• Home
  • News
  • Fortune 500
  • Tech
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
TechTaskRabbit

TaskRabbit Founder Leah Busque Steps Down As CEO

By
Leena Rao
Leena Rao
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Leena Rao
Leena Rao
Down Arrow Button Icon
April 14, 2016, 2:00 PM ET

TaskRabbit CEO and co-founder Leah Busque is stepping down as chief of the company, set to take on a new role as executive chairman of the startup’s board. TaskRabbit’s chief operating officer Stacy Brown-Philpot will become the company’s new CEO.

Busque founded TaskRabbit with her husband, Kevin, in 2008 to connect consumers with workers, dubbed “taskers,” who would conduct random errands and tasks, such as picking up dry cleaning or hanging a picture.

As the on-demand economy started to take off, TaskRabbit went through a period of huge growth along but also suffered growing pains. In 2011, Busque briefly stepped down and handed the CEO hat to Hotwire co-founder Eric Grosse. A year later, she took back the rains.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

TaskRabbit tried its hand at supplying taskers for enterprises and business clientele as the startup shifted its strategy and aborted the ability to bid for tasks. Eventually, the company also suffered layoffs.

Currently, TaskRabbit is focuses on helping connect consumers with household help. Earlier this year, TaskRabbit unveiled a new service to allow people to access home cleaning services, handyman tasks, and moving help within 90 minutes of a initial request.

The company also is facing competition from delivery companies such as Postmates and even Uber, both of which aim to deliver food and other goods to mobile consumers with the tap of a button. Home services startups like Handy and Thumbtack also provide help in the home. These smaller brands are being joined by tech giants Google and Amazon in establishing similar services for connecting customers with professionals for household maintenance and chores.

But as an on-demand economy veteran, TaskRabbit has tried to streamline its business, and it is forecasting profitability later this year. The company didn’t reveal exact revenue numbers, but TaskRabbit did assert revenue grew 300% in the past year.

After launching expedited services in March, TaskRabbit had its best month yet—in terms of revenue—in its eight-year history.

For more about the on-demand economy, watch:

Expansion for the brand is continuing, especially to new markets outside the United States, said Busque in an interview, emphasizing that is why Brown-Philpot is the best executive for the next phase of TaskRabbit’s growth.

Brown-Philpot, who was named to Fortune‘s 40 Under 40 list in 2015, spent nearly a decade heading global operations for some of Google’s most widely used services, including Search. She also oversaw online sales and operations for Google India. More recently, Brown-Philpot was appointed to the board seat at HP Inc., the printer-and-PC business spun off of Hewlett-Packard last fall.

Brown-Philpot reiterates she’s going to be helping expand TaskRabbit to international markets and focus on advancing mobile efforts. While the company has raised $50 million and is focused on profitability, she notes TaskRabbit will consider new funding as it continues to grow.

Aside from serving as executive chairman, Busque won’t be going far. Although she won’t full-time, Busque is planning to help with TaskRabbit’s business development and strategic goals, including meeting with prospective investors.

“The challenges we are facing today are different than eight years ago,” says Busque. “Now’s right time to put Stacey in a key leadership role.”

About the Author
By Leena Rao
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

Andrew Ross Sorkin and Alex Karp speak onstage during The New York Times DealBook Summit 2025 at Jazz at Lincoln Center on December 03, 2025 in New York City.
C-Suitepalantir
Palantir CEO Alex Karp defends being an ‘arrogant prick’—and says more CEOs should be, too
By Eva RoytburgDecember 4, 2025
15 minutes ago
Apple head of user interface design Alan Dye speaking in a video for the company's 2025 WWDC event. (Courtesy Apple)
NewslettersFortune Tech
Meta poaches Apple interface design chief Alan Dye
By Andrew NuscaDecember 4, 2025
35 minutes ago
InnovationBrainstorm Design
Should form always follow function? Architect Ole Scheeren isn’t sure: ‘We think of buildings as living organisms’
By Christina PantinDecember 4, 2025
5 hours ago
satellite
AIData centers
Google’s plan to put data centers in the sky faces thousands of (little) problems: space junk
By Mojtaba Akhavan-TaftiDecember 3, 2025
15 hours ago
Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Meta Platforms Inc., during the Meta Connect event in Menlo Park, California, US, on Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024.
AIMeta
Inside Silicon Valley’s ‘soup wars’: Why Mark Zuckerberg and OpenAI are hand-delivering soup to poach talent
By Eva RoytburgDecember 3, 2025
15 hours ago
Greg Abbott and Sundar Pichai sit next to each other at a red table.
AITech Bubble
Bank of America predicts an ‘air pocket,’ not an AI bubble, fueled by mountains of debt piling up from the data center rush
By Sasha RogelbergDecember 3, 2025
16 hours ago

Most Popular

placeholder alt text
North America
Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos commit $102.5 million to organizations combating homelessness across the U.S.: ‘This is just the beginning’
By Sydney LakeDecember 2, 2025
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Economy
Ford workers told their CEO 'none of the young people want to work here.' So Jim Farley took a page out of the founder's playbook
By Sasha RogelbergNovember 28, 2025
6 days ago
placeholder alt text
North America
Anonymous $50 million donation helps cover the next 50 years of tuition for medical lab science students at University of Washington
By The Associated PressDecember 2, 2025
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
C-Suite
MacKenzie Scott's $19 billion donations have turned philanthropy on its head—why her style of giving actually works
By Sydney LakeDecember 2, 2025
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Innovation
Google CEO Sundar Pichai says we’re just a decade away from a new normal of extraterrestrial data centers
By Sasha RogelbergDecember 1, 2025
3 days ago
placeholder alt text
Economy
Scott Bessent calls the Giving Pledge well-intentioned but ‘very amorphous,’ growing from ‘a panic among the billionaire class’
By Nick LichtenbergDecember 3, 2025
17 hours ago
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Success
  • Tech
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Environment
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Health
  • Retail
  • Lifestyle
  • Politics
  • Newsletters
  • Magazine
  • Features
  • Commentary
  • Mpw
  • CEO Initiative
  • Conferences
  • Personal Finance
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map

© 2025 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.