Office Hours with Spencer Rascoff

Zillow Group

When a couple of CEOs get in a room together, what do they talk about? Listen in as Zillow Group’s Spencer Rascoff has the kinds of conversations that can only happen when peers get real: tackling tough questions, sharing hard-won insights, defining what leadership means in the digital age. And maybe even revealing the people behind the title.

  • 33 minutes 41 seconds
    Los Angeles-based Startup Apex Is Tapping Into the Small Satellite Market by Making Buses for Spacecraft

    Spencer speaks with Ian Cinnamon, the CEO and co-founder of Culver City-based startup Apex, which manufactures productized, configurable satellite buses for the expanding space industry. As access to space becomes democratized, Apex's is poised to offer its scalable solutions to both commercial and government customers. 

    Prior to Apex, Ian founded Synapse, a startup that built AI systems for the defense and security worlds, which he helped grow before it was acquired by Palantir.

    Ian is an alumnus of the Y Combinator accelerator program and received his undergraduate degree from MIT and MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. (Disclosure: dot.LA co-founder Spencer Rascoff is an investor in Apex.)

    2 June 2023, 7:01 am
  • 26 minutes 51 seconds
    From the Vault: How Eddy Lu and his Co-founder Built The GOAT App Based on a Love of Vintage Air Jordans

    Eddy Lu, CEO of GOAT, explains his pivot from a restaurant meet-up app, the ups and downs of working with his co-founder, and how insight into the sneaker vertical on eBay helped build the start-up into what it is today.

    This episode was originally released in February of 2011. 

    19 May 2023, 7:01 am
  • 39 minutes 6 seconds
    Howie Liu, Co-founder and CEO of Airtable, Shares How Selling His Start-up to Salesforce Led to Building their Unique Product
    Howie Liu is the co-founder and CEO of tech decacorn Airtable, a connected apps platform that lets users build and customize apps using shared data. As a no code platform, Airtable has iterated and innovated their product by combining the features of a relational database by using an interface that looks like a spreadsheet. Since it's founding in 2012, the company has raised nearly $1.4B in funding and is currently valued at $11B.

    In this episode, Howie talks about starting his first company, taking part in the Y Combinator accelerator, and how selling his company Etacts to Salesforce led him to innovating and creating products with enterprise clients in mind. Liu is a graduate of Duke University.

    5 May 2023, 7:01 am
  • 30 minutes 46 seconds
    From Bootstrapping as a Solo Founder — Shiloh Johnson Talks About Building ComplYant

    In this episode of Office Hours, Spencer speaks with L.A.-based entrepreneur Shiloh Johnson, the CEO and founder of ComplYant, a digital tax assistant tool. The technology platform offers small business owners and entrepreneurs an easy way to handle business taxes. The fintech startup was originally bootstrapped by Johnson, who as a Black female founder thought she'd be overlooked by VCs. Since then, Shiloh raised $5.5M in seed funding through Techstars’ Los Angeles program.

    7 April 2023, 7:01 am
  • 44 minutes 42 seconds
    From The Vault: Bill Gurley Drops Knowledge on Startups, Venture Capital And Scaling

    Bill Gurley, Legendary Silicon Valley VC, is a general partner at Benchmark and famously known for investing early in trailblazing companies including Uber, GrubHub, Zillow and so many others. Hear this conversation with Spencer from the dot.LA Summit where they discuss marketplace-based companies, how work-from-home will accelerate business opportunity, and why startups—though they might be attached to their autonomy—should pick up the phone when a big company calls. Plus, hear Bill’s thoughtful take on big tech and antitrust. This interview was originally published on December of 2020, and was recorded at the inaugural dot.LA Summit held October 27th & 28th. 

     

     

    24 March 2023, 7:01 am
  • 30 minutes 25 seconds
    Airvet Founder and CEO Brandon Werber Discusses Pet Telehealth and Shifting to B2B

    Growing up as the son of a nationally renowned veterinarian, Brandon knows first-hand the importance of having access to experts when your pet is sick. In 2018, Werber launched Airvet, a Beverly Hills-based digital health company for pets. Airvet works with employers and business partners to make sure pet parents get affordable and fast access to virtual vet care via video and chat. (Disclosure: dot.LA co-founder Spencer Rascoff is an investor in Airvet.)

    10 March 2023, 7:55 am
  • 27 minutes 16 seconds
    The Ford Foundation's Roy Swan on Leading the Foundation's Growth

    Roy Swan, Director of The Ford Foundation's Mission Investments team, is committed to increasing the impact of their portfolio of mission-related investments (MRIs). He works alongside the organization's leadership to identify opportunities and guide decision-making processes as they relate to its global activities. Prior to joining the Foundation, Roy served as managing director and co-head of Global Sustainable Finance at Morgan Stanley. While there, he oversaw massive community development transactions that generated over $13 billion in value for investors. 

