Zillow Group Co-Founder Spencer Rascoff is launching a media startup, dot.LA, covering the Los Angeles tech world, according to an announcement by the company last week.
The burgeoning business, which closed $4 million in funding recently, will be led by Rascoff as executive chairman and Sam N. Adams, CEO and co-founder. The company is launching Jan. 27 with at least five journalists on staff, including Joe Bel Bruno, editor-in-chief, formerly with the Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal; Tami Abdollah, from the Associated Press; Ben Bergman, from NPR; Rachel Uranga, from the Los Angeles Business Journal; and Eric Zassenhaus, managing editor for Digital and Reader Engagement, formerly with Pacific Standard.
According to the announcement, the company’s investors include executives, entrepreneurs and high-profile VCs.
“It’s finally prime time for the LA tech scene, after many years of steady growth, and dot.LA is here to chronicle and report on what is going to be an explosive decade for LA tech,” Rascoff said in a statement. “Los Angeles has so many ingredients that make a successful tech ecosystem: a culture of innovation and entrepreneurialism, world-class universities, many angel investors, venture capitalists and startup mentors. One of the only missing ingredients was journalism to highlight the incredible startups and tech companies changing the world. Now with dot.LA on the scene, Los Angeles will be able to achieve its full potential.”
“We have assembled a team of world-class journalists who are already digging into every aspect of LA’s startup ecosystem,” Bel Bruno said. “We are all excited to leverage those years of experience covering business, entertainment and technology to provide hard-hitting, timely news coverage that will shine a light on this fast-moving scene. We’ll cover new companies, funding rounds and the unique intersection of industries that make LA’s startups so interesting.”
After co-founding Zillow Group in 2005, Rascoff became CEO in 2010, and departed the post in 2019.
Suzanne De Vita is RISMedia’s senior online editor. Email her your real estate news ideas at sdevita@rismedia.com.
