Real estate site Zillow cuts 40 employees

October 17, 2008 | Anthony Ha | Comments |

This week’s flurry of startup cutbacks continues with Zillow, the real estate site best-known for estimating the value of people’s homes. Today, the Seattle startup announced that it’s cutting 25 percent of its staff. That’s a cut of 40 employees, according to local tech reporter John Cook.

Chief executive Rich Barton writes that Zillow’s traffic was actually up 42 percent in September compared to the same period last year, and that the company’s cash reserves are healthy. (For a web startup, Zillow is very well-funded, with a total of $87 million in venture financing.) But the company isn’t profitable yet, and he says “we had no choice but to securely batten down the hatches as we sail into a major economic storm.”

Zillow backers include Benchmark Capital, whose general partner Bill Gurley sent out an email to portfolio companies last week urging them to bring their finances under control (Zillow competitor Trulia is backed by Sequoia Capital, which recently called its startups in for its own cautionary presentation.) Another Seattle real estate site called Redfin announced a 20 percent layoff earlier this week.

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About the Author, Anthony Ha

Anthony is VentureBeat's assistant editor, as well as its reporter on enterprise technology, cloud computing, and tech policy. Before joining VentureBeat in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.

  • Jim
    Was all this going to happen anyway because these firms run bloated? Is it about speculative hiring etc and a fallout or about panic and shoring up for an extended slow period? Id like to better understand the context. No joke MocoSpace is HIRING, not firing.
  • It's probably a mix. In Zillow's case, I haven't seen any reason to think it's anything but the latter.
  • Liem
    Putting out an ad to hire is different from providing an exact time/date of hire of every employees. I know a bunch of company who say they are hiring and provide ads to prove but when the people who apply don't seem to get hire, they got suspicious. There are reputable companies that are harvesting resume ... I don't know what but I don't trust companies that say they are hiring without providing proof time/date and who they hired.
  • j
    Has anyone ever seen Zillow's offices? They are luxury high rise offices in one of the most expensive buildings in Seattle. Rich Barton's office is about 100 sq feet, it's like a living room plus and office.

    Yeah, I'm sure they are getting a great deal. blah...blah...blah. But this company was not run as a lean startup, never was from the beginning.
  • Pics or it didn't happen.
  • edhardy622
    British law student sues Abercrombie-Fitch for disability discrimination.
    http://www.abercrombieonsale.co.uk