Nationality American Name Chris Terrill | Occupation CEO of HomeAdvisor Role Executive | |
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Born c. 1967 Dallas, Texas Education University of Texas System | ||
Chris Terrill is an American businessman and is currently the chief executive officer of HomeAdvisor (formerly ServiceMagic). HomeAdvisor is a local services home improvement marketplace providing homeowners the tools and resources for home repair, maintenance, and improvement projects. HomeAdvisor provides homeowners with tools such as True Cost Guide, which displays the average cost of home projects coast-to-coast based on real data, ProFinder a patented technology that matches homeowners' projects to over 85,000 pre-screened home professionals and Instant Booking which allows homeowners to schedule services with home professionals online.
Career
In the mid-1990s, Terrill began his career at QZARInc., owners of the then-popular Laser Tag entertainment center chain.
In 1999 Terrill joined Match.com, the online dating business, where he served as director of marketing and vice president of new brands and verticals, among other senior positions. While he was there he launched Chemistry.com, and served as general manager. Chemistry.com is a competitor of eHarmony.com, aimed at the growing market of those seeking long-term relationships.
Terrill left Match.com for Blockbuster.com in 2005 to become vice president of product and marketing. While there, he oversaw development of the video retailer’s online brand. Terrill joined Nutrisystem in 2007, serving first as Senior Vice President of E-Commerce. He was promoted to Chief Marketing Officer in 2009.
On April 25, 2011, it was announced Terrill would become the chief executive officer for ServiceMagic (now HomeAdvisor), a website that lists pre-screened and customer-rated service professionals. He currently holds this position.
Terrill spoke about the SEO aspect of HomeAdvisor's rebrand with Search Engine Land in August 2013, was featured in Fast Company's The Recommender in January 2014 and spoke with Built In Colorado in March 2014. Terrill sits on the board of directors for both the National Kitchen and Bath Association and Neat.com. Terrill, most recently, has contributed content to Wired Magazine and Fast Company.
On January 16, 2015 Terrill was quoted in a Market Watch article titled "10 things contractors won't tell you" in regards to homeowners finding reputable home professionals, “remodeling is almost like surgery on your home. Just as consumers don’t shop for medical surgery on price alone, they shouldn’t look for bargains at the expense of quality when it’s time to cut open their home.”
In April 2015, HomeAdvisor re-launched Cost Guide as True Cost Guide under Terrill’s guidance. In addition to the re-launch HomeAdvisor created the 2015 True Cost Report, “What the report uncovered is that homeowners want a better way to research home project costs,” said HomeAdvisor’s CEO Chris Terrill. “More than a third of homeowners don’t know how much it will cost to hire a professional for home projects and sixty eight percent of homeowners are concerned about overpaying without a reliable source for cost information.”
In July of 2015, Terrill was interviewed by Forbes Tech contributor, Patrick Moorhead. The story was in regards to the growing "Humans as a Service" (HaaS) business and the role HomeAdvisor is playing in this growing marketplace. In the same month Terrill spoke to Denver Business Journal about HomeAdvisor's growth and prominence in the Denver area. He was quoted as saying "A series of coming changes for HomeAdvisor Inc. should help boost the Golden-based company’s profile to match its status as the biggest of Colorado’s consumer online technology brands".
Speaking to Fortune Live host Leigh Gallager on September 18th, 2015, Terrill said "If you think about participating in a marketplace, you want to go to a marketplace where you got all the plumbers and all the homeowners. If you're a service providers you want to go where the homeowners are. If you're a homeowner you want to go where the best service providers are, and by having our (HomeAdvisor) scale and size that's what makes us unique." He also went on to discuss what Barry Diller is like as a boss and the future of HomeAdvisor as part of IAC's portfolio.
In 2015, Terrill joined the Board of Advisors for Denver's high profile Quarterly Forum. Denver's Quarterly Forum is a non-partisan membership organization that promotes professional growth and civic engagement through annual events. As a seasoned Internet veteran, Terrill will provide mentorship and growth support to Denver businesses through his position on the Board of Advisors.