The Student Alumni Association held an event at the Intercontinental Hotel in Century City Jan. 27 for students and faculty. Spencer Rascoff ’93 spoke to students about running Zillow, an online real estate database company founded in 2006.

After graduating from Harvard-Westlake, Rascoff earned his A.B. degree at Harvard University.
He then went on to work as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns and Allen & Company.

He was recognized in Forbes magazine as one of America’s 20 Most Powerful CEOs 40 and Under in 2012 and 2013, and received the Ernst & Young’s National Entrepreneur of the Year 2013 Services Award.

Prior to leading Zillow, Rascoff served as the vice president of lodging for Expedia, an online travel company.By the age of 24, he co-founded Hotwire.com, which he sold for $663 million in 2003 to the American media and Internet company InterActiveCorp. Since joining Zillow as an employee in 2005, he had taken up multiple roles including chief operating officer.

In 2010, he was appointed as its CEO and has developed it into one of the two largest online real estate listing companies, according to an article in Forbes magazine.

Rascoff has also written a book titled, “Zillow Talk: Rewriting the Rules of Real Estate”, which includes tips on selling, purchasing and renting houses, and discusses the current trends in the housing market.

SAA plans on holding another event March 1 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel featuring the alumni speaker Kevin Demoff ’95. Demoff, the chief operating officer of the Los Angeles Rams, will discuss his role in spearheading the team’s move from St. Louis to its hometown after 21 years.
Demoff manages all of the Los Angeles Rams’ business operations, such as marketing and sales, strategy for player signings and community relations.

He is currently expecting to partner with either the Chargers or Raiders football team in Inglewood.