Office Hours with Spencer Rascoff

Spencer Rascoff is a New York Times bestselling author who co-founded four tech companies, invested in over 50, and was CEO of Zillow for a decade. His first start-up, Hotwire, sold to Expedia for $685 million, and his second start-up, Zillow, is now a real estate colossus, worth around $10 billion dollars. Now, he’s cofounded dot.LA, a media company covering the cutting-edge LA tech scene. Hear Spencer speak with CEOs, start-up founders, venture capitalists, and prominent thought leaders about how to manage, how to lead, and how to win in business.

Los Angeles-based Startup Apex Is Tapping Into the Small Satellite Market by Making Buses for Spacecraft 06/02/2023

From the Vault: How Eddy Lu and his Co-founder Built The GOAT App Based on a Love of Vintage Air Jordans 05/19/2023

Howie Liu, Co-founder and CEO of Airtable, Shares How Selling His Start-up to Salesforce Led to Building their Unique Product 05/05/2023

From Bootstrapping as a Solo Founder — Shiloh Johnson Talks About Building ComplYant 04/07/2023

From The Vault: Bill Gurley Drops Knowledge on Startups, Venture Capital And Scaling 03/24/2023

Airvet Founder and CEO Brandon Werber Discusses Pet Telehealth and Shifting to B2B 03/10/2023

The Ford Foundation's Roy Swan on Leading the Foundation's Growth 02/24/2023

‘Life Beyond Likes’: Isa Watson Speaks About Her Social Audio Platform, Squad 02/10/2023

Community’s Diankha Linear on Scaling a Company for Enterprise 01/27/2023

Legendary Tech Entrepreneur Steve Case Speaks About Why Great Ideas Come From Everywhere, and How the Next Generation of Founders Won't be from Traditional Tech Hubs 01/13/2023

CEO of Virta Health Sami Inkinen is On a Mission to Reverse Type 2 Diabetes For 100 Million People by the Year 2025 12/30/2022

CEO of Virta Health Sami Inkinen is On a Mission to Reverse Type 2 Diabetes For 100 Million People by the Year 2025 Spencer speaks with , the CEO and Founder of Virta Health. After winning the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in 2011, the found out that he was pre-diabetic that same year. Unsatisfied with the conventional wisdom of “exercise more and eat less,” Sami dug into the science of type 2 diabetes, by consulting experts on the science of carbohydrate restriction and metabolic health. Seeking to raise awareness about the dangers of sugar, Inkinen and his wife for 45 days—completely unsupported—from California to Hawaii for 2,750 miles. While on that journey, the idea for Virta was born. His personal mantra on that trip was "Use Sisu, not Sugar"—with the Finnish concept of Stoicism, tenacity, and grit, as determination to help himself and others reverse their diagnoses. Virta is an app-based, health technology start-up that offers treatment to reverse type 2 diabetes without surgery, allowing patients to work with medical providers and health coaches on a nearly real-time basis. Virta’s approach helps patients get off of all diabetes-specific medications while achieving sub-diabetic HbA1c (blood sugar)—in 60% of patients who complete one-year of the Virta Treatment. Of those patients prescribed insulin, 94% reduce or fully-eliminate usage. Previously, Inkinen was the co-founder of real estate marketplace Trulia, serving as its COO and president and board member until its IPO and sale to Zillow Group. Sami is also an active angel investor in healthcare. Inkinen started his career as a radiochemist at a nuclear power plant. He holds a Master of Science in engineering physics from the Helsinki University of Technology, and a Master of Business Administration from Stanford University. (Disclosure: dot.LA co-founder Spencer Rascoff is an investor in Virta.) /episode/index/show/officehourswithspencerrascoff/id/25445316