We’re excited to announce the addition of Karl House, Chief Revenue Officer, to the StackCommerce team! Here at Stack, we are always searching for fresh voices looking to join our mission in creating innovative native commerce solutions that serve the world of online publishers. We’re thrilled to see how Karl will propel our vision to new heights. We welcomed Karl to the team (in true Stack fashion) by sitting him down for happy hour drinks and a live Q&A with the full team.

Before coming to Stack, Karl was Founder and CEO of the recently-acquired influencer monetization platform, Fanbread. That unique experience coupled with more than 10 years building sales, advertising and marketing teams at startups provided for some great advice and inspiration for our team — and even a brief magic show. Today, we’re happy to share a small piece of what we learned (you’ll have to BYOB this time, sorry).

Liz: You joined us after the acquisition of a company you built. Can you describe that journey?

Karl: Building and selling FanBread was one of my life’s biggest accomplishments. The journey began with quite simply with an idea I was passionate about. The scariest part was finding the courage to take the leap from my comfortable job and salary and commit to putting it all on the line. Once I finally took the leap, I quickly had to figure out how to fund the operations of the business, hire a team, gain customers and drive growth.

Prior to FanBread, I was primarily a revenue-focused professional. My experience at FanBread developed me into a more holistic leader – forcing me to solve operational, cultural, and technological challenges I had never before encountered.

Liz: What excited you about the opportunity at Stack?

Karl: Several factors excited me as Josh introduced me to the company, including:

Organic growth: Stack is in a very unique and impressive position to have achieved the scale it has with little venture funding.

The culture: The people I’ve interacted with at Stack are wonderful. The team is smart, driven, excited to be here, fun, warm … I could go on and on. But one of the things that jumped out to me most was the culture you all have created here. It’s very similar to what we were able to build at FanBread.

Interesting problems to solve: Stack is at a unique point in its growth. There are big, complex challenges that have the potential to unlock rapid growth for the company. I’m excited to be in the room with other smart people to tackle these challenges and take Stack to the next level.

Liz: As CRO, you will be touching several departments here at Stack. How do you begin to make an impact across such a wide array of functions?

Karl: It’s only been a few weeks, so I’m still developing a POV on where we should be focusing our resources to get the most bang for our buck. With that said, from a high level, one of my priorities as a leader is to remove barriers for the team and help increase productivity. Part of this effort includes providing training, advice and expertise to help team members grow within their positions. I also want to understand what objections we’re hearing in the market, and address those issues straight on to help them succeed.

Liz: At Stack, we stress the importance of work-life balance. What do you do to live a balanced life?

Karl: My family and my health are the most important things in my life. I try to be home before my boys go to bed every night. Most nights I miss dinnertime as they tend to eat on the early side, but I’m able to spend the mornings with them while my wife works. With two kids under 5, it’s been difficult to carve out loads of “me-time” for the past few years, but when I do, you’ll typically find me in the surf, in the pool or on the golf course.

Liz: What was the most important thing you learned in school?

Karl: The value of networking and building meaningful personal relationships. UCSB was a very social environment without a lot of downtime. It made for a really fun college experience, but also served as a great training ground for how to build connections with others.

Liz: What is your favorite thing about Stack so far?

Karl: The untapped potential. With this awesome team, Stack is well-positioned to double or triple revenue over the next few years. I’m excited to help unlock some of that growth with you all.