Source: Tallahassee Democrat —
This year’s Power Forward Speaker Series featuring Spencer Rascoff was a master class in real estate and the art of navigating pitfalls as a tech entrepreneur.
The ninth annual event was co-presented Thursday by First Commerce Credit Union and the Florida State University Office of Research at the Ruby Diamond Concert Hall at FSU. The Tallahassee Democrat is also a Power Forward sponsor.
For roughly an hour, Rascoff offered insight on a broad spectrum of topics, including: treating employees well, being mission minded, taking time to disconnect and learning valuable lessons early on in his career.
By 23, the Harvard University graduate learned the value of being a strategic risk taker.
He cut his teeth at Texas Pacific Group, a large investment firm that got its start buying Continental Airlines out of bankruptcy and later American West Airlines. It was there he got the idea for Hotwire.com, a discount travel website, prompting him to leave the firm and launch his own company.
“We did a number of things to make sure that this company has survived,” Rascoff said. “The first thing we did was cut and cut deep. We went from about 200 employees to about 150 employees. We didn’t raise more capital. We did what’s called a down round, meaning we raised money from our venture capitalists at a lower price than the prior one.”
Rascoff shared the highs and lows, most notably the impact the Sept. 11 terrorist attack had on the travel-based startup. For a while, no one wanted to fly. Rascoff said major changes were necessary, including layoffs and a hard pivot to hotel booking. It worked and allowed the company to be sold, which offered a path to create a new venture.
