Richard Barton (born June 2, 1967) is an American internet entrepreneur who is the co-executive chairman and a former two-time chief executive officer of Zillow Group, a company he co-founded in 2006.
He pitched the idea of an online travel booking service to Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, and Nathan Myhrvold.
[2] Gates, Ballmer, and Myhrvold gave Barton permission to move forward with the project, which debuted on the web as Expedia in 1996.
Barton served as CEO through Expedia's initial public offering in 1999, and stayed in the position until 2003, after the company was acquired for $3.6 billion.
[12] After a year-long break in Italy from the business community, Barton returned to Seattle in 2004, and began working toward the launch of Zillow with Lloyd Frink, another Expedia and Microsoft alumnus.