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Blog Category: Rich Barton

PAGE Entrepreneurs in Their Own Words – Rich Barton

PAGE Entrepreneurs in Their Own Words – Rich Barton

Has Expedia helped you find the best deal for your vacation? Ever used Glassdoor to compare the salaries of different jobs or help you negotiate your next raise? Or have you looked up a Zestimate on Zillow to discover your next home? If you answered yes to any of these questions, the man behind these revolutionary companies is someone you should know. 

As a founder of these three major businesses, Rich Barton believes bringing the power of information and transparency to the people.
 
“All of my companies are about what I call ‘power to the people,’ bringing the power of information and transparency to regular folks so that they can take control of big decisions in their lives,” Barton said.
 
While working at Microsoft as a product manager in the 1990s, Barton felt frustrated every time he had to talk to somebody on the phone to book a flight or plan a business trip. He wanted to jump through the phone, grab the computer screen, and make the decisions himself. That’s when he decided to channel his frustration into a solution.
 
Barton directly pitched his bosses at the time – Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates – on the idea that Expedia could become the largest seller of travel in the world. They bit. He assembled a great team from across Microsoft and began to build Expedia inside the company. Expedia grew quickly and in 1999, Barton persuaded Microsoft’s leadership to spin out Expedia into an independent company.