Spencer Rascoff has accomplished a lot in his young career, not only helping to build the powerful online real estate company Zillow, but also serving as an early executive at travel upstart Hotwire.
But maybe the 40-year-old former investment banker could toss it all away and just head to the ranch.
In an interview with Fortune — oddly filmed standing up in a studio — the Harvard-educated executive says if he wasn’t running Zillow he’d like to be a stay-at-home dad.
But then he goes in a direction that none of us saw coming, noting he’d also like to be a cowboy. Or maybe a crossing guard.
“I’ve always wanted to be a cowboy. I love riding horses. Maybe something outside. One of my biggest regrets about my career choices — I love my job and I love running a technology company — but you have to do it inside, and I hate that,” he said. “I wish I could have a career outside, whether that be a cowboy or a crossing guard.”
Even so, Rascoff doesn’t sound like he’s ready to buy his cowboy hat and spurs. In the same interview, the Zillow CEO says that he’s excited about his work because “it’s so early” in online real estate.
“We are going to look back, and 2016 is going to seem quaint pretty soon, so it is very early in the evolution of our industry,” said Rascoff, who helped orchestrate the takeover of rival Trulia last year. Asked what by Fortune’s Leigh Gallagher what keeps him up at night, Rascoff says “everything,” pointing out that he’s a natural worrier. He then added that the thing he spends the most time on is how engaged Zillow employees are in their work.
You can watch the full video here.
Editor’s note: Rascoff and Zillow co-founders Rich Barton and Lloyd Frink will be our guests on the next GeekWire radio show and podcast. Subscribe to our show here.
