Comparing Flights and Fares Used to Be Really Hard

(Bloomberg View) -- Rich Barton was working as a senior engineer at Microsoft Corp. in the 1990s, a position that required a good amount of travel. One of the less appealing parts of the job was comparing and booking flights and fares. Yet this led to an idea: create a startup within the software giant to allow comparison shopping for travel, Barton says in this week's Masters in Business podcast.

Thus was born Expedia Inc., perhaps the best known online travel-booking service. The business, after being spun off from Microsoft as a public company in 1999, was acquired by IAC/Interactive Corp.

SoundCloud: Rich Barton Talks About His Startup Companies by Bloomberg View

But Barton wasn't done. He went on to co-found real-estate site/app Zillow Group Inc., and job-listing site Glassdoor. 

Among other things, Barton sits on the board of Netflix Inc.  as well as Artsy, which he describes as “Airbnb for art.”

The consistent theme of the companies he works with has been “using technology to bring transparency to data in industries” where that was lacking. “Power to the people” says Barton, isn't a political slogan, but “a technological one.”

All of the books he cited can be found here.

You can stream/download the full conversation, including the podcast extras, on iTunes, Soundcloud, Overcast and Bloomberg. Our earlier podcasts can all be found on iTunes, Soundcloud, Overcast and Bloomberg.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Barry Ritholtz is a Bloomberg View columnist. He founded Ritholtz Wealth Management and was chief executive and director of equity research at FusionIQ, a quantitative research firm. He blogs at the Big Picture and is the author of “Bailout Nation: How Greed and Easy Money Corrupted Wall Street and Shook the World Economy.”

To contact the author of this story: Barry Ritholtz at britholtz3@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Greiff at jgreiff@bloomberg.net.

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