Spencer Rascoff Thumbnail2When Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff started working at his high school newspaper years ago, he probably didn’t think the lessons he learned would help him run a public company one day.

But that’s what Rascoff details in a post on Fortune, crediting his high school newspaper advisor for teaching him business skills that he’s used throughout his career.

Rascoff, who is speaking at the GeekWire Summit next month, describes how he learned effective management and leadership techniques while working with Kathy Neumeyer, his advisor, as editor-in-chief of the paper.

“It’s clear she taught me how to be a journalist and the importance of the media,” Rascoff wrote. “But what really stuck with me were the underlying skills that it takes to run a business: lead by example, work with intensity, act with integrity and pay attention to detail.”

Rascoff, who joined Seattle-based online real estate company Zillow in 2005 as one of the first employees and assumed the CEO role in 2010, said his experience as an editor also sparked an interest in evolving media platforms.

Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff
Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff

“We used cutting edge technology to run the newspaper back in 1992 — we were one of the first high school papers in the country to use Pagemaker on a Mac,” he wrote. “Today, the technologies have changed, but my desire to seek new methods to tell stories and influence people have not.”

Rascoff took Zillow public in 2011 and oversaw the blockbuster $2.5 billion acquisition of rival Trulia earlier this year. A compelling speaker who received Ernst and Young’s National Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the 39-year-old has been named one of America’s most powerful CEOs under 40.

Editor’s note: Hear more from Zillow’s Spencer Rascoff and many other top leaders in the technology field at the GeekWire Summit on Oct. 1-2. Tickets available here.

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