Hardware Podcasts

Expedia & Zillow: Rich Barton

How I Built This · 14 Jun 2021 · 1h 03m

What this episode covers

Rich Barton, co-founder of Expedia and Zillow, explains how he leveraged Microsoft's resources to launch Expedia by empowering consumers to book travel online, bypassing traditional travel agents. He then co-founded Zillow to solve information asymmetry in real estate, introducing the 'Zestimate' algorithm that crashed the site upon launch due to overwhelming traffic. Barton details the strategic pivot from failed home auctions to data-driven estimates, the challenges of licensing proprietary data, and Zillow's evolution into a market-maker with Zillow Offers.

Most relevant to

founders before launch and companies scaling up

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Expedia, Zillow, Glass Door, Microsoft, Netscape, AOL, Carfax, Vanguard
Products
MSN, Prodigy, Zestimate, Zillow Offers
Also
Bill Gates, Lloyd Frank, David Vitel, Walt Mossberg, Spencer Rascoff, Robert Holman, Gordon Stevenson, Amy Batinski

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