Spencer Rascoff

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.

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.