Expedia started as a venture within Microsoft, and I left the operating system group to pursue it because of my wife's medical residency requirements.

I pitched the idea of Expedia as a consumer-focused travel software company, emphasizing that it should prioritize travel over software.

We took 150 people from Microsoft to join Expedia, and almost all of them chose to take the adventure, which was a testament to the opportunity we presented.

I pitched the spin-out of Expedia as an HR experiment to retain talent, as Microsoft was so large that many talented individuals could hide away and not contribute meaningfully.

The highest highs during my career were around the spin-out and IPO of Expedia, especially the moment my son was born on the same day as the IPO.

On the day of Expedia's IPO, my son was born, and I jokingly promised the team I would name him Expedia if that happened.

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, there were many ups and downs for e-commerce companies, but by 2005 and 2006, many were starting to recover.

At the time, the success of Google felt completely uncertain, especially during the dot-com crash when many thought we wouldn't survive.

The hardest part of recruiting for Expedia was convincing the spouses of potential hires, as they were often the most skeptical about the risks involved.