Early Life
Richard Barton was born on June 2, 1967, in New Canaan, Connecticut. He graduated from Stanford University in 1989 with a degree in industrial design. Barton's early life experiences, including running an ice cream truck and caddying, honed his entrepreneurial skills.
Rise to Success
Barton's career began at Microsoft in 1991, where he worked as a product manager. In 1994, he founded Expedia, Inc. within Microsoft. Expedia was spun off as a public company in 1999, with Barton as CEO until 2003. In 2006, Barton co-founded Zillow.com with Lloyd Frink. Zillow became popular due to its Zestimate feature, which provided estimated home values. Barton served as CEO of Zillow until 2010, returning to the role in 2019 and transitioning to co-executive chairman in August 2024.
Key Business Strategies
Barton's success stems from identifying industries with information gaps and creating consumer-focused platforms. He focused on creating network effects, where user participation improves the service. His strategies have consistently disrupted established industries by leveraging technology and transparency. Barton's approach included identifying information asymmetries, building consumer-centric platforms to organize data, and leveraging technology to eliminate intermediaries.
Philanthropy
The search results did not yield information regarding Richard Barton's specific philanthropic initiatives. However, it mentions that Barton and his wife are supporters of Stanford's Bing Overseas Studies Program and undergraduate education, establishing an undergraduate scholarship fund.