We’re thrilled to announce that Tomasz (Tom) Marcinkowski has joined Discord as Chief Financial Officer. Tom will lead our financial operations to support Discord’s continued growth.
2020 was a pivotal year for Discord — we reached over 140 million monthly active users and exceeded 100M in revenue. Today, millions of people are on Discord organizing around communities of interest, from families staying in touch to group study sessions, communities gathering around a shared hobby, and even creating podcasts together.
Tom spent the last five years as Head of Finance for Pinterest, helping to lead the company’s finance operations during a time of rapid growth. Before that, he served as Vice President of Technology Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs for almost a decade, advising a broad range of clients such as Square, Yahoo!, Yelp, and more.
Tom’s extensive expertise in growing, scaling, and advising leading internet companies will help us continue to build on this momentum in 2021 and beyond. We sat down with Tom to hear a bit more about his initial thoughts about Discord — check it out!
Tell us about your background and some of your accomplishments before joining Discord.
I just want to start by saying how excited I am to be joining the Discord team. I’ve been a fan of Discord for quite some time, and in the two weeks I’ve been here so far, my admiration for the company has only grown.
My story started in Krakow, Poland, where I was born and lived until age 9. My parents were both chemical engineers, and similar to many immigrants who come to the United States without knowing English, they had to start new jobs to make ends meet. Eventually, my father started a small construction business and my mother became a lab technician. Their relentless drive, sacrifice, and dedication to making a life here in the U.S. for our family is what has inspired me throughout every step of my career.
At the same time, the opportunity they were able to create for our family with a small business really piqued my interest in how businesses create value across multiple constituents. That ultimately led me to Wall Street where I spent nearly 15 years, most recently acting as an advisor on a broad range of financing and transactions. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to work on really exciting deals with leading technology companies, from Square to Yelp to Hewlett-Packard.
I loved seeing how companies used capital and M&A to drive value across multiple stakeholders, from their users, employees, investors, and their communities. I wanted to go deeper and be a part of that impact. I joined Pinterest at a time when the company was just scratching the surface of reaching its full potential. I was drawn to the company because Pinterest’s mission was aligned with its growth and business objectives which ultimately helped to drive real, positive outcomes for its users. I see similarities with how you all run Discord as well.
Great segue. We’re curious, what drew you to Discord? Is there something about the product or business that stood out to you in particular?
There are so many things that drew me to Discord, but I’ll start with a bit of a personal anecdote. I’m not a huge sports guy but I really love going to the San Jose Earthquakes soccer games with my kids. However, I didn’t know many Quakes fans. One day, I stumbled upon a Discord server when I was looking for a place to connect with other fans during games. All of a sudden, I had discovered a whole community that had a place where they could interact around a shared interest.
Having worked in the internet space for some time, I found it curious that very few companies were able to really crack community building across the social landscape. That’s when I really started to understand the unique value proposition of Discord, a service centered around communities of interest.
I was also drawn to the company’s business model. This model is based on enabling users to provide value back into the communities they are a part of. Discord’s incentives are completely aligned with its users. I think this creates a really passionate user base and a company that is entirely focused on creating a space for people to find belonging, talk and gather around shared interests.
You’ve been here for almost two weeks now. It hasn’t been long, but what has your experience been like so far?
It’s been a whirlwind but I think what has really stood out to me is Discord’s company culture.
Discord is all about community and belonging, and everyone who works here is aligned with this mission. It’s clear that you and Stan have invested a lot of energy in building a great culture here from the start. The focus on not only what we do, but how we do it makes the company as special as the product. I can see that there has been a high level of focus on building a positive and inclusive culture from day 1, and that’s a really exciting thing to be a part of.
Now that you’re here, what are you focused on moving forward?
There is an incredible opportunity ahead for this company. What I’m focused on is making sure we’re using the business to support the company’s mission, to create a space for communities and a place where people can find belonging. I want to help build a business to support this mission, not the other way around.
More immediately, I’ll be looking to build my team in the coming months. If anyone is interested, please reach out!
