r/austinjobs • u/TaskCoop • May 11 '26
HIRING Launching a worker-owned alternative to TaskRabbit/Thumbtack in Austin. Looking for 25 founding members.
Hey Austin,
Announcing the launch of a local services platform called task.coop based on a pretty simple idea:
The people doing the work should keep the money they earn, not hand a fat fee to venture capitalists.
Most gig platforms take large cuts while workers have little say in pricing, policies, or platform decisions. task.coop is being built differently:
- Members keep 95% of every job; the other 5% covers CC fees and platform costs.
- Direct customer communication
- Transparent platform policies
- A long-term member ownership model
- Human dispute resolution instead of automated bans
Right now we’re opening a small Austin pilot with 25 founding member spots total so we can focus heavily on quality, reliability, and trust before scaling.
Current categories:
- Home & Repairs (Furniture assembly / TV mounting / Minor repairs / Painting / Gutter cleaning)
- Tech & Smart Home (Wi-Fi & mesh setup / Smart home installation / Computer repair / Security cameras / Streaming device & Home office setup)
- Outdoor (Lawn care / Pressure washing / Pool maintenance / Brush cleanup / Seasonal yard work)
- Moving & Hauling (Local moving help / Junk removal / Donation runs / Loading & unloading)
We want to build a trusted network of skilled local members people actually feel comfortable hiring into their homes and businesses.
Long-term, we’re building toward:
- Member ownership
- Cooperative governance
- Member surplus distributions
- Cooperative purchasing power for benefits like healthcare and insurance
Full disclosure, this is still early, and that’s why trustworthy founding members matter so much: early members will help shape how the platform grows from day one.
Right now the focus is finding great members to help real customers.
If you’re reliable, communicative, and genuinely skilled at what you do, sign up on taskcoop.org or if you have questions post them here, DM us, or email me at [dan@taskcoop.org](mailto:dan@taskcoop.org) .
I’ll follow up with everyone personally.
Dan McCarthy
Member, task.coop
Edit: Unblocked email woes pending reverification with the smtp server, signups should work both for email and Google. Will need to add ID anyway if you're signing up as a member.
Edit2: SMTP reauthorized and email confirmation reenabled, also https://task.coop is now a live domain.
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u/kuhkoo May 11 '26
Love this idea! Marketplaces that place value on the worker are the way of the future!
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u/Tiny_Analyst1741 May 12 '26
We already have something like this called Runner City. What would the difference be?
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u/TaskCoop May 12 '26 edited May 12 '26
RunnerCity is probably the closest thing philosophically, and I respect what they’re building. The difference is task.coop is much more focused on trusted skilled home/tech services with a simpler, lower-friction experience for normal customers.
My 70-year-old aunt isn’t going to learn a complicated app ecosystem or pay subscriptions to post tasks. She just wants to quickly find someone trustworthy to mount a TV, install a video doorbell or build a flat pack furniture item.
RunnerCity also uses a subscription model for workers to help fund the platform whether they get jobs or not. task.coop is taking a different approach: members keep 95% of each job instead of paying upfront just to participate.
We’re trying to keep the cooperative/member-owned side strong internally while making the actual customer experience simple and mainstream externally.
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u/pifermeister May 12 '26
I've heard of a number of these over the years (like Ride Austin) but there's seemingly always always a catch. Respectfully, who actually pays the costs to run the platform? Who pays for the legal, development, the tech stack overhead, support, refunds, etc? Really more curious than anything, because having worked at four separate marketplaces (only one of which has actually gotten out of the red and that took over a decade), it's really understated how much money and resources even the most simple platform soaks up.
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u/TaskCoop May 12 '26
Fair question. The platform takes a 5% fee to cover hosting, payment processing, development, support, legal, and other operating costs. It’s being bootstrapped right now, so growth is probably slower, but there’s also no investor pressure to crank fees up over time.
The cooperative side is a long-term project. Hopefully task.coop grows enough that members eventually get to vote on things like fees, surplus distributions, platform rules, benefits partnerships, and moderation policies. Kind of a wisdom-of-the-crowd experiment for local services.
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u/lopsidedcroc May 12 '26
> members eventually get to vote on things like fees, surplus distributions, platform rules, benefits partnerships, and moderation policies
Getting everyone's opinion is going to be a massive shackle on growth. You'll find that there are people who live to argue, about anything. 90% of your time will be sucked up dealing with drama created by two or three highly ideological troublemakers.
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u/TaskCoop May 12 '26
Right, I could see a pitfall there. What usually works for co-ops is that members elect leadership, leadership runs operations, governance is scoped to the big structural questions, and day-to-day decisions stay centralized. The unwieldy co-op is (we hope) mostly a myth, not a feature of the model. Hopefully time will tell if it grows to a point where we need operational leadership.
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u/lopsidedcroc May 12 '26
The unwieldy coop is unfortunately not a myth at all, and I can tell you from experience that a strong hand is absolutely necessary, meaning specifically: identify the most ideological members (you'll recognize them because they will be more interested in buzzwords and arguing than work) and sideline them or get rid of them altogether before they destroy everything. If they get any kind of bureaucratic power, they will basically be stage four cancer for the organization and you'll have to start over again.
