In pursuit of price discovery, we discovered the Zestimate, which became our killer feature, providing real-time estimated values for homes, akin to a stock chart, appealing to homeowners who care deeply about their largest asset.

At Zillow, we built a PR data distribution infrastructure to feed local newspapers with housing data, capitalizing on the constant demand for housing news, which helped establish our brand without spending on traditional advertising.

When we launched Zillow, millions of users flocked to the site due to positive press from influential tech journalist Walt Mossberg, but our server crashed under the traffic, leading to a memorable headline about our popularity.

Zillow's long-term strategy is to create a super app that integrates all aspects of renting and buying homes, embedding ourselves in the workflow to solve real customer problems.

We aimed to empower consumers in the real estate market just as we did in the travel industry, by making information accessible and transparent.

A major concern for home buyers is the lack of transparency in pricing, often encountering unreasonable asking prices and hidden costs.

I believe the product is the most important part of the marketing mix; when we launched Zillow, we focused on creating a provocative feature that would generate discussion and interest.

The realization that our technology could work for both hobbyists and enterprises was pivotal when we received an email from Zillow about rewriting everything on top of Next.js.

I knew there would inevitably be a leading digital real estate marketplace in the US, and I wanted to be part of creating that solution.