Spencer Rascoff

I teach entrepreneurship at Harvard across Harvard College and Harvard Business School, focused on building and scaling technology companies.

My course, Startups from Idea to Exit, covers the full arc of company-building: from ideation and product development to product-market fit, fundraising, and scaling. It’s consistently one of the most popular and highest-rated courses at Harvard, with strong student satisfaction and engagement across disciplines.

The class brings real-world… Show more

I teach entrepreneurship at Harvard across Harvard College and Harvard Business School, focused on building and scaling technology companies.

My course, Startups from Idea to Exit, covers the full arc of company-building: from ideation and product development to product-market fit, fundraising, and scaling. It’s consistently one of the most popular and highest-rated courses at Harvard, with strong student satisfaction and engagement across disciplines.

The class brings real-world perspective into the classroom through guest speakers and is designed for students across all concentrations. Show less

Replify is an AI sales assistant for small businesses and individuals which talks to your leads, qualifies them, and schedules them for you.

Varo is working hard to build a future that's more diverse and financially inclusive. As a new kind of bank, Varo is entirely digital, mission-driven, FDIC insured, and designed for the way customers live their lives. Varo is working with a team that uniquely and strategically combines banking veterans with technology experts. The banking experts provide decades of industry experience, and the tech experts can build a mobile app that offers everyone access to premium banking, including quicker… Show more

Varo is working hard to build a future that's more diverse and financially inclusive. As a new kind of bank, Varo is entirely digital, mission-driven, FDIC insured, and designed for the way customers live their lives. Varo is working with a team that uniquely and strategically combines banking veterans with technology experts. The banking experts provide decades of industry experience, and the tech experts can build a mobile app that offers everyone access to premium banking, including quicker access to your money, high-yield savings, and automatic saving tools. Show less

Queue is a new social way to save, share, and discuss what you want to watch and what you’re binging. On Queue, you can look up any movie or show, see where it’s streaming, and start binging. You can also keep track of everything you’ve watched and everything your friends recommend.

The app, co-founded by Spencer Rascoff and Garrett Rothstein, provides real recommendations from real friends. Follow your closest friends and see what they’re watching, unlock fun badges, check out the Top… Show more

Queue is a new social way to save, share, and discuss what you want to watch and what you’re binging. On Queue, you can look up any movie or show, see where it’s streaming, and start binging. You can also keep track of everything you’ve watched and everything your friends recommend.

The app, co-founded by Spencer Rascoff and Garrett Rothstein, provides real recommendations from real friends. Follow your closest friends and see what they’re watching, unlock fun badges, check out the Top 10 trending titles on your favorite services, and use the social sharing features to tell your friends about what you’re adding to your Queue. Show less

Recon Food is a vertical social media app that will bring people together through a shared love of food. The app, which is co-founded by Spencer Rascoff, co-founder of Zillow and Hotwire, and his 16-year-old daughter, Sophia Rascoff, was developed in response to the need for a healthy space to connect with others away from the noise, toxicity and politics that often bombard mainstream social media apps.

Recon Food is social media, but specific to food. Users can either take photos of… Show more

Recon Food is a vertical social media app that will bring people together through a shared love of food. The app, which is co-founded by Spencer Rascoff, co-founder of Zillow and Hotwire, and his 16-year-old daughter, Sophia Rascoff, was developed in response to the need for a healthy space to connect with others away from the noise, toxicity and politics that often bombard mainstream social media apps.

Recon Food is social media, but specific to food. Users can either take photos of their restaurant dishes and review them, or take photos of the dishes they make in their own kitchen for others to see. Users are able to take photos on-demand or let the innovative technology search their camera roll and upload any food-centric photos ever taken. The app then uses geolocation to identify the restaurants where you took the photos and allows you to recommend the dishes. Recon Food users can decide if they want to share their photos and reviews with their connections or with the larger community.

Show less

75 & Sunny works with and mentors founders of companies in 75 & Sunny Ventures’ portfolio and takes an active role in launching new start-ups through 75 & Sunny Labs.

dotLA is a media and events company which shines a light on the innovation in the Los Angeles tech community.
I founded dotLA in 2019 and was Chair until 2024 when the company sold.

Supernova 1 was a SPAC that merged with Offerpad (OPAD) and Supernova 2 was a SPAC that merged with Riggeti Computing (RGTI).

I am currently working on a few new startup ideas with a couple of teams and co-founders, and angel investing full-time.
You can learn more about my angel investing here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/my-angel-investments-spencer-rascoff/
Many of my angel investments are LA-based companies, including: Fernish, Relativity Space, SpaceX, Sonic Energy, All Voices, Fair, Betmo, and others.

In the fall semester of 2019, I co-created and co-taught a course called "Managing Tech Ventures" at Harvard Business school for second year MBA students. The course focused on corporate strategy, company culture, and business transformation at large tech companies. The course mostly centered around my personal professional experiences at companies I've been involved in or have studied.
Case studies included: Zillow, TripAdvisor, Zulily, Netflix, GOAT, Hulu, and others.

On Board of Zulily from pre-IPO through $2.5B sale to QVC in Sept 2015.

Ran part of the hotel partner relations group. Managed team of >150 people.

Co-founded Hotwire.com. Ran hotels, packages and rental car groups.
Sold Hotwire to IAC/InterActiveCorp in December 2003.