Speaker profile

David Steckel

Founder and CEO of Polygrade. He founded Setter, built Thumbtack’s home services partnerships and led product at Sears Home Services. Now he’s bringing AI-native claims management to the warranty industry.

SPEAKS ON

Home warranty · Home services · Proptech · Partnerships · AI adoption · Innovation in large companies

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Polygrade media kit

Booking and press: Jess Poindexter, jess@polygrade.com

David Steckel, founder and CEO of Polygrade

BUILT AT

SETTER WAS BACKED BY

POLYGRADE IS BACKED BY

At a glance

NOW

Founder and CEO of Polygrade, AI-native claims management for the warranty industry

FOUNDED

Setter, the first home management app, backed by Sequoia and acquired by Thumbtack

AT THUMBTACK

Helped pivot the company into home services and built its partnership and innovation teams

AT SEARS HOME SERVICES

Chief Product Officer who helped move the business off its mainframe onto a modern stack

ON STAGE

Warranty Innovations 2026 in Chicago, on getting AI implementation across the line

ON AIR

PropTech Espresso and The Partner Awesome Podcast, with more episodes on the way

About David

David Steckel has spent his entire career in the home. He started out running a construction company, then went on to build the products that connect homeowners with the pros who care for their homes. Today he is the founder and CEO of Polygrade, an AI-native claims management platform for the warranty industry, which came out of stealth in October 2026 with $6.3M raised.

He founded Setter, the first home management app, and raised venture capital from Sequoia. When Thumbtack acquired Setter, David helped pivot Thumbtack into home services and built its partnership and innovation teams across both the supply and demand sides of the business. As Chief Product Officer at Sears Home Services, he helped move the company off its mainframe onto a modern tech stack and automated operations across the business.

That path has given him a view of home services from nearly every side: the homeowner, the pro, the repair operation and now the warranty company paying for the claim. It’s the view he brings to every conversation about where warranty and home services go next.

What David talks about

The size of the warranty market

Only about 5 to 6% of U.S. homeowners have a home warranty, and most new plans come with a home purchase. What that says about where the market stands today.

The warranty opportunity

Once homeowners have a warranty, most renew it year to year. Why the homeowners who don’t have one yet are where the growth is.

The future of warranty

How AI is changing the claim, the moment a homeowner actually experiences their warranty, and what the industry looks like when claims just work.

Repair or replace

The rule of thumb he uses for when a repair stops making sense, and how warranty companies can make that call before a technician is sent.

Home services and proptech

Lessons from a career spent across the home, from Setter and Thumbtack to Sears Home Services and now warranty claims.

Getting innovation across the line

Why new ideas stall inside large companies, and how to move them through business, legal and IT in parallel instead of one at a time.

Build, buy or overlay

Build versus buy is really three options. What each one costs over five years, and how to choose.

What building partnerships four times taught him

Partnerships at Setter, Thumbtack, Sears and now Polygrade, and the frameworks he shares: start with your customer’s ecosystem, choose which partners come first, and grow each one from discovery to scale.

Lessons from a first startup

Paying an outside firm to build exactly what he asked for, watching it fail, and what that taught him about building product.

Recent appearances

The Partner Awesome Podcast, Episode 13, with David Steckel

PODCAST · NOV 9, 2026

Know your partner like your customer

On The Partner Awesome Podcast: learning a partner’s business before you pitch it, speaking its language, and using AI prototypes to get a partnership to a test faster.

Watch the episode