Spencer Rascoff (born October 24, 1975) is an American entrepreneur and businessman. He was the co-founder and former chief executive officer of Zillow Group, as well as one of the co-founders of Hotwire.com. Rascoff was on the board of directors of Palantir. Additionally, Rascoff held the position of Visiting Executive Professor at Harvard Business School where he co-created and co-taught the “Managing Tech Ventures” course.[1]
Rascoff was born to Jane and Joseph Rascoff. His father was a business manager and tour producer for numerous well known musicians including The Rolling Stones, U2, and Paul Simon.[2] Rascoff grew up in New York and then Los Angeles, where he attended Harvard-Westlake. He received a degree in 1997 from Harvard University.[3]
After graduating from college, Rascoff worked as a private equity investor at TPG Capital and also as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs.[4]
In 1999, at the age of 24, Rascoff co-founded Hotwire.com, a leading Internet travel company, which a few years later was sold to InterActiveCorp for $685 million. Rascoff then served as vice president of lodging for Expedia before leaving to co-found Zillow.[5]
Rascoff served various roles through the years including chief operating officer, chief financial officer, and VP of Marketing until his appointment to CEO in 2010.[6] As CEO, Rascoff led Zillow through its 2011 IPO and 15 acquisitions. In 2017, Rascoff was named "The Most Powerful Person in Residential Real Estate" by the Swanepoel Power 200.[7] Rascoff stepped down from his CEO position in February 2019.[8] In April 2020, Rascoff resigned from Zillow's board of directors.[9] [10]
In January 2020, Rascoff co-founded dot.la, a news site for the California tech startup industry.[11]
In October 2020, Rascoff co-founded Pacaso alongside Austin Allison. Pacaso is positioned as a real estate platform that makes second home ownership more accessible through shared ownership.[12] Pacaso has been described by some as an alternative take on the timeshare model of property ownership.[13] [14] [15]
In June 2021, Rascoff co-founded Recon Food with his daughter, Sophia Rascoff. The app uses technology to search a user's camera roll for all previous food-related photos and automatically upload them to the app.[16]
In 2015, he co-wrote and published his first book, “Zillow Talk: Rewriting the Rules of Real Estate.”[17]