Stellar Welcomes Two New Sought After Executives to Fuel Growth and Elevate the Employee Experience

Melissa Bates and Jami Smith lead new efforts to supercharge growth, drive revenue, and power the employee experience in CRO & VP of People Operations roles

Bates brings deep Go-to-Market, Business Development, Customer Experience, and growth excellence from Enjoy Technology, Inc. (now Asurion), McKinsey & Company, and various other small businesses and will drive Stellar’s revenue growth by working closely with clients to understand and help solve their needs and pain points, and to align Stellar’s platform with their objectives as Stellar’s new CRO. (Photo: Business Wire)

October 19, 2023 11:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

DALLAS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Stellar, a venture-backed technology-driven marketplace which solves maintenance at scale for the Single-Family Rental (SFR) market, announced today the appointment of Melissa Bates as Chief Revenue Officer and Jami Smith as VP of People Operations. Their arrival is significant as the company has already made tremendous strides toward achieving rapid growth, and with the addition of these two leadership roles, will fuel the company as it continues to evolve to offer innovative technology and customer-centric services to pioneer proptech.

“I’m thrilled to join the Stellar team and introduce new ways to empower our employees to continue to deliver exceptional service to our customers”Tweet this

Melissa Bates has been appointed as Chief Revenue Officer and a member of Stellar’s leadership team. Ms. Bates will drive the company’s revenue growth by working closely with clients to understand and help solve their needs and pain points, and to align Stellar’s platform with their objectives. She will also lead the revenue organization and build and implement Stellar’s overarching growth strategy. Prior to joining Stellar, Ms. Bates was Chief Growth Officer at Enjoy Technology, Inc. (now Asurion), a technology-powered platform reinventing “commerce at home” by bringing the best of the store directly to the consumer on behalf of some of the world’s leading consumer brands. Ms. Bates served in a variety of roles at Enjoy including Chief Strategy Officer from 2020 to 2021, Chief Revenue Officer from 2018 to 2020, Head of Partner Growth & Business Development from 2016 to 2018, and General Manager from 2015 to 2016. While at Enjoy, she built the growth team which included the business development and enterprise account management teams and created and executed Enjoy’s growth strategy. Prior to joining Enjoy, Ms. Bates served as an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company and in various capacities at several small businesses. Ms. Bates holds a B.S. in Human and Organizational Development from Vanderbilt University and an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.
Jami Smith will take on the role of Vice President of People Operations, a key leadership function at Stellar where she will drive a person-first approach with responsibility for developing a world-class employee experience and oversee employee recruitment, engagement, and development to ensure a smooth transition and open culture during the company’s hyper-growth phase. Most recently, Ms. Smith was Director of Culture at Procore Technologies, a global, cloud-based construction software provider, where she led the Culture Team and had oversight of the company’s Communications and Workplace Experience divisions. Prior to Procore, Ms. Smith held VP of People and VP of Operations roles at Levelset, a construction tech startup that simplifies compliance and payment processes and improves cash flow for contractors and suppliers. While there, she helped scale the company from 100 to 400 people, and later led their talent through a $500M acquisition. Ms. Smith also spent six years at Pinnacle Entertainment where she was responsible for talent management, and employee recruitment and improvement—a people-focused transition that stemmed from her early teaching career instructing elementary school students. Ms. Smith holds a B.S. in Communication Studies from Louisiana State University.

These new leaders bring decades of experience driving revenue and growth, cultivating teams, and implementing scalable best-practices as Stellar continues to achieve aggressive growth milestones across all areas of the business. Their proven track records will help Stellar prepare for accelerated expansion in the proptech space from a product, process, and people perspective.

“We want Stellar to be the obvious choice for maintenance for our clients because of the value we create for them and their residents,” says Ms. Bates. “I look forward to working with our clients to create an industry-leading maintenance marketplace that solves their pressing business problems, drives net operating income, and generates long-term benefits for them and the SFR industry.”

“I’m thrilled to join the Stellar team and introduce new ways to empower our employees to continue to deliver exceptional service to our customers,” says Ms. Smith. “Through impactful people operations and leadership, I’m eager to build a talent strategy and culture that effectively manages the employee experience to support Stellar on its growth journey.”

“We are proud to have reached the point in our growth where we attract the talent and experience Melissa and Jami bring to the organization,” said Stellar Founder & CEO Dustin Marx. “We are confident that their ideas, perspectives, and previous successes, combined with our planned innovation and continued expansion, will take our teams and company to the next level. As we build our Go-to-Market and customer momentum under Melissa’s leadership and enhance the employee experience through a more holistic approach under Jami’s leadership, we put Stellar in a prime position to achieve untapped growth goals.”

About Stellar

Founded in 2016, Stellar is a technology-driven marketplace that enables property managers and contractors to successfully resolve home maintenance issues, giving residents peace of mind. The company serves 10 of the 11 largest SFR operators across 150,000+ properties, has created work for 8,000+ contractors, and has resolved 200,000+ issues for residents and property managers alike. Stellar uses technology to make the maintenance experience seamless, simple, and scalable. Work is completed with integrity and heart, and quality is guaranteed. Learn more at mystellar.com.