TASKO: A solution solely focusing on connecting small businesses with customers on a digital platform

There are more than 300 million small businesses across the globe, approximately 70 percent of which still struggle to effectively connect with customers over multiple digital channels. This creates a market opportunity worth $15 billion across the globe. Every big company from Facebook, Amazon, Google, and Yelp in the US to Justdial and UrbanClap in India is trying to solve this.

Currently, the models applied across the world largely fall under these three categories.

• Exploitative: Works on a commission (~15-20 percent) with the small businesses for providing online business leads.
• Too cluttered: It’s impossible to search for any business on a social media platform using generic search because of information overflow.
• Expensive: Small businesses need to pay high annual subscription fees to get a fixed number of business leads which may or may not convert into actual business.

Observing this market gap, Animesh Sarkar with his friend Ram Kumar Valakeerthi decided to dive into the deep sea of entrepreneurship.

Together, they founded TASKO in 2016 and are operating their business from Hyderabad. They launched their app in November the same year.

So how can TASKO help if you are a small business owner?

Through TASKO, any small business can:

• Connect instantly to the nearby customer base.
• Showcase their skill and work on a social media like a platform to convince prospective customers.
• Advertise on low-business days to gain more traction.

USP of the product/service

Animesh explains, “Suppose Ram's washing machine has malfunctioned. His first preference is the service centre, but they are asking for a visiting fee of Rs 350. So, Ram starts looking for alternative repair options online. He first goes to business listing sites, tries a few options, but can not trust them to take the washing machine to their workshop. Finally, Ram finds TASKO. As soon as he logs on, he receives a list of service providers within a range of 5km. Here, he can check everyone's profiles, and their workshop pictures, ratings, and reviews from previous customers are also visible. He also observes that on TASKO, almost all the services providers charge just Rs 30-70 as visiting fees. Thus, he goes with TASKO."

Current team size

The team is currently made up of nine members — five in the marketing team and four in technology.

Revenue growth and projection

They have over 200 small businesses added to their platform, and they have so far been successful in connecting them to more than 500 customers. Through a subscription fee and advertisement model, they are targeting $250,000 by the end of 2017. Their monthly user base is growing at 235 percent, MoM. They are growing their small business base by 175 percent every month.

Monetisation strategy

TASKO has three primary revenue channels:

• Monthly subscription fee: They charge a nominal subscription fee to the small businesses every month. This starts after a free subscription period of three months.
• Advertisement package sales: They have an innovative advertisement model. It helps small business advertise directly to the customers at a very cheap cost.
• Data analytics: They intend to monetise the high volume of data generated across the platform.