Spencer Rascoff

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.

It's a great question. And I teach a course on entrepreneurship at Harvard to undergrads, and we spend a whole week on this exact question. So I'll try to answer it briefly, more briefly than I do when I teach it. There's an adage, which I do subscribe to, which is that if you're not somewhat embarrassed by the first version of your product, then you waited too long to ship it.

It's a great question. And I teach a course on entrepreneurship at Harvard to undergrads, and we spend a whole week on this exact question. So I'll try to answer it briefly, more briefly than I do when I teach it. There's an adage, which I do subscribe to, which is that if you're not somewhat embarrassed by the first version of your product, then you waited too long to ship it.

So in general, you just want to get something out there and start learning. And that's what building an MVP is all about. There are some exceptions where it makes sense to slow things down in order to have a more fully formed MVP. One is in categories where you can't have it be just okay. And this is things like blood testing, for example, right? Like you can't have a high degree of inaccuracy.

So in general, you just want to get something out there and start learning. And that's what building an MVP is all about. There are some exceptions where it makes sense to slow things down in order to have a more fully formed MVP. One is in categories where you can't have it be just okay. And this is things like blood testing, for example, right? Like you can't have a high degree of inaccuracy.

Another though is if there's just like a really obvious product feature that's really important for the launch. So in the case of Zillow, I made the very unpopular decision to delay the launch by, I want to say it was maybe a month or two. And this was, by the way, after it took us almost six months to come up with the idea and then six months to build it. So about a year that this team had been

Another though is if there's just like a really obvious product feature that's really important for the launch. So in the case of Zillow, I made the very unpopular decision to delay the launch by, I want to say it was maybe a month or two. And this was, by the way, after it took us almost six months to come up with the idea and then six months to build it. So about a year that this team had been

eating ramen noodles and not collecting salary and not being able to tell friends or family what we were working on and everyone kind of wondering why did you leave Expedia, et cetera. So to delay that by an extra two to three months was a lot. And the extra feature that I slowed things down to include was to allow homeowners to claim their home and edit their home facts.

eating ramen noodles and not collecting salary and not being able to tell friends or family what we were working on and everyone kind of wondering why did you leave Expedia, et cetera. So to delay that by an extra two to three months was a lot. And the extra feature that I slowed things down to include was to allow homeowners to claim their home and edit their home facts.

Because I knew that people were going to see this estimate of their home and they were going to have an opinion about it. And the opinion probably wouldn't be so great. And so we wanted to give them something to do. And the something to do is that they can actually impact it by saying, no, no, no, hold on. I have three bedrooms, not two bedrooms. Or I have 3,000 square feet, not 2,000 square feet.

Because I knew that people were going to see this estimate of their home and they were going to have an opinion about it. And the opinion probably wouldn't be so great. And so we wanted to give them something to do. And the something to do is that they can actually impact it by saying, no, no, no, hold on. I have three bedrooms, not two bedrooms. Or I have 3,000 square feet, not 2,000 square feet.

Because a lot of the inaccuracies of those earliest estimates were because of incorrect property data that we got from public record information. So we slowed things down to build that feature where people could claim and edit their home. And I think that was a worthwhile delay. And so I use that as an example.

Because a lot of the inaccuracies of those earliest estimates were because of incorrect property data that we got from public record information. So we slowed things down to build that feature where people could claim and edit their home. And I think that was a worthwhile delay. And so I use that as an example.

There are many products out there where perhaps there's one or two features that just delaying for a little longer might make sense, even though in general, you want to get your MVP out there as quickly as you can.

There are many products out there where perhaps there's one or two features that just delaying for a little longer might make sense, even though in general, you want to get your MVP out there as quickly as you can.

The iPhone had been out for a year and everybody had one or everyone at our company had one, but there were no apps on the early iPhone. It's hard to imagine that today, but the only apps on the first iPhones were the Apple apps. So you had mail, you had text, you had calendar, you had stocks, you had weather. And that was about it, calculator. And that was it, there were no apps.

The iPhone had been out for a year and everybody had one or everyone at our company had one, but there were no apps on the early iPhone. It's hard to imagine that today, but the only apps on the first iPhones were the Apple apps. So you had mail, you had text, you had calendar, you had stocks, you had weather. And that was about it, calculator. And that was it, there were no apps.

And I remember sitting at my desk and watching Steve Jobs at WWDC, the Worldwide Developer Conference of Apple, announcing that they were going to create an app store and they were going to let third-party developers, people like Zillow, build apps that people could then download in the app store. And I was floored. I stood up from my desk.

And I remember sitting at my desk and watching Steve Jobs at WWDC, the Worldwide Developer Conference of Apple, announcing that they were going to create an app store and they were going to let third-party developers, people like Zillow, build apps that people could then download in the app store. And I was floored. I stood up from my desk.

I ran over to my co-founder and said, we need to pivot the whole company to mobile. This is going to change everything because this is when you want Zillow, is when you're untethered from your desk. It's when you're driving around looking at houses. It's when you're walking around a neighborhood. It's when you're at a cocktail party at someone's house. That's when you want Zillow.