{"podcast":{"title":"The Business Method: Interviewing Billionaires, Billion Dollar Founders & the World’s Most Successful People 🎧🔥","slug":"the-business-method-interviewing-billionaires-billion-dollar-founders-the-world-s-most-successful-people-1026342","podcast_index_feed_id":1026342,"rss_url":"https://TheBusinessMethod.podbean.com/feed.xml","website_url":"https://thebusinessmethod.podbean.com/","image_url":"https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/2202907/TBM_Podcast_Art_Official.png","author":"Chris Reynolds","episode_count":666,"summary":"Most people will never get five minutes with someone who’s built a billion-dollar company. The Business Method Podcast gives you dozens of them. Chris Reynolds sits down with billionaires, billion-dollar founders and high-level operators to uncover how the top 0.01% think, build, scale, and lead. With 600+ episodes since 2015, the show goes far beyond surface-level success stories, diving into the mental models, strategic decisions, failures, breakthroughs, and operating principles behind extraordinary companies and lives. Guests have included Jeff Hoffman, co-founder of Priceline; Drayton McLane, former owner of the Houston Astros and billionaire entrepreneur; Richard Koch, author of The 80/20 Principle; Monty Moran, former CEO of Chipotle; Geoffrey Kent, founder of Abercrombie & Kent; Janice Bryant Howroyd, founder of ActOne Group; Jason Fried, founder of Basecamp; Roland Frasier, investor and entrepreneur with 24+ exits; and other elite founders, investors, and operators.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-15T18:22:39.261551+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-business-method-interviewing-billionaires-billion-dollar-founders-the-world-s-most-successful-people-1026342"},"episode":{"title":"Ep.565 | A $3.9B Exit with HomeAway & His Next Billion-Dollar Venture | Ross Buhrdorf","slug":"ep-565-a-3-9b-exit-with-homeaway-his-next-billion-dollar-venture-ross-buhrdorf","published_at":"2025-04-19T03:33:44+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-business-method-interviewing-billionaires-billion-dollar-founders-the-world-s-most-successful-people-1026342/ep-565-a-3-9b-exit-with-homeaway-his-next-billion-dollar-venture-ross-buhrdorf","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-business-method-interviewing-billionaires-billion-dollar-founders-the-world-s-most-successful-people-1026342","url":"https://TheBusinessMethod.podbean.com/e/ep565excitecom-a-39b-exit-with-homeaway-his-next-billion-dollar-venture-how-ross-buhrdorf-is-still-building-the-digital-empire/","audio_url":"https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/4sabnes4qsi4jrid/Ross_Audio9ugx1.mp3","summary":"Listeners, today’s episode is a masterclass in innovation, tech leadership, and entrepreneurship from someone who’s seen it all. We’re joined by Ross Buhrdorf, one of the foundational figures in the rise of the internet. As the founding CTO of HomeAway, Ross helped scale the company to a $3.9 billion acquisition by Expedia. But that’s only part of the story. Before that, he was at the heart of one of the internet’s earliest search engines—Excite.com—which at one point was bigger than Google. Now, Ross is back in the arena with his latest venture: ZenBusiness, a mission-driven company helping millions of entrepreneurs start and grow their own businesses with confidence and ease. In this conversation, we go deep on: What it was like building Excite.com in the early days of the web How HomeAway scaled into a global platform with billions in valuation The emotional and mental shifts after a billion-dollar exit Why Ross believes every human should have access to entrepreneurship How ZenBusiness is leveling the playing field for small business owners The tools Ross uses—like NLP and visualization—to set big goals What he looks for in a winning startup idea and founding team The most important leadership lessons he’s learned across 3 decades How to build companies that align with your values, not just your wallet Whether you’re a founder, a tech enthusiast, or someone dreaming of launching your own business, this episode is packed with powerful takeaways and firsthand wisdom from a true digital pioneer. Contact Info: https://www.zenbusiness.com/ ross@zenbusiness.com Subscribe to the Podcast: 🎧 Website: https://www.thebusinessmethod.com/ 🍏 Apple Podcasts: http://bit.ly/TheBusinessMethod 💻 Google Podcasts: http://bit.ly/TheBusinessMethodGooglePodcasts 🎙Spotify: http://bit.ly/Sp…","meta_description":"Listeners, today’s episode is a masterclass in innovation, tech leadership, and entrepreneurship from someone who’s seen it all. We’re joined by Ross Buhr…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":4576,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-business-method-interviewing-billionaires-billion-dollar-founders-the-world-s-most-successful-people-1026342/episodes/ep-565-a-3-9b-exit-with-homeaway-his-next-billion-dollar-venture-ross-buhrdorf/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-business-method-interviewing-billionaires-billion-dollar-founders-the-world-s-most-successful-people-1026342/ep-565-a-3-9b-exit-with-homeaway-his-next-billion-dollar-venture-ross-buhrdorf.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}