Austin Allison, Spencer Rascoff and Rich Barton

Pacaso has grown in six years to become the most prominent platform for fractional ownership of luxury second homes. It operates in about 75 markets globally with a few hundred properties and boasts 2,000 customers. It’s most active in the U.S., but is rapidly growing internationally — it just added properties in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, and Italy’s Tuscany (sigh). 

The company’s origins did not presage such success. Spencer Rascoff and Austin Allison were both executives at home search and data giant Zillow when they hatched the idea toward the end of the 2010s. 

“We raised a seed round of capital in the first quarter of 2020, days before the world shut down from COVID,” Allison recalled. “We thought we’d have to pivot and find another problem to solve.”

The timing ended up fortuitous. Sure, the world shut down, but folks with means began hunting for escapes from the pandemic. Plus, borrowing costs for property purchases, fractional or otherwise, were at years-long lows. Pacaso grew. The company would reach a $1 billion valuation in a mere five months. 

Then 2022’s higher interest rates hit, precipitating a general slump in real estate.

“It was such a massive swing for the real estate industry and the economy at large, frankly, that it really was a situation where the tide lowered all boats,” Allison said, inverting the famous quip about capitalism. 

Pacaso came through it, and Allison said 2026 was a year of solid recovery. It has included the launch of Infinity by Pacaso, an invitation-