Office Hours Podcast: GoodRx Makes Prescription Drugs More Affordable
Spencer Rascoff serves as executive chairman of dot.LA. He is an entrepreneur and company leader who co-founded Zillow, Hotwire, dot.LA, Pacaso and Supernova, and who served as Zillow's CEO for a decade. During Spencer's time as CEO, Zillow won dozens of "best places to work" awards as it grew to over 4,500 employees, $3 billion in revenue, and $10 billion in market capitalization. Prior to Zillow, Spencer co-founded and was VP Corporate Development of Hotwire, which was sold to Expedia for $685 million in 2003. Through his startup studio and venture capital firm, 75 & Sunny, Spencer is an active angel investor in over 100 companies and is incubating several more.
It became a kind of game.
Doug Hirsch, cofounder and co-CEO of GoodRx, needed to get a prescription filled. His pharmacy said it would cost a whopping $500. On a whim, Doug crossed the street to check out a different drugstore, and found the price offered was half as much. Intrigued, he went to another pharmacy and found yet another price.
In conclusion, there was no clear reason why the drug prices fluctuated so much. Pharmacists could not explain why.
The discovery of unpredictable and opaque prescription drug pricing led Doug to co-found Santa-Monica based GoodRx in 2011. It's a company that compares prescription drug prices and allows members to use free coupons to purchase steeply discounted prescriptions. Doug says GoodRx has saved Americans over $20 billion in prescription drug fees.
On this episode of my Office Hours podcast, hear Doug and I discuss how he built his business slowly and steadily, the ways in which paranoia keeps him on his toes — and why naiveté is an entrepreneurial strength.
dot.LA Sr. Podcast Producer & Editor Laurel Moglen contributed to this post.
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Spencer Rascoff serves as executive chairman of dot.LA. He is an entrepreneur and company leader who co-founded Zillow, Hotwire, dot.LA, Pacaso and Supernova, and who served as Zillow's CEO for a decade. During Spencer's time as CEO, Zillow won dozens of "best places to work" awards as it grew to over 4,500 employees, $3 billion in revenue, and $10 billion in market capitalization. Prior to Zillow, Spencer co-founded and was VP Corporate Development of Hotwire, which was sold to Expedia for $685 million in 2003. Through his startup studio and venture capital firm, 75 & Sunny, Spencer is an active angel investor in over 100 companies and is incubating several more.