    Roy received his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and a JD from Stanford Law School, where he was an editor of the Stanford Law Review.

     
    24 February 2023, 2:07 am
  • 37 minutes 36 seconds
    ‘Life Beyond Likes’: Isa Watson Speaks About Her Social Audio Platform, Squad

    Spencer speaks with Isa Watson, the Founder & CEO of Squad. Watson, author of the upcoming book, "Life Beyond Likes: Logging Off Your Screen and Into Your Life." In the book, she raises awareness around how social media has impacted our daily lives, self-worth, and real life relationships. With so much of our lives lived online, Isa argues, we’ve never been more connected—or disconnected—from what’s most important to us. It’s time to let go of our curated online worlds and get beyond our need for likes. As the founder of Squad, an audio- focused app, Watson created a fun and easy way to stay in touch with your best friends everyday—away from the distractions of traditional social media.

     

    10 February 2023, 8:02 am
  • 39 minutes 40 seconds
    Community’s Diankha Linear on Scaling a Company for Enterprise

    Diankha Linear, CEO of Community, an SMS marketing platform for business, speaks with Spencer in this episode of Office Hours. Ms. Linear was an officer and early executive team member at Convoy, serving as General Counsel and corporate secretary—overseeing one of Seattle’s largest VC transactions with a Series D Round of $400M, among other roles in the startup. Diankha comes from a strategy and leadership background, built on her years of military education and training with the Army and as a Judge Advocate General (JAG) officer.

    Ms Linear spent nearly a decade in leadership roles at Nordstrom and Expeditors International of Washington. Her early career was spent at big firm antitrust, complex commercial, constitutional, and employment law counsel. Diankha is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and the University of Washington. (Disclosure: dot.LA co-founder Spencer Rascoff is an investor in Community.)

     
    27 January 2023, 8:01 am
  • 32 minutes 59 seconds
    Legendary Tech Entrepreneur Steve Case Speaks About Why Great Ideas Come From Everywhere, and How the Next Generation of Founders Won't be from Traditional Tech Hubs
    Steve Case, co-founder of AOL and CEO of Revolution speaks with Spencer about his current mission to locate compelling investment opportunities outside of the traditional tech hubs like Silicon Valley. Case's Rise of the Rest Seed Fund is a Revolution initiative aimed at accelerating the growth of early-stage startups across the country. The ideas is that there's more opportunity for investors to back companies in other parts of the country during their early stages, since valuation and arbitration are lower in less competitive sectors. Starting about eight years ago, Case hit the road on a bus tour where he visited various cities around the U.S., contributing seed funding to local startups through pitch competitions, and speaking to local innovators, business, and policy leaders. Steve's latest book The Rise of the Rest: How Entrepreneurs in Surprising Places are Building the New American Dream is available now.
    13 January 2023, 7:59 am
  • 40 minutes 43 seconds
    CEO of Virta Health Sami Inkinen is On a Mission to Reverse Type 2 Diabetes For 100 Million People by the Year 2025

    Spencer speaks with Sami Inkinen, the CEO and Founder of Virta Health. After winning the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in 2011, the triathlete found out that he was pre-diabetic that same year. Unsatisfied with the conventional wisdom of “exercise more and eat less,” Sami dug into the science of type 2 diabetes, by consulting experts on the science of carbohydrate restriction and metabolic health. Seeking to raise awareness about the dangers of sugar, Inkinen and his wife rowed across the Pacific Ocean for 45 days—completely unsupported—from California to Hawaii for 2,750 miles. While on that journey, the idea for Virta was born. His personal mantra on that trip was "Use Sisu, not Sugar"—with the Finnish concept of Stoicism, tenacity, and grit, as determination to help himself and others reverse their diagnoses. 

    Virta is an app-based, health technology start-up that offers treatment to reverse type 2 diabetes without surgery, allowing patients to work with medical providers and health coaches on a nearly real-time basis. Virta’s approach helps patients get off of all diabetes-specific medications while achieving sub-diabetic HbA1c (blood sugar)—in 60% of patients who complete one-year of the Virta Treatment. Of those patients prescribed insulin, 94% reduce or fully-eliminate usage. 

    Previously, Inkinen was the co-founder of real estate marketplace Trulia, serving as its COO and president and board member until its IPO and sale to Zillow Group. Sami is also an active angel investor in healthcare. Inkinen started his career as a radiochemist at a nuclear power plant. He holds a Master of Science in engineering physics from the Helsinki University of Technology, and a Master of Business Administration from Stanford University.  (Disclosure: dot.LA co-founder Spencer Rascoff is an investor in Virta.)

    30 December 2022, 8:02 am
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