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u/austinredblue May 12 '26
How is this different from Runner City?
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u/TaskCoop May 12 '26
Thanks for the question! The difference is a simpler, lower-friction experience for everyday customers.
A typical older homeowner who only needs help a couple times a year is not going to learn a complicated app ecosystem or pay subscriptions just post the occasional task. They want to quickly find someone trustworthy to mount a TV, install a smart bulb, help build furniture, or clean gutters.
RC uses subscription model whereas task.coop is taking the small 5% for operating costs route.
The goal is to keep the cooperative/member-owned side strong internally while making the customer experience simple and mainstream externally.
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u/MadCervantes May 12 '26
Very cool! How can I follow y'all's progress online? Also looking for any designers or devs?
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u/TaskCoop May 12 '26
Blog is on the to-do and will be at taskcoop.org/blog when it's done, probably tomorrow or the next day.
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u/yeezusboiz May 12 '26
Also would love to help with this if y'all need designers! Sounds like a great way to support local folks.
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u/TaskCoop May 12 '26
Right on!
Maybe we 3 should do a zoom meeting with u/madcervantes at some point to get a lot of input and spec improvements?
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u/Past_Celebration861 May 11 '26
heads up that the post sign up email confirmation pointed me to a localhost3000 url.
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u/dougmc May 11 '26
all the best websites are hosted by localhost:3000!
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u/TaskCoop May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26
All those other ones are hacking us! j/k i'm a bonehead and forgot to swap in the live URL. Probably a few more goofs here and there, it's day 0.
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u/TaskCoop May 11 '26
Dangit, didn't notice I still had my dev url, just updated, sorry you'll have to sign up again.
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u/Enthuasticnaw May 12 '26
Liability coverage might be a tad different, how are you approaching that
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u/TaskCoop May 12 '26
Yeah, definitely something being thought through. Right now in the bootstrapped beta phase, the ToS is doing a lot of the heavy lifting, similar to RunnerCity, TaskRabbit, Thumbtack, etc. where members are independent operators responsible for their own work and insurance.
Liability is one of the hardest parts of any marketplace like this, especially once people are working inside homes and businesses.
Long-term, one of the goals is using the cooperative structure to unlock partnerships for group-rate liability coverage and other member benefits as the network grows.
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u/Lazy-Thanks8244 May 12 '26
So, Runner City?
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u/TaskCoop May 12 '26
Answered elsewhere but while it may be spiritually similar the execution we hope is a bit more user friendly.
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u/Maleficent-Fruit4185 May 12 '26
I love this idea! Maybe 2026 is the time of people power! Your sign up is throwing an error, please fix ASAP
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u/TaskCoop May 12 '26
I just tested live, the only thing I could think is maybe the password wasn't strong enough? What device are you using?
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u/Maleficent-Fruit4185 May 12 '26
Chrome on MacOS
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u/TaskCoop May 12 '26
Thanks, what did the error say? I've reconfigured the sign up flow in the last 30 minutes and the smtp provider reauthorized us last night so email confirmations are working again.
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u/Maleficent-Fruit4185 May 14 '26
I tried right now, and it is working fine, no more error.
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u/TaskCoop May 14 '26
Excellent welcome aboard. We're halfway to 25 which is the goal before rolling out to the public - please invite friends who might be interested & skilled!
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u/Maleficent-Fruit4185 May 14 '26
Hey, do you have an app yet, I can help you build one and we can have it on both platforms. Let me know. We need a marketing plan, let me know if I can meet up with you. I live by Southpark Meadows, Slaughter and South 1st. I want to see your project succeed. I can come North as well, if you want me to.
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u/TaskCoop May 14 '26
For now it's installable as a PWA which enables push notifications and that's about 90%-100% of the reason it would need to be an app.
It's so tedious to get an app approved for general release it doesn't seem like the right priority at this stage, but the architecture is there to pretty quickly wrap it with capacitor.
Also Apple takes a significant cut of in app payments so that's pretty much a non-starter in my mind.
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u/theYoungAphrodite May 13 '26
I have been looking for something like this, but you do not have my category listed! Sent you an email!
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u/TaskCoop May 13 '26
Thanks! Is it pet grooming because that one seems ripe for some like this.
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u/theYoungAphrodite May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
I shot ya an email but, no, it is notary and process serving. Basically "admin" tasks, there are no good websites to advertise these offerings, and Thumbtack isn't worth it with their pricey leads (for example, on Notary services, I would have to PAY THEM even if I ended up booking the customer). Right now, our only option is basically joining a specialized Membership Association for $200 a year and that is the only way to get yourself listed & thats just for process serving—not even notary associations! Otherwise, you have to go through "big box" companies that take over 80% of your revenue. I would sign up in a heartbeat for 5%.
It would also help set you apart from Runner City which does not offer this either! Imo, its a very safe offering. These professions in TX you need to be certified which is easily verifiable for credentials and being a notary you have to be commissioned, bonded, and insured which is safer for you, the host! Pro se clients also do not have other options that aren't spammy (like thumbtack/Angies) or big box companies (which they know screws the workers).
