A few years ago, Thumbtack was just a handful of people working out of a rented house. We were excitedly chasing a dream without any pay, my co-founder was sleeping in a closet, and there was this constant existential fear of running out of money. We were determined. We wanted to make hiring a plumber as easy as buying a book online and we weren’t going to take “no” for an answer. Well, at least not the final answer.