Zillow and the Innovator's Dilemma - The Flywheel

The startup graveyard is filled with companies led by entrepreneurs who realized that the way we buy and sell homes sucks, but couldn’t ultimately figure out how to change it. They weren’t thinking big or long-term enough. The companies that have made the biggest impact, like Zillow and Redfin, make it easier to search for houses, but then kick buy... See more

In order to grow their demand high enough to become a beneficial flywheel, Barton’s companies use a Data Content Loop to bootstrap their demand and create unique content and index an industry online (homes for Zillow, hotels and flights for Expedia, companies for Glassdoor).-Expedia: Prices for flights and hotels that before you’d have to get from ... See more

One of my fundamental insights along with Lloyd Frank, who's my co-founder at Zillow, and was at Microsoft, and Expedia, and Zillow with me as well, was that a regular person armed with a connected PC that's plugged into the internet was going to in effect, storm the best deal. Was going to be armed with a weapon to tear down every wall that separa... See more