41–50 of 76 posts
Is there a marketplace like this for quick programming tasks?
Strangely enough my biggest concern is how well this will scale. EDIT: I'm not sure why I'm getting down boated. I'm pretty serious. I have no idea the average task duration but assume its an hour then every "exec" can only do about 7-8 a day (assume some non billable time). If they get 10,000 customers and say each need one task every 2 weeks. Thats 5000 tasks and would require a staff of 125 execs. With 125 execs n…
This is the kind of thing which scales pretty well -- there are lots of unemployed/underemployed people in most markets. I think the difference vs. taskrabbit is that it being realtime requires the task-runners/execs to be higher quality and more committed, so it might not work as well in a market with 0% unemployment where everyone has a 9-5 job. I don't think that's a major risk for the next decade or two. They can…
But not for the reason you might be thinking.
So why is it wrong to relate this to TaskRabbit? Because TaskRabbit isn't competitive, yet. They're about the auction format not the on-demand format. Apples and oranges. That's fine, but take stock in their assets: national brand recognition, solid network effects, a built out rep system, resources. It is only a matter of time on _if_ they want to compete.
If I were a TaskRabbit decision maker I would start a skunkworks team to clone, but not launch. Not until Exec does all the work of validating.
So really Exec is more relatable to Cherry.com, an on-demand mobile car washing service started by three valley insiders. I sign up, pay $30, go shopping, and get texted when my car is done being detailed. It's amazing.
And after talking to Cherry's contractors, there's also an amazing feedback system built up to ensure quality. But Cherry is just one vertical so it lacks scale.
That's where Exec could shine, by being the consigliere some of us need to get through modern life. Or while in a bind on the way to Burning Man.
On-demand dial-up services are the future. If you use Grindr, you know what I'm talking about.
I'm blown by how basic the site looks right now. This attitude of launching something which probably doesn't even do much yet is really hard for me to digest. Also, Justin's comment on keeping features to a minimum is interesting. Everyone always talks about it, but few manage to pull it off because you need the right features. Justin, can you comment on how you chose your feature set?
With Exec, I wanted to make something that was super simple and just works. Most of our challenge is actually figuring out how to inform users of what they can get done, because for most people outsourcing their errands is a new behavior to learn.
We haven't created any features that weren't based on iterating to solve a real user problem that was being experienced during our trial. Our minimum viable product really was "minimum" -- everything including the the map / location tracking, iphone app for the Execs, etc came out of that process. The first version of Exec was literally single text area.
We have done a ton of work on the backend to make sure that Execs pick up and do your jobs excellently -- a lot of that is transparent to the user. Lots of thought has gone into making that work well.
If by "basic" you meant the site's design, then I fully admit that. We used Twitter Bootstrap, which is awesome. I'm not a great designer, but hopefully we can bring someone on soon that is excellent :) (Shameless plug, Exec is hiring a designer and senior engineer for our core team. Come help us build the future of work: https://iamexec.com/hiring)
When will we see this in NYC (or other markets)?
Is there a marketplace like this for quick programming tasks?
I'm blown by how basic the site looks right now. This attitude of launching something which probably doesn't even do much yet is really hard for me to digest. Also, Justin's comment on keeping features to a minimum is interesting. Everyone always talks about it, but few manage to pull it off because you need the right features. Justin, can you comment on how you chose your feature set?
One of my biggest problems using marketplaces is the cognitive overhead of figuring out the often complex process how I'm supposed to use the site. With Exec, I wanted to make something that was super simple and just works. Most of our challenge is actually figuring out how to inform users of what they can get done, because for most people outsourcing their errands is a new behavior to learn. We haven't created any f…
I would love to have an Exec for tasks inside my company. The money would be drawn from a company´s bank account. Sort of like internal bounties perhaps. Maybe even complementing salaries, I don´t know. Thoughts?
The beta users for Exec were YC alumni living in SF, and they have great things to say about it.
I was a beta user for Exec. I used the website to order a task ahead of time - delivering a burrito to my boyfriend on Valentine's Day! The coolest part was being able to watch the delivery happen in real-time on my iPhone (super cool). It was an adjustment for me to think of an everyday task that I could outsource. In general, I think that if people can make the mental switch, Exec will be a game changer.