We’re breaking out the bubbly today at Thumbtack to celebrate having recently registered our 250,000th service professional!
Over the past nine months, the number of merchants signed up on Thumbtack has doubled, with a new professional creating a Thumbtack profile on average every three minutes. That’s why no matter where you live and what you need, we can find you the right local professional to take care of the job.
Today we got in touch with the man who broke our quarter-million mark to find out how he was using Thumbtack to grow his business.
Douglas Hoover: Mr. 250,000
Since 1982, Douglas Hoover has designed and constructed over 2,000 custom waterfalls and ponds in Southern California. Hoover’s own home has been featured in Better Homes and Gardens magazine, and in 2005, he won San Diego Home and Garden’s Garden of the Year Award. But in spite of his experience and accolades, Hoover, like countless other dependable service professionals across the country, has been hit hard by the recession. Hoover admits that when he heard about Thumbtack, he was a little skeptical, but he figured it couldn’t hurt to sign up and set up a listing — after all, he hadn’t had a job in over a year.
“I had just finished putting my profile together, and the very following day was when Thumbtack sent me a lead,” Hoover said. That project, a $10,000 water feature, “came at just the right time.”
“Thumbtack did something I couldn’t do,” Hoover explained. “It reached people I couldn’t reach. I never would have heard about this job, and they never would have heard about me.”
Hoover, a self-taught designer and builder, got his start in Michigan, where by the age of 24 he had executed an entire restaurant construction project, from back-hoeing to plumbing to permitting. Since moving to California, he has become a recognized authority on custom waterfalls and ponds.
We wouldn't mind one of these in our backyard
While Hoover has overseen the construction of a gargantuan 135-foot waterfall in La Jolla, he said that his most memorable projects are usually smaller jobs that enhance peoples’ homes and lives. “If, when I’m done, my client is saying that they got way more than they expected, that whenever someone comes to visit, they take them to the backyard to show them the waterfall — those are the projects that mean the most to me. When you’ve spent 30 years of your life building something that brings people pleasure that’s long-term, that’s gratifying.”
Hoover is just one of the quarter-million trusted local service professionals you’ll find on Thumbtack. We couldn’t provide people with quick and simple connections to professionals who make their lives easier and better without our comprehensive network of local merchants.
So join us in raising a glass to the thousands and thousands of local service professionals who rise to the call and help you get the job done — and welcome to the hundreds of new professionals joining Thumbtack every day!