Thumbtack seems like a nice upgraded version of craigslist and all, but it just isn't conducive to the same high successful transaction rates. My experience after a year has been completely underwhelming.
If you have specific feedback on what we can do better, we'd love to hear it -- either here or you can email me directly: chris at thumbtack.
I want to go to the website and connect with people ready to work together right now, or at least communicate with people in real-time. If you are active on craigslist and have the time you can email people until this happens, and it usually doesnt take that long.