Compass, the ever-growing real estate technology company, is continuing its hiring spree in the wake of last year’s $550 million Series E funding round and is pulling top talent from other buzzy tech companies: Khurrum Malik, most recently of Spotify, is joining as Compass’s chief marketing officer and Matt Rosenberg, lately of Eventbrite, is coming aboard as chief revenue officer.
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Khurrum Malik, Compass’ new chief marketing officer | Photo courtesy Compass.
Malik will oversee Compass’ brand as well as lead the marketing and communications teams. He comes from a senior marketing role at Spotify, the digital music streaming company that went public earlier this month and is currently valued at nearly $30 billion. He previously held senior marketing roles at Facebook and Microsoft as well.
“[Malik’s] expertise in digital technology and marketing automation paired with his experience with some of the world’s most innovative brands makes him a natural fit for Compass and this role,” said Compass Chief Operating Officer Maëlle Gavet in a statement. “His counsel on performance and brand marketing is sought by leading [chief marketing officers] and marketers around the world, and we’re thrilled to have [Malik] join us on our journey building the future of real estate.”
Rosenberg will be tasked with overseeing the team responsible for driving Compass’ revenue growth. He most recently led the global revenue team at Eventbrite, an event ticketing startup, and has also served as a senior sales leader at ServiceSource International and Visage Mobile.
“[Rosenberg] brings to Compass 20 years of experience scaling technology companies,’” said Compass Chief Growth Officer Rob Lehman in a statement. “He will build on our strong foundation and help us bring Compass to real estate agents across the United States as we relentlessly pursue our mission to help everyone find their place in the world.”
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Matt Rosenberg, Compass’ new chief revenue officer | Photo courtesy Compass.
A source familiar with the new appointments said the hires were found through social recruiting, a technique used to harvest potential recruits from the social networks and email contacts of existing employees. A spokesperson for Compass declined to comment on candidate sourcing, but acknowledged that Malik did have a connection to the company’s chief product officer as both worked at Facebook.
The new hires come amid a time of change in executive leadership at the company. In March, the company announced that it “parted ways,” with Craig Anderson, its chief financial officer (CFO). A source told Inman that decision was made because Compass wanted someone with experience operating a company at its current scale and beyond.
A spokesperson for Compass confirmed the company is still searching for a new CFO.
Lehman was quietly promoted to chief growth officer in February, which led to the opening that Rosenberg is filling, the company confirmed.
Liming Zhao, Compass’ one-time chief technology officer also left the company in March. In February, he was appointed chief information security officer, a move that may have hastened his exit. A spokesperson confirmed Compass is currently conducting a search for a new chief technology officer.
The two new hires reinforce that Compass is a technology company first and a real estate company second, a spokesperson said. So it’s no surprise that the hires are coming from Spotify, which is valued at nearly $30 billion, and Eventbrite, which is valued at more than $1 billion.
“We have 700 employees from some of the world’s best companies (tech and otherwise) across the country,” the spokesperson said. “And on our leadership team, we have folks from Amazon, Priceline, Google, Twitter and Facebook.”
Compass’ growth has been ambitious and the company, said it’s pursuing 20 percent market share in the top 20 U.S. cities by the end of 2020. On the heels of its $550 million in funding led by SoftBank Vision Fund and Fidelity in November, Compass has opened offices in Seattle, San Diego, Dallas and Chicago.
On Wednesday, Compass also announced brokerage acquisitions in Chicago and Seattle, further emphasizing the momentum it is enjoying around the country.
