Singapore’s TaskRabbit-Like FlagAHero Pivots and Eyes Expansion

Singapore’s online marketplace for local industry verticals FlagAHero recently launched its beta site. After operating for nearly a year in alpha phase, the beta version sees the startup pivot from originally offering microjobs to users (similar to the US’s TaskRabbit) to focusing on more serious professional jobs like photography. We spoke to CEO Ken Toh to learn more about the startup’s progress.

FlagAHero has made a bit of name for itself. The team won the Top Incubation Award from Ideas Inc Business Challenge last year and got S$100,000 out of it. They also received S$65,000 grant through the Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE) Start-ups Grant and are supported by private angel investors with six digit funding.

FlagAHero’s business model is quite simple: they charge 10 percent of every transaction made on the site. One of the ways the startup makes sure that the buyers and sellers (aka heroes) do their transaction inside the platform is by offering escrow payment service as well as enabling buyers to give a performance review to the heroes for future reference. In its first week of beta launch, FlagAHero has processed S$2,000 worth of transactions.

Ken tells us that they are different compared to the Odesk or Elance which are designed for digital services and for micro services. After the beta launch, FlagAHero is now a marketplace specifically for local professional services like dance instructors and bakers.

Local competition and regional expansion

The FlagAHero team is still looking to expand and accelerate operations in the region. Don’t they think it’s too fast to talk about expansion? Or the time is just right for them to expand quickly? Ken answers:

We feel that Singapore’s market may not have a large enough base that provides the necessary liquidity for a marketplace to prosper. Thus it is important to do the necessary homework fast and start to look regionally even before “the right timing.”

Before considering expansion, there is one particular rival that the team needs to pay attention to at home, and that is TaskAmigo. The startup has gained some good traction including having big companies like Singtel and Redmart posting tasks on the site. Ken shares his thought on that:

As a local tech startup in Singapore, I must say we shouldn’t focus too much about competing with one another for the Singapore market. The correct strategy should be about getting fundamentals correct, and Singapore is a favourable place to do that. Once the fundamentals such as product, team, financial, network, and collaborative partners are in place, we should really focus on the regional/global competition instead.