Founder Dialogues: TripAdvisor Co-founder/CEO Stephen Kaufer
Stephen Kaufer has the demeanor of a friendly Vermont bed & breakfast operator, but is responsible for building TripAdvisor into the world’s largest travel website. His company has a $11B market cap, is the 51st most popular website in America, and counts nearly 200 million app downloads. Their database contains 250 million reviews of 5.2 million businesses in 123,000 destinations across the globe. They’ve become the key rating source for over three million restaurants, 950,000 hotels, and 560,000 attractions. Beyond the stats, they’ve got a community that responds to 85% of posts in their forums within 24 hours.
Despite all this success the company exhibits few of the trappings of a big business. There is no reserved parking space for the CEO in front of the company’s new 282,000 square foot headquarters. Instead that prime real estate is reserved for expectant mothers and potential employees visiting for interviews. Kaufer sits in a corner office, but is surrounded by a gaggle of junior engineers instead of VPs and assistants.
Popular culture has conditioned us to expect a certain amount of bravado from CEOs. It manifests in different ways—Steve Jobs’ imperiousness, Mark Zuckerberg’s petulance, or Elon Musk’s Iron-Man inspired exertions, but Kaufer is the exact opposite of those stereotypes. Kaufer has demonstrated how it’s possible to build a thriving, iconic tech business while retaining the charm of a friendly traveler.
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