TaskRabbit CEO Plans Departure

TaskRabbit CEO Stacy Brown-Philpot has announced a plan to step down from the company at the end of August, according to a report by The New York Times.

Brown-Philpot, one of the few Black women heading up a major tech industry, has been in her position since 2016. She oversaw the company’s 2017 acquisition by IKEA.

TaskRabbit works on connecting handymen, movers and other gig workers with customers who want to pay someone else for manual labor.

“We’ve been planning this [departure] for months, and even right now, we’re dealing with a recession, a pandemic and a social justice movement all at the same time,” Brown-Philpot told the Times.

However, she said she had not yet mapped out her next career move. She also serves on the boards of HP, Nordstrom and Black Girls Code.

A spokesperson said Brown-Philpot had overseen TaskRabbit’s transformation to “become a successful global business that is strongly positioned for continued year-over-year growth,” the Times reported, adding that the company had expanded across the U.S., Europe and Canada during her tenure.

Speaking with the Times, Brown-Philpot said the recent civil unrest and protesting in the U.S. had underscored the need for much more progress in the country at large.

“There’s been so much momentum in terms of creating gender equity in tech,” she said, according to the Times. “We have a long way to go with minorities. We have a long way to go with making sure we have more Black people represented in tech.”

Companies like TaskRabbit have been part of a larger movement toward digital gig-economy-related service offerings. IKEA’s acquisition of the company showed the big-label interest in the form.

The interest in this type of commerce comes from the relatively new expectation that companies no longer have to rely on people coming out to shop. Instead, they can use online means to get work done without even leaving the house, which has only been expedited by the pandemic in the last few months.