Marco Zappacosta
{{Short description|American entrepreneur}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Marco Zappacosta
| birth_date = 1985
| birth_place = Stanford, California
| nationality =
| alma_mater = Columbia University (BA)
| occupation = Businessman
| known for = Co-founder and CEO of Thumbtack (website)
| father = Pierluigi Zappacosta
}}
Marco Zappacosta (born 1985){{Cite web|title=Thumbtack's Founder Was Born Into Family of Tech Entrepreneurs|url=https://fortune.com/2016/01/28/thumbtack-logitech-zappacosta/|access-date=2021-08-21|website=Fortune|language=en}} is an American businessman. He co-founded Thumbtack and serves as the company's CEO.{{Cite web|last=Smiley|first=Lauren|date=2018-02-19|title=How Thumbtack Creates Work By Giving The Yellow Pages An AI Twist|url=https://www.fastcompany.com/40525504/thumbtack-for-giving-the-yellow-pages-an-ai-twist|access-date=2021-08-21|website=Fast Company|language=en-US}}
Biography
Zappacosta was born in Stanford, California in 1985 and grew up in Atherton, California.{{Cite web|title=Marco Zappacosta|url=https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/c/san-francisco-business-times-40-under-40-2018/3096/marco-zappacosta.html|access-date=2021-08-21|website=San Francisco Business Times}} His father is Pierluigi Zappacosta, an Italian businessman and electrical engineer who emigrated to the United States in the 1970s and co-founded the Swiss computer hardware manufacturer and software maker Logitech. He is bilingual and speaks Italian.{{Cite web|date=2016-03-18|title=Marco Zappacosta, il Billion dollar boy che ha fondato il "Tinder per lavoratori"|url=https://www.repubblica.it/rubriche/startup-stories/2016/03/18/news/thumbtack_startup_di_zappacosta_tinder_del_lavoro-135759076/|access-date=2021-08-21|website=la Repubblica|language=it}} He attended the nearby Saint Joseph’s School or SJS through 1999, a feeder elementary school and associate to the historic Preparatory Sacred Heart Schools, Atherton, 1999-2003.{{cn|date=December 2024}}
Zappacosta attended Columbia University, graduating in 2007 with a bachelor's degree in political science.{{Cite web|title=AitN: March 12, 2018|url=https://www.college.columbia.edu/cct/latest/alumni-news/aitn-march-12-2018|access-date=August 21, 2021|website=Columbia College Today}}{{Cite web|title=Meet Marco Zappacosta, one of Fast Company's Most Creative People|url=https://www.fastcompany.com/person/marco-zappacosta|access-date=2021-08-21|website=Fast Company|language=en-US}} During college, Zappacosta was the director of Students for Saving Social Security (S4) in Washington, D.C., a group representing the student voice in the Social Security debate, with more than 10,000 student members in over 300 campus chapters nationwide.{{Cite web|title=Home - Students for Saving Social Security|url=http://www.secureourfuture.org/|access-date=2021-08-21|website=www.secureourfuture.org}}
He later came up with the idea of creating an online marketplace matching service providers and their customers. In 2008, he launched Thumbtack with two of his fellow S4 directors Jonathan Swanson and Jeremy Tunnell, as well as Sander Daniels.{{Cite web|title=How did Thumbtack win the on-demand services market?|url=https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/05/how-did-thumbtack-win-the-on-demand-services-market/|access-date=2021-08-21|website=TechCrunch|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|last=Dishman|first=Lydia|date=January 29, 2020|title=Interview with CEO of Thumbtack|url=https://www.uschamber.com/co/good-company/the-leap/interview-with-thumbtack-ceo|access-date=2021-08-21|website=US Chamber of Commerce|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|last=Parker|first=Garrett|date=2019-06-28|title=10 Things You Didn't Know about Thumbtack Founder Sander Daniels|url=https://moneyinc.com/thumbtack-founder-sander-daniels/|access-date=2021-08-21|website=Money Inc|language=en-US}}
In the early years, Zappacosta and his team were scraping Craigslist and built an online directory of verified service providers with their photos, license, and reviews. The idea appealed to angel investor Jason Calacanis, who became the first person to invest in the startup.
Zappacosta led the company to develop and launch an instant matching feature that automates and streamlines the booking process between customers and professionals, a process taking nine years and 25 million requests from Thumbtack's over 1,000 categories of jobs.
As of 2021, Thumbtack has a $3.2 billion valuation and has the highest number of professional listings, followed by Yelp.{{Cite web|title=Home services platform Thumbtack raises $275M on a $3.2B valuation to double down on home management|url=https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/15/thumbtack-home-services/|access-date=2021-08-21|website=TechCrunch|language=en-US}}
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zappacosta, Marco}}
Category:American computer businesspeople
Category:American people of Italian descent
Category:American technology company founders
Category:American technology chief executives
Category:American information technology businesspeople