Redfin’s Tedx Talk: Take the Red Pill

A few weeks ago, I flew to Chicago for a Tedx presentation on my favorite subject, how software entrepreneurs can build real-world companies. If you’re a coder looking for ideas to start a company, we have a few suggestions for you at 8:45: If you’re just wondering what happens when a software CEO attends an… Read More

Since When Did We Become a Lobby?

When one of my best friends was just getting started in his career, he wrote a paper arguing that Nevada has the most business-friendly laws in the U.S. He’d just moved there to take a position as head of marketing for SuperPawn, the world’s second-largest chain of pawnshops. Now he runs business development for one… Read More

Never Tell Me the Odds

In a board call last month, I finally told everyone that the commission savings that Redfin offers home sellers and buyers dramatically lowers our profits margins and there is no evidence that it drives more revenue. We have, I told our investors, given away $100 million because of my irrational belief that Redfin was put… Read More

Friendship and Solitude

Have you read the wonderful, deeply counter-cultural lecture on solitude and leadership delivered by William Deresiewicz in spring 2010 to the West Point plebe class? I just found it via David Brooks, and can hardly recommend it enough. Part of what makes the lecture seem so important is the audience hearing it. West Point students are… Read More

Headphone Culture

I just toured a startup the other day and what struck me while making the rounds was the fundamental sameness of the startup vibe: a handsome group of slack-jawed folks drowning out their ADD with 80-decibels of music. Startup offices are supposed to have the buzz a newsroom once had, but often are sort of… Read More