, who want to help this business succeed.  Doing simple things like telling their friends, writing in blogs, wearing their RME t-shirts, or passing around post cards, have all helped … so thank you very much for your support!

As I wrote in my personal blog, I love what @dharmesh had to say about raising another $16 million for Hubspot: “Startups: Closing a funding round is not value creation. It’s the *opportunity* to create value.”

We have an exciting opportunity ahead of us, and we look forward to continuing to pioneer Service Networking!

Thanks to Xconomy and Mass High Tech for the stellar write ups!