New talent added
We have long predicted (and awaited) the announcement of Trulia launching an initial public offering (IPO) and while they have yet to make any announcements, it appears that their two most recent hires are a clear indicator that the company is ramping up for an IPO filing, perhaps in 2012, although they have not and cannot confirm, but unlike various competitors, they have not made it a point to deny the possibility of going public.
Today, two key appointments include Sean Aggarwal as the new Chief Financial Officer and Scott Darling as General Counsel, both of whom have experience in scaling companies, signaling preparations for going public. “As Silicon Valley veterans who’ve played crucial roles in other fast-growing tech companies, Sean and Scott will immediately play a crucial role in helping Trulia navigate an exciting, new path at rapid speed,” Trulia’s Head of Communications, Ken Shuman told AGBeat.
Aggarwal was formerly the VP of finance at PayPal and was an integral part of making PayPal a global brand, and prior to PayPal, he helped accelerate Amazon.com’s earnings exponentially. Prior to Amazon, Aggarwal was at PepsiCo, served as a CFO of a mobile web startup and founded an enterprise software startup, originally starting his career at Merrill Lynch.
Darling is the former VP and General Counsel of Imperva, and was previously a Senior Attorney at Microsoft and spent several years as VP and General Counsel of software company Danger, Inc. Darling is a Yale graduate and earned his JD from the University of Michigan Law School.
Accelerating growth
“Sean and Scott are both technology veterans that have played crucial roles in fast growth companies. Our business has doubled in the last 12 months, and I expect their impact and insights will immediately help us navigate an exciting path at rapid speed,” said Pete Flint, CEO and co-founder of Trulia. “As a company we have ambitious goals in 2012 and I believe our new additions have us perfectly positioned for a big year ahead.”
Trulia has spent the last year adding top talent to senior management, namely Paul Levine as COO and Sami Inkinen (Trulia co-founder) who was moved into the role of President. Additionally, they added Chief Economist and Head of Analytics, Dr. Jed Kolko, their first staff economist. Trulia says these additions have been part of their accelerated their growth, saying they averaged 16.5 million unique visitors per month in the third quarter.
While their growth is obvious, it will be interesting to watch how the company spins/reconciles their long held stance that they are the underdogs and celebrate startup culture versus being a public company traded on the stock market.
