Taskfriend, a new startup founded by Milwaukee-native Kevin Nam, looks to connect people with the sharing economy. The company’s two main objectives are to “make services affordable and give people the ability to work on their own terms.”
Originally started as a school project when Nam was studying economics at the University of Illinois, Taskfriend was inspired by the freelance work Nam was finding on Craigslist.
“As an individual, we don’t have the skills or time to accomplish everything in life,” the website says. “By focusing on our unique skills, we can rely on the members of our community for when we need help.”
The app lets users post jobs they need done, then other members of the online community can take on the task. After each task is completed, the job is ranked on a 1-5 scale. A profile for each user is compiled using ranking data, with the hope that the community will weed out potential bad apples without the need of outside intervention.
Payment can be secured using either a bank account and routing number, or a Venmo account. Unlike Craigslist, your account is linked to your phone, limiting anonymity.
TaskFriend also uses a co-op model where users can earn shares in the company. “By creating a sharing economy, we can take power from the companies and give it back to the people,” their website says.
At launch, there were around $5,000 worth of jobs on the app. They plan on awarding shares of the company to the top 30 users on our platform based on transaction volumes by the end of November.
You can find more information here.
Update (Jan. 29, 2018): Taskfriend has updated their terms and no longer awards equity to users.
