Welcoming Mark Poston, our first-ever Chief Commercial Officer.

By: Marco Zappacosta, Thumbtack’s Co-founder & CEO

Mark Poston recently joined Thumbtack as our Chief Commercial Officer, where he’ll lead the company’s sales, revenue operations, support, partnerships, and business development teams. He joins us from Wayfair, where he spent eight years in a variety of GM and functional leadership roles, most recently as Vice President of Sales and Home Services responsible for a diverse team of 1,000. During his tenure, he launched and scaled a number of home-focused businesses, with responsibility for strategy, category management, merchandising, pricing, operations, marketing, and R&D to achieve outsized growth and results. Mark has a proven track record of growing teams and building and launching new initiatives quickly and successfully.

Mark and I caught up at our San Francisco Library to talk about what drew him to Thumbtack and what he’s most excited about as he ramps up.

Marco: What first sparked your interest in joining Thumbtack?

Mark: Right away, I was interested in the business model — a fast-growing marketplace in a massive yet nascent industry. But what really stood out to me were the people and the culture. In early conversations, Marco described the type of company he’s trying to build — which of course sounds wonderful, but you never know if it really proves out in practice. In this case, though, that ethos was validated very quickly in all of my interviews. Everyone’s questions focused on my leadership, communication style, and values — how I handle and deliver feedback, my track record of collaboration, and how I approach relationships with colleagues. I knew that if they were applying that level of rigor to discovering who I am as a person and as a leader, then they’re also doing that for everyone else who comes in the door.

Marco: How would you describe your role and what you’re hoping to accomplish?

Mark: At the highest level, I would say it’s my job to represent the local service businesses on Thumbtack — to make sure that our pros’ perspectives and needs are top of mind and that we are an attractive partner for the world’s best pros. Beyond that, I view myself as a company leader shepherding Thumbtack’s next wave of growth. Essentially, I will work across all dimensions of the company to make sure we are scaling wisely, efficiently, and sustainably.

Marco: What previous experiences do you think you’ll draw from most in this role?

Mark: Well, I’ve always been someone who really likes to do hard things. Whether it’s hiking the Appalachian trail or solving very difficult puzzles, that’s just sort of my mindset. I’m very analytical thanks to my engineering background and I spent a good amount of time consulting, where I got a lot of reps taking complex problems and breaking them down into manageable, solvable steps. And then at Wayfair, I learned a lot about leading large organizations and scaling a company successfully. So I think this is a really nice fit; it pulls together a lot of the different threads in my career.

Marco: You’ve talked about culture and values, is there one Thumbtack value that resonates with you most?

Mark: Say what you mean. Transparency is very important to me. I’m not great at politics and, frankly, not that good at reading between the lines. So I like it when people are direct with me and I like being direct with everyone. I really believe that trust and healthy conflict get you to better outcomes — both from a relationship and a business standpoint — so I also believe in sharing a lot of information and being really transparent up, down, and across the organization.

Marco: On that note, how would you describe your approach to leadership?

Mark: I view my job as acting like a coach or a guide and it’s my role to remove roadblocks, rather than add them. I don’t actually want to be the decision-maker in most cases: I want my teams to come up with recommendations and make smart decisions. I always tell my teams that I’m going to give them a lot of ownership, which I think is what people really want. But of course, with that ownership comes a big responsibility. More than anything, I expect my team to care — a lot.

Marco: How do you think your leadership style will translate to Thumbtack’s virtual-first workplace?

Mark: I’m a pretty strong extrovert. I like talking to and getting to know people. My wife will tell you that the pandemic was pretty tough for me, and I felt really isolated. So I’m thinking a lot about how I will navigate not going into an office every day and not being able to physically swing by someone’s desk to hash something out. I know I will be traveling to San Francisco and Salt Lake City quite a bit, and making lots of trips to see my teams in person. I’m also excited to use the time that I normally spend commuting to get out of the house and exercise. It’s going to be a new experience for me and I’m definitely still in the early stages of experimenting.

Marco: Switching gears: If you were a pro, what would be your specialty?

Mark: Oh, good question! Probably moving furniture. That was my summer job for years, and I really liked it. You see different people’s homes every day, and it’s basically a real-life Tetris game every single day when you’re packing trucks.

Marco: What accomplishments are you most proud of outside of work?

Mark: Hmm, let me think about that. I’ve been married for 11 years, and I’m definitely proud of our relationship. I have a seven-year-old daughter who is the apple of my eye. And I took six months to hike the Appalachian trail by myself when I was 22. It was very, very hard — but very rewarding.

Want to learn more about open roles at Thumbtack? Visit careers.thumbtack.com.

Originally published at https://blog.thumbtack.com on August 22, 2023.