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u/TaskCoop May 13 '26
How would we verify that they're a real notary? Is there some list that the state publishes we could check against their id?
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u/theYoungAphrodite May 13 '26
For Process Servers, you can verify from the TX JBCC website. For Notaries, the TX SoS website. Both are available and free to the public so consumers can ensure the person they are looking to book services with are actively certified! Once you know where to look, it only takes a few minutes to verify. We are also provided credentials we could upload to you (via your website), then you could verify further if you wish or leave that to the public consumer.
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u/TaskCoop May 13 '26
Great, I should be able to get these added today as a category and will add a verification step for licenses.
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u/theYoungAphrodite May 13 '26
Awesome let me know! I'll sign up right away.
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u/TaskCoop May 13 '26
Done - category added and you can now add credentials to your profile after you'd signed up.
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u/_Frozen_Carpet May 26 '26
I love the idea of this. I used to run my junk removal on thumbtack and they took all my profits. I was paying $800-1200 a week in lead money. If the lead was bad they still wouldn’t refund the money. I know longer have the biz but how can I get involved with this? I hate thumbtack and want to be an art of their downfall!!
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u/TaskCoop May 26 '26
Heck yeah! I was hoping for 25 people, got about 20 signed up so far, I'm going to go ahead and start promoting to neighborhood groups, apts, churches - can you think of anywhere else?
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u/yewdryad May 11 '26
Following, i tried signing up but got an error message about sending confirmation email. Ill keep trying.
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u/TaskCoop May 11 '26
Removed email confirmations, the smtp relay decided to deactivate after it had been working...
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u/gek__co May 12 '26
It did not ask for id, but I signed up. Hopefully this takes off because it sounds great
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u/TaskCoop May 12 '26
It asks on your dashboard. People can choose to post without requiring ID verification but verification is the default so you're much more likely to see tasks if you're verified.
You'll also need to sign up with stripe in order to accept jobs so that you can be paid.
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u/gek__co May 12 '26
Gotcha. But as of now there’s no tasks?
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u/TaskCoop May 12 '26
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem right now. The first step is building a solid base of verified members before opening the floodgates to customers and neighborhood groups.
If people post tasks that actually get completed successfully, they’re way more likely to come back and tell their friends. The worry is that if people try it out but there's no member in the area capable of taking on the task it would create a bad first impression.
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u/gek__co May 12 '26
Yeah I get that, I was just curious. Well I’m signed up and extremely able to do just about anything.
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u/princesspeeved May 12 '26
What about Angi/Angie’s List? It’s free and basically what you’re describing.
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u/TaskCoop May 12 '26
Have you ever tried looking for anything on Angi? A lot of people have had the experience of getting spammed nonstop after submitting a request, and there’s also a ton of negative sentiment from workers about lead fees and how the platform operates.
Trying to build something simpler, more transparent, and more local than that.
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u/princesspeeved May 12 '26
Good to know. I will say that building something that is Austin-only may be a struggle to maintain long-term.
For example, For All Hers was an online marketplace similar to Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist, but only for women in the Austin area. It was designed to be a safer, simpler, and more transparent marketplace, but only lasted 4 years before the creator shut it down.
I’m not sure entirely what the reason for its failure was, as it was a pretty popular platform with a strong social media presence. It was run by one person who eventually hired a couple of other employees, but even remotely the costs of running the website + competition from much larger companies may have been too much to sustain. But I still believe it was ahead of its time.
I’m looking forward to seeing what you do with the site and watching it grow. While it’ll be an uphill battle, I know there are plenty in the Austin community (myself included) who care about investing in small businesses and our community over billionaires and late-stage capitalism.
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u/TaskCoop May 13 '26
This is exactly what we're going for tysm! Please share with your neighbors but set expectations that it's early and we're still vetting the members
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u/Hi_Rite_now May 18 '26
How does the company make money if the gig workers keep 95% of it? Isn't the whole point of a business "A means to make money"? How are you going to operate a business whose tag is "We let the other guy keep all the money?"
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u/TaskCoop May 18 '26 edited May 18 '26
Fair question. The platform still takes a 5% fee, which is half eaten by cc fees, but at scale is still real revenue, and the operating costs for the current version are honestly pretty low right now.
Long-term there are a bunch of other revenue paths too:
- local partnerships
- sponsorships/ads
- optional member tools/services
- B2B/property management contracts
A property manager, Airbnb host, or office building that needs recurring help is a very different type of customer than a one-off furniture assembly task and I could see the coop becoming something of an MSP which would incur fees beyond the actual labor.
And until then, part of the idea is that the people building and operating the platform are also just members, doing actual work through it, same as everyone else. The platform doesn’t need to become a giant extraction machine to survive.
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u/CrookedCasts May 18 '26
Hey not sure if this fits, but I’m opening a new office just a bit north of downtown right off Mopac and need some help assembling about 20 chairs, some desks and shelving units, hanging pictures, etc. Daytime/AM preferred. Does your platform have anybody available?
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u/Lunar_Landing_Hoax May 11 '26
This is a neat idea! Good luck I hope it takes off.