— Mobile marketplace OfferUp appointed Niti Bashambu as its new chief product officer.
Bashambu was most recently chief product officer at San Francisco real estate data startup HouseCanary. She was previously chief analytics officer for IAC Applications, part of Expedia Chairman Barry Diller’s IAC organization. Bashambu is currently a Growth Council advisor for YCombinator and is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Bellevue, Wash.-based OfferUp raised $120 million earlier this year and acquired rival marketplace Letgo. It reached a valuation of $1.4 billion in August 2019.
OfferUp has 350 employees between its Bellevue headquarters and an office in Miami, Fla. The app now has more than 20 million monthly users after combing the Letgo and OfferUp marketplaces, both which let people buy and sell used goods and compete with Craigslist.
OfferUp said buying activity for products people use at home such as exercise equipment and video games has increased significantly amid the COVID-19 pandemic. There are also more buyers using nationwide shipping.
— Seattle real estate startup Flyhomes announced Amy Sellers as its new VP of marketing. Sellers was most recently a client partner at Facebook and held marketing management roles at Amazon and Zulily.
“I’ve seen firsthand how direct-to-consumer brands have nudged customers to expect more – more convenience, more transparency, and a more meaningful relationship with the brands they love. That same ethos is core to how Flyhomes is reimagining the real estate process,” said Sellers.
Flyhomes now operates in five markets, including Seattle and the Bay Area, and has more than 250 employees.
Former Flyhomes CMO Ryan Steingard recently joined personalized vitamin service Persona.
— Promethean, a Seattle-based education technology company, hired Chris Hand as chief revenue officer. Hand is based in New York and most recently was CRO of semiconductor company Arm, a SoftBank company. He previously held senior sales roles at CA Technologies and Inovalon.
“I am excited to join a global team, contribute to their strong momentum, and look forward to many stages of future growth in bringing Promethean’s technology to learning environments around the world,” said Hand.
— Seattle pet care startup Scout9 added Luisa Ruge as co-founder to lead product design. Ruge is a Ph.D. candidate researching animal computer interaction.
“At Scout9 I will be implementing an animal centered design approach,” said Ruge. “Specifically, bridging the interspecies gap between the voice of the canine consumer, the pet partner, and the marketplace.”
Scout9 came out of stealth mode earlier this year and was founded by former BCG consultant Patrick Opie.
— HR consultancy firm Reverb added Rachel Cougan and Sjohn Jepsen as senior people operations consultants.
Cougan was most recently head of people at caller ID startup Hiya and will continue to work with the company part-time. She previously held senior people roles at other startups including Textio and Chef.
Jepsen is a “boomerang” previously working for Seattle-based Reverb for two years until 2018. She has worked in human resources for Amazon, Microsoft, Zillow Group and Expedia as well as with gaming companies including Nintendo and PopCap Games.
