Nikki Pechet has worked in more than a few environments. First, there was a dream job at Pepsi-Cola, then an eight-year stint as a consultant at Bain & Company, before she headed for Silicon Valley where she's V.P. of Marketing at Thumbtack, an online service that helps connect customers with professionals to help with tasks that range from house painting to health coaching. At Thumbtack, Nikki and her team excel at helping customers and professionals get things done (and done better). Unsurprisingly, she has a few things to say about working as a woman in tech, building a better culture for working mothers, and how to prioritize joy in your career. Here's Nikki: 

My dad was an entrepreneur who started businesses in our home and grew them over the course of my life. I remember being a little kid playing at his desk and pretending to be him. Even from a young age, I just knew that I wanted to be like him and to do something in business, so I applied to undergrad schools that had strong business programs and landed at Michigan. 

While I was an undergrad, I randomly took part in this program where they sent you to a company to shadow people for a day. I went to Pepsi in New York where I spent my day as planned—but then there was a terrible snowstorm. I got caught in a car with a really senior marketing guy for several hours while driving back to Manhattan and ended up getting to fully understand who he was, what he did, and what he liked about his job. It felt like it was an awesome thing to do, so after undergrad, I went to work at Pepsi.

On Finding Joy at Pepsi—And Finding New Opportunities

When I worked at Pepsi, I would wake up on Saturday mornings and think: "I can't believe I don’t get to go to work today." I loved it. But I also felt like what I did [in marketing] didn’t move the business as much as certain things that other teams did. We’d spend $150 million dollars on marketing, but then really small changes that we made in the way that we set up shelves, or in our distribution system, would bring huge changes to the business.

Around that time, I applied to business school and got in. Before leaving, I asked the then president of Pepsi-Cola North America, this really incredible woman named Dawn Hudson, "Who does that stuff? That seems really important." And she said, “BCG [a global consulting company]." I thought: "Alright, I guess I’m going to become a consultant." 

On Maternity Leave as a Turning Point

I ended up at Bain where I had a great experience in that I learned a ton and there was always another project where I felt like I couldn’t possibly pass it up. I stayed there for over eight years, but the joy that I had at Pepsi was something I just didn’t ever have there. 

I didn’t think I would leave when I did, but I was approaching making partner when I went on maternity leave with my first kid. I thought: "Before I go back [to work], I should have some conversations about what will happen after I make partner." I started talking with companies and saying, you know, "Once I make partner at Bain, I might end up leaving, and what would you want to do with me at that point?"

A lot of them just said: "Who cares whether you make partner? Just come [work for us] now." These were companies that were doing cool things, and I felt like I could help them. I decided to look for a role at a company where I where I'd get to feel excited every day and to work on something that mattered. 

On Thumbtack Standing Apart from the [Tech] Pack

I chose Thumbtack for the people. I talked to over 100 companies, and one thing that I kept coming back to was that I didn’t feel super connected to some of the CEOs I was meeting. I wanted to work for somebody I could learn a lot from and would be proud to work for.

Eventually, a friend of mine who is an angel investor said, “You should meet Marco [Zappocosta]. He’s one of the best CEOs I’ve ever come across.”

At that point, I’d never heard of Thumbtack. [The company] hadn’t yet raised its first big round (which made a lot of news), and so I was skeptical because I thought I should have heard of them. But within five minutes of meeting Marco, I would have taken almost any job he offered. He is brilliant, he is kind, and he is an incredible, competent human being. He's somebody who made me think, "I just want to work for this guy because I will be smarter and better but also kinder for it."

On How Thumbtack Offsets the Tech Industry Gender Gap

There’s a huge conversation happening right now around the gender gap broadly and specifically in tech and Silicon Valley. It’s a huge problem we need to solve. [That's why] one of the things that attracted me to Thumbtack was that one minute into our first conversation, I asked Marco, "What’s important to you?" And he pointed to his wedding ring and said, "My wife and my future family." He has a brilliant, badass wife. Then there's Jonathan Swanson, Thumbtack's cofounder, who is literally the biggest feminist I’ve ever come across. 

Across the board, we are a company that celebrates everyone and fights for diversity and representation of the best ideas that will help our customers and pros most. Over half of our customer base is women, and 100,000 of the professionals who have started businesses on Thumbtack are women. To not have female representation at senior levels just wouldn’t even be possible in our business. At Thumbtack, I’ve witnessed deep feminism from a brilliant group of women and men. I feel lucky every day that I have that. 

On How Motherhood Factors In

I was the first person to take a maternity leave at the company, so I was part of designing that policy. We allow people to take four months' leave totally paid with full vesting of their equity, and then we’re really flexible with letting people come back in the way that’s right for them.

I think one thing that’s really important about maternity leave is figuring out how to design it in a way that works for you. Every pregnancy is different and every birth is different. Being able to have flexibility was hugely important as we designed our policy.

That philosophy carries through [to other aspects of work]. I feel very supported in taking time to go be with my kids when I need to, even if it’s in the middle of the day. Or I try to have them come to the office at least once a month for lunch or dinner so they’re physically in the office, and they see where I work, and they know everybody in my team. All that fits with the idea of creating an environment where people feel like they can be their whole selves, and they can make their work life work with the rest of their life.

Photos provided by Thumbtack.