Featured Startup Pitch: AirRun—A unique hyperlocal job marketplace for short-term tasks

Company: AirRun
Website: www.airrun.com
Headquarters: Chicago
Year Founded: 2010
Founder: Rob Matthews
Investors: Privately-Funded
Employees: 6
Company Description (in 140 characters or less):
"AirRun is the first of a new generation of social media applications that enable hyperlocal peer-to-peer (P2P) commerce."

By Rob Matthews, Founder and CEO

Product Overview

AirRun is a free app available for the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and eventually Android devices. We connect two groups of people—those who are looking for a product or service (seekers) and those willing to perform the task (runners)—in a geography-based marketplace.

Whether it’s a college student without a car craving a late-night snack or a small business that needs a package delivered on a deadline, seekers post a job to AirRun’s marketplace, which uses Google Maps to geo-locate the individual. Runners can browse the marketplace and find the jobs most convenient for them. After claiming the job, the runner performs the task and receives an agreed-upon payment from the seeker.

Founder’s Story

I originally had the idea for AirRun as a student at Miami University in 2008. The professor in my iPhone development course had us design a business plan for an iPhone app. My project was my idea for AirRun, but it was when I wanted to order food from a local restaurant that didn’t deliver that I came up with the idea of developing a community of users that help each other get things done.

Marketing/Promotion Strategy

As a tech startup, it’s extremely important to take a multifaceted marketing approach. We currently don’t have any outside funding, so we are trying to do our best get the word out there in as creative a fashion as possible on a modest budget.

We’re getting the word out about AirRun through different media outlets that target our key demographics, and of course social media plays a big role. We’re also evaluating our options when it comes to advertising.

Differentiation

AirRun is the only global service of its kind. It’s also the most social; the users you connect with have names, photos and user reviews. We think this is extremely important in the world of hyperlocal commerce. But we don’t require users to share sensitive information, like their phone number.

Business Model

AirRun is and will remain entirely free to download, but we are looking into the best payment structure to grow the company. We won’t be asking runners to forfeit any of their earnings, though; they’re out there to make money.

Current Needs

We’re currently looking for sources of outside funding. As the app evolves and the userbase grows, we think we’ll provide a great opportunity for investors.

AirRun – www.airrun.com