From Idea to IPO: A Behind-the-Scenes Retrospective on Building Trulia

In 2003: I had just come over from the UK to attend Stanford GSB.  Back in Europe, I had been part of the founding team of lastminute.com (acquired in 2005 for $1.1B) and was figuring out ideas for my next startup. That startup became real estate marketplace Trulia (merged with Zillow for $3.5BN in 2015).

20 years later:  I recently had the opportunity to go back to Stanford and talk with GSB students about my Founder journey, including how we used a downturn to our advantage.

Today we’re making that talk public, to give more startups and CEOs a look at the playbook and tactics we used to grow a billion-dollar business from idea to IPO.

The talk covers most of my Founder journey from idea to IPO, including:

• How the idea for Trulia was crystallized [Read: Hidden Patterns of Startup Ideas
• The unique advantages of Student-Founders [Read: Why Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Trulia Were All Born on College Campuses]
• Solving the chicken and egg problem at Trulia [Read: 19 Tactics to Solve The Chicken and Egg Problem]
• How network effects made Trulia less fragile and more defensible [Read: The Network Effects of Trulia]
• The critical elements of company culture [Read: The NFX Culture Scorecard]
• The mental shift from product manager company manager [Read: The Mental Shift from Founder to CEO]
• Structuring your company for growth [Read: 4 Signs You’re Building A World-Class Team]
• Surviving (and gaining ground) in a downturn [Read: 39 Moves for Surviving and Thriving in a Downturn]
• Why it’s critical to avoid your own reality distortion field [Read: Don’t Believe Your Own Bullshit]