‍From cat grooming and fish-tank cleaning to grandfather clock moving and hole digging, the co-founders of Sydetasker have seen their share of odd job requests.

At the time, it was called College Cleaners and Milligan was just aiming to make some extra cash by cleaning houses. He passed out flyers and as demand started ramping up, he recruited friends to help. They added other services like lawn mowing, snow shoveling and heavy lifting.
As an economics major, Milligan knew the best way to scale the business would be through technology.

After an attempt to work with some computer science students didn't work out, Milligan connected with Zaid Altahat, a computer science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside who previously worked for companies including GE Healthcare and Motorola.
The two met up at a restaurant between Oshkosh and Milwaukee in 2019 and hit it off.

"I know this gig economy is really the next big thing"
Altahat said.
"Colin was on the right track and I felt he has the idea, he has the plan, he has the energy for it. This is key in any startup... It's a matter of building the platform, which is something I'm passionate about."

Sydetasker has more than 2,000 users, including taskers and people who have signed up to request services. Milligan expects to break $100,000 in revenue for the year, he said.
The startup has been focused on product development based on customer feedback. Next, it plans to scale to users all over Wisconsin and the Midwest.
"I want to be a marketplace for people to get anything done securely," Milligan said.
"And to also enable anybody to work on their own and become an independent contractor."