When I met Marco Zappacosta, the founder of home services platform Thumbtack, last week, I told him—only half-jokingly—that I single-handedly keep him in business. Like any millennial worth their salt, I dread phone calls. Nor can I DIY, well, anything really.
“We appreciate that,” he chuckled. In fact, it’s a win for his 1,100-employee company, which was valued at $3.2 billion in 2021 and is now profitable, he said. In 2023, Thumbtack had four million active customers, 300,000 active professionals, and made more than $300 million in net revenue, according to Zappacosta.
The 16-year-old company, which connects users with local contractors (think: plumbers, carpenters, HVAC techs), is in its third significant chapter, said Zappacosta, focused on millennials like myself who are increasingly buying homes and willing to trade money for time saved.
The first chapter, in 2008, was a market fit discovery. “You’re sort of in a dark room, feeling for that light switch. You run into the wall, you bump your nose, and then finally, you turn the lights on.” That period lasted about three years, followed by its monetization and scale era. “It was all about growth: more customers and more pros.”
Today, the company is zeroing in on its core millennial customers’ need for personalization and instant gratification.
Though the company is well past its startup days, Zappacosta told me he’s pushed employees to maintain a scrappy mentality as it’s grown because it allows them to toss what doesn’t work and redo experiments more quickly. His priority in the company’s next phase is showing up for employees and creating a fiercely loyal workforce.
“As a leader, how do you motivate employees? How do you build trust? How do you build a team that has cohesion? Those are things that require self-awareness and authenticity from a leader,” he said.
Zappacosta learned those lessons the hard way in 2012 when the company was struggling to raise a seed round.
“I thought it was my job as a leader to put on a brave face, cheerlead, and hide all that scary stuff from the team,” he said. He feared that opening up about his fundraising challenges would serve as a distraction or dampen employees’ spirits.
“I thought it should fall only on the leader, and I should just take it,” he recalled. “But when you hire smart people, they see right through that. They can see that I’m worried, anxious, and maybe not fully myself.”
Zappacosta said this creates dissonance and erodes employee trust because they can tell when leaders aren’t acknowledging company shortfalls. Now, he uses his “fear response” as a guide. If he senses trepidation about disclosing an obstacle, he believes that’s all the more reason for transparency.
“The way employees trust leaders is by believing that they’re real and have a sense of authenticity. That requires a leader to be vulnerable,” said Zappacosta. “You don’t just get to be authentic when it’s easy, fun, high fives, and all good—but also when it’s hard or when it’s boring.”
Ruth Umoh
ruth.umoh@fortune.com
@ruthumohnews
Leadership lessons
More from my interview with Zappacosta.
Here’s what Thumbtack's CEO looks for when hiring for his executive team.
Understand the job's top needs. “What do I want this person to be a superstar at? What's the most important way to have them deliver in this role? Then I hire for that.”
Focus on strengths. “Hire for strength, not lack of weakness. If you look at somebody who you think is good at everything, they're probably really mediocre. I would much rather someone who's a superstar at the thing I need, even if they have holes around that.”
Don't put all eggs in the interview basket. “I trust my interview less, and I trust their body of work over their career more. If you're a good executive, you can fake it in an hour or two. You're just a good talker. But it's hard to fake a career.”
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