Bellevue, Wash.-based mobile marketplace startup OfferUp has hired Ameesh Paleja as its new chief technology officer. Paleja was previously the CTO of premium cable network Starz and the CEO of movie ticket service Atom Tickets.
Paleja also worked at Amazon for more than a decade, where he managed teams focused on products including Amazon Prime Instant Video and the Amazon Appstore.
“To disrupt an entire industry, you need a simple idea that’s brilliantly executed,” Paleja said in a statement. “OfferUp is a marketplace leader because of their passionate focus on the customer.”
Paleja is the latest addition to OfferUp’s leadership team. Last month it hired former Microsoft exec and Buddy co-founder Jeff MacDuff as director of engineering; Amazon veteran Bill Carr was named COO in October; and former eBay exec Rodrigo Brumana became CFO in September.
OfferUp is the most valuable startup in the Seattle region. The 8-year-old company has raised $221 million to date from investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, Warburg Pincus, T. Rowe Price, Tiger Global Management and Jackson Square Ventures, among others.
This past August the 240-person company raised more cash as it aims for profitability and competes with Craigslist, eBay and Facebook Marketplace. OfferUp said it has 44 million active users and that its app has been downloaded 75 million times. The company added the ability to ship items last year, extending its reach beyond local commerce.
OfferUp also announced today that it hired Sarah Bilton as vice president of employee experience. Bilton was previously vice president of people practices at marijuana review and discovery platform Leafly. She also held senior human resources roles at e-commerce companies Julep Beauty and real estate tech company Zillow.
“As a top five shopping app on iOS and Android, we’re rapidly entering our next stage of growth by investing in maturing business lines, and continuing to build our executive roster with strong leaders who have proven experience scaling companies,” said OfferUp co-founder and CEO Nick Huzar.
Bellevue, Wash.-based OfferUp is ranked No. 13 on the GeekWire 200 list of the top Pacific Northwest privately-held companies.
