I started Expedia inside of Microsoft in the mid-90’s then spun it out into EXPE in 1999 and was CEO until 2003.  After living in Italy for a year, I co-founded Zillow with a friend from Expedia, Lloyd Frink.  Zillow is an indispensible tool if you are interested in real estate or mortgages.  I also co-founded Glassdoor in 2007 with another pair of Expedia alums, Bob Hohman and Tim Besse.  Glassdoor gives you an inside view of what it’s like to work for a company, allows you to understand salary specifics, and gives you sneak peek at interview questions and answers.  Recently, I co-founded NewTravelco.com, a stealthy online travel startup that former Expedians Greg Slyngstad, Simon Breakwell, and Sunil Shah are running.  I also sit on the boards of Netflix, Avvo (lawyer ratings and legal answers,) Realself (ratings and reviews of “aesthetic” procedures and products,) and L1 (a quantitative hedge fund).   Finally, I am a venture partner at Benchmark Capital, an early stage venture capital firm in Menlo Park. 

My family consumes my free time, but for relaxation I love to fly-fish, surf, and snowboard.  The blog’s name, HopperAndDropper.com, comes from fly-fishing and refers to a fly combination designed to lure the big one.  A “hopper” is a grasshopper, which floats on the surface, while a “dropper” is a sinking fly, like a Copper John, that dangles a foot or so below the hopper.  Give it a try.