Spencer Rascoff hasn't ridden off into the sunset after leaving Seattle-based Zillow Group Inc. (Nasdaq: ZG) in 2019.
Rascoff, who co-founded the real estate tech company and served as CEO for nine years, is launching and investing in startups through his firm, 75 & Sunny. Despite the fact that he is now helping run at least three startups, Rascoff said he doesn't feel spread too thin.
"I have great co-founders at all of these companies, and I view my mission as trying to help coach and mentor them so they can be even better executives," Rascoff told the Business Journal. "I love the diversity in my day of being able to work on different projects and different companies."
Rascoff's new companies include Queue, an app designed to organize streaming content, and Pacaso, a company that helps consumers co-own a second home. In August, Rascoff launched a Seattle startup called heyLibby with fellow Zillow veterans Tony Small and Anna Rodriguez, who are both based in the area. The startup provides small businesses with chatbots to instantly engage leads on social media or websites.
Rascoff said heyLibby gives small businesses the same tools consumers have come to expect when they engage with a big company's website. He used finding a pizza truck for his kid's birthday as an example of why this technology could be helpful, as Rascoff had simple questions to make sure a given pizza truck would meet the geography and dietary requirements for the party before placing an order.
"Eventually that pizza place is going to have an AI bot on social for sure, just as certain as they have a phone number on their website," Rascoff said.
Rascoff, who also co-founded the travel website Hotwire.com, launched Zillow with fellow co-founder Rich Barton in 2006. After his nine-year stint as CEO, Rascoff remained on the board, and Barton took over as CEO, where he remains today. Rascoff, who moved back to his hometown of Los Angeles for family and lifestyle reasons in 2016, remained on Zillow's board until April 2020.
In addition to the startups he has launched, his 75 & Sunny venture arm has invested in an array of startups, including local companies like Flyhomes and Syndio. The firm has also launched a news and events company called dot.LA, which produces a newsletter and focuses on the Los Angeles tech scene.
Rascoff said he focuses on companies that make valuable services more accessible to the general public. For example, heyLibby is focused on taking chatbots typically available to large companies and providing them to small businesses. He is also working on a new company that is focused on AI and will have Seattle-based co-founders, but he didn't give more specifics for now.
"I think AI has the potential to have an even more seismic impact on technology and society than the advent of the smartphone," Rascoff said.
