Behind many of the apps people use every day sit thousands of people answering support tickets and reviewing posts. TaskUs supplies them. Bryce Maddock and Jaspar Weir started it in 2008 by hiring help in the Philippines for small online tasks. By 2021 it worked for some of the biggest names in tech, moderating content, labeling data for AI, and handling customer support. That June it went public.

Outsourcing for the Startups

Maddock and Weir founded TaskUs in 2008 and built it around fast-growing tech clients. The bet was that startups would need large teams for support and trust and safety work, and would pay to rent them. TaskUs ran big offices in the Philippines and later in India and other countries. Its teams answered customer emails, reviewed flagged posts and labeled data for AI models. Blackstone bought a majority stake in 2018.

A Buyout Voted Down

TaskUs priced its IPO at $23 a share in June 2021 and listed on Nasdaq as TASK. The stock later fell as tech clients cut spending. In 2025 Blackstone and the two founders agreed to take TaskUs private. In October 2025 the deal failed to win the required approval from public shareholders, and the merger agreement ended. TaskUs paid a special dividend in 2026 and still trades on Nasdaq.

Cover: The Capture of a Swarm of Bees in a Farmyard, Jan van der Straet. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a swarm of bees (many hands on many tasks).