Austin, TX — LawnStarter, the platform that connects homeowners with local lawn care professionals, today appointed Gary Kliegman as its first Chief Operating Officer. Kliegman brings more than 15 years of operational leadership at high-growth, venture-backed companies including pivotal roles at Blue Apron, Uncommon Goods, and Candid.
“Gary is the right leader at the right time as LawnStarter is expanding its offering with multiple additional service categories inside and outside of the home as well as releasing its first standalone FSM software,” LawnStarter CEO and co-founder Steve Corcoran says.
“This moment we are living in is relatively unprecedented and we intend to capitalize on it. Gary is a big addition that will propel us to new heights,” Corcoran adds.
From Meal Kits to Lawn Care
Kliegman joins LawnStarter having spent his career building the operational infrastructure behind some of America’s most recognized growth-stage companies. As an early executive at Blue Apron, he helped scale the meal kit pioneer from a $25 million startup through its 2017 NYSE listing.
At Candid, an oral health care company, he was the first executive hire, joining at the Series A and shepherding the company from 17 employees to more than 600 and $100 million in annual revenue – navigating two business pivots and a pandemic along the way.
Most recently, Kliegman co-founded Onto Health, a Colorado-based fertility care company expanding access to IVF in underserved markets, where he led a full operational rebuild and grew the patient pipeline by 80% within two quarters of relaunch.
What Drew Kliegman to LawnStarter?
“I’m an operator at heart. I’ve spent my career operating businesses across lots of different industries – from consumer goods, to food, health care, and more. My expertise lies in building processes and systems, leading teams, and solving complex problems,” Kliegman says.
“So when the opportunity came about to bring that to the lawn care and home services industry – which is new for me – I couldn’t help but get excited about that challenge. The LawnStarter team has built an incredible business. I see a huge opportunity to continue to amplify the mission by bringing the company to even further scale,” he says.
At LawnStarter, Kliegman will lead the company’s operational functions as it expands into more home service sectors.
“LawnStarter is growing so fast. I love the way the company is aggressively pursuing new verticals and bringing cutting-edge tech and AI to bear to maximize speed and impact,” Kliegman says.
Kliegman’s appointment as the company’s first COO reflects LawnStarter’s commitment to building the systems and team needed to lead a fragmented industry through its next stage of consolidation and growth.
About LawnStarter
LawnStarter makes lawn care easy, affordable, and reliable — connecting homeowners with background-checked local lawn care professionals across the United States.
Timeline
- Founded in Austin (2013)
- Fast-Growing LawnStarter Adds 198 Markets, Now Serves 3,000+ Cities (2024)
- LawnStarter Rockets Past $100M in Bookings (2025)
- LawnStarter Launches Stand-Alone Outdoor Services (2025)
Q&A with Gary Kliegman
ProBase is all about helping hardworking professionals focus on what they do best: care for customers and provide incredible service. I’m excited to deliver a seamless and intuitive experience that helps pros run the business side of their work on “easy” mode.
At Blue Apron, I learned to manage an incredibly complex business. Imagine ensuring 30 different perfectly prepared food ingredients go into tens of thousands of meal kit boxes every week – and then imagine each ingredient has different perishability requirements as it ships to homes from coast to coast.
It was about as complicated as you can get! And we did it on an extreme scale, growing from $25M to nearly $900M in revenue and launching into the public markets during my tenure. I learned to build the teams, processes, and software to help navigate and accelerate that steep level of growth.
LawnStarter is a complex business in its own right. There are many moving pieces behind the scenes to deliver the services LawnTrepreneurs and customers rely on. I’m looking forward to bringing my operational know-how to scale this business with the team.
I believe that a business’s success lies in investing in a team with diverse perspectives and skill sets. Everywhere I’ve been, I’ve seen that the team is the heartbeat of the organization.
When we can bring together players who have deep lawn care and home services industry experience alongside experts in marketing, operations, and other key business functions and get them all aligned behind the same roadmap and goals, we can achieve outsized results.
This has never been more true than today, when well-constructed and well-led teams can be supercharged by advances in AI and technology.
There are so many exciting changes happening in my life all at once! As I join the LawnStarter team, I’m a newly-minted, first-time dad to a 5-month-old baby girl. My wife and I recently bought our first home, in northern New Jersey.
It couldn’t be more serendipitous as I join this team that after two decades of living in Manhattan apartments, I now finally have a lawn of my own!
Media Contact: Patricia Davis | (512) 601-0508 | [email protected]
