Spencer Rascoff

And so I left Expedia and I reached out, I as the co-founder of Hotwire that had recently sold to Expedia, I reached out to the co-founders of Expedia who had recently left Expedia and we joined up and spent a couple months brainstorming startup ideas. And all three of us were shopping for homes at that time. I was buying my first home.

We were pregnant with our first child, and it felt like the right time to buy a house. And I was surprised. Here we are in 2005. The internet is more than 10 years old, yet the state of... websites for shopping for home was pretty terrible.

We were pregnant with our first child, and it felt like the right time to buy a house. And I was surprised. Here we are in 2005. The internet is more than 10 years old, yet the state of... websites for shopping for home was pretty terrible.

And we started messing around with doing mashups of Google Maps, with Craigslist listings, with listings from MLS data, with county data that we could glean from King County, which is the county that Seattle is in. And it became clear that although there were plenty of websites out there, there were no real estate sites that prioritized the consumer.

And we started messing around with doing mashups of Google Maps, with Craigslist listings, with listings from MLS data, with county data that we could glean from King County, which is the county that Seattle is in. And it became clear that although there were plenty of websites out there, there were no real estate sites that prioritized the consumer.

Everything back then prioritized the real estate agent. And we thought that was backwards, that we could build something that prioritized the consumer experience rather than the agent experience. And so that was the genesis of Zillow.

Everything back then prioritized the real estate agent. And we thought that was backwards, that we could build something that prioritized the consumer experience rather than the agent experience. And so that was the genesis of Zillow.

And the product insight was rather than focusing on what's for sale, which many other real estate websites do, why don't we try to answer a different question, which is what's my house worth? And that's where the Zestimate came from. And the Zestimate is Zillow's opinion of what every home's value is.

And the product insight was rather than focusing on what's for sale, which many other real estate websites do, why don't we try to answer a different question, which is what's my house worth? And that's where the Zestimate came from. And the Zestimate is Zillow's opinion of what every home's value is.

And so figuring out that first version of the Zestimate was what we then took another couple months to launch. And we launched in 2006. I forget what month. But when we launched Zillow, we had a million visitors on our first day. We had four million visitors in our first month. It was one of the fastest launches of any consumer product.

And so figuring out that first version of the Zestimate was what we then took another couple months to launch. And we launched in 2006. I forget what month. But when we launched Zillow, we had a million visitors on our first day. We had four million visitors in our first month. It was one of the fastest launches of any consumer product.

And that's because the voyeurism and virality of seeing what people's houses are worth is so significant of being able to Zillow all your friends and see what your ex-girlfriend's house is worth and what your parents' house is worth and what your boss's house is worth and what your podcast interviewer's house is worth.

And that's because the voyeurism and virality of seeing what people's houses are worth is so significant of being able to Zillow all your friends and see what your ex-girlfriend's house is worth and what your parents' house is worth and what your boss's house is worth and what your podcast interviewer's house is worth.

All of that is super fun and a little creepy, but creepy is not necessarily bad because being provocative helps drive virality. And that's certainly one of the ways that Zillow grew.

All of that is super fun and a little creepy, but creepy is not necessarily bad because being provocative helps drive virality. And that's certainly one of the ways that Zillow grew.

We did not know that it would grow so big so quickly. We hoped.

We did not know that it would grow so big so quickly. We hoped.

I think when we started to know was a couple weeks before launch when there was a good product in test and we were able to start using it and we could see, and the employees, I think there were probably 20 or so employees at the time, we could see the addictive nature of being able to zoom over a neighborhood with a God's eye view and see the price of every home.

I think when we started to know was a couple weeks before launch when there was a good product in test and we were able to start using it and we could see, and the employees, I think there were probably 20 or so employees at the time, we could see the addictive nature of being able to zoom over a neighborhood with a God's eye view and see the price of every home.

And so we hoped at that point, but it actually, you know, although we had a very fast start, what really catapulted Zillow was mobile. And that wasn't until a couple of years later with the creation of the smartphone and the GPS enabled smartphones and the creation of the app store.