—There’s been a serious pipeline of talent flowing into Seattle startup Porch over the past year, with the company topping more than 200 staffers. But now we’ve received word that one of the company’s key engineering hires has left to join a tiny startup.
Daryn Nakhuda, a well-respected engineer in the Seattle area who previously worked at Amazon, Mixpo, EyeJot and TeachStreet, left Porch last week. We’re hearing that Nakhuda is joining another startup, but he’s not sharing details about the move yet, at least not with us. “I’ll keep you posted,” Nakhuda tells us.
Nakhuda served as director of engineering at Porch, the heavily-funded startup that’s backed by Lowe’s and is trying to transform how home owners get information about remodeling projects. He joined Porch just five months ago.
“Daryn will always be a friend of Porch and we are excited about the role he is taking on at his new company,” Porch vice president of communications Craig Cincotta tells us. Stay tuned on this one, as it will be interesting to see where Nakhuda lands.
—Speaking of Porch, the company continues to add horsepower in the executive ranks. The company just named Gregg Eskenazi to the position of General Counsel.
Eskenazi previously founded Evolution Legal Group, a company which provided legal services to a number of startup companies in the Seattle area. From March 2004 to December 2013, Eskanazi served as general counsel at Market Leader — the Seattle area company that was led by Ian Morris and sold to Trulia. (You may recall that Morris recently joined the board of Porch).
Prior to Market Leader, Eskenazi worked in the Microsoft legal department, managing the consumer legal group.
—Well, let’s stick with the online real estate arena. Zillow announced recently that Brian de Schepper has joined the company as a director of MLS and industry development, responsible for bolstering connections with multiple listing services across the country. You may recall that was also a job that fell to former Move Inc. exec Errol Samuelson, who promptly after joining Zillow was sued by his former employer. (The matter remains in litigation, but Samuelson essentially has been sidelined for the time being).
de Schepper is the former vice president of sales in the real estate solutions group at CoreLogic. Before that, he worked at real estate software company Tarasoft.
“Brian is an outstanding addition to our expanding team,” said Curt Beardsley, Zillow vice president of industry development. “Bringing Brian to Zillow as a senior member of our team is one more example of our commitment to being a great partner to industry.”
—Avvo, the Seattle online legal marketplace, has named Monica Williams as CFO. The appointment comes six months after Avvo scored $37.5 million. Williams previously spent seven years at Allrecipes, serving as CFO and vice president of finance and operations. Before that, she worked at Getty Images.
“I’ve followed Avvo for some time and am impressed with their success in helping both consumers to navigate diverse legal issues and attorneys to further build their businesses,” said Williams. “I look forward to helping the company accelerate growth with products and services that leverage technology to not only better serve the needs of the global legal market, but grow it.”
—The Washington Technology Industry Association, the leading tech trade organization in the state, has appointed five new members to its board. They are Sarah Bird, CEO of Moz; Shannon Swift, CEO of Swift HR Solutions; Suzanne Dale Estey, President and CEO of the Economic Development Council of Seattle and King County; Heather Redman, VP of Operations and General Counsel at Indix; and John Suk, Director of Strategic Alliance Partnerships at Verizon Wireless.
“We’re fortunate to add the wealth of talent, expertise, and energy our newest board members bring to the table,” said Michael Schutzler, CEO of the WTIA. “They embody the spirit of this region’s tech industry and we’re eager to have them help rally the tech community across the Pacific Northwest.”
—Lyft, which lost its COO, Travis VanderZanden, to Uber earlier this month, has named former Walmart Labs and Microsoft employee Brian Roberts to the role of senior vice president of partnerships and corporate development.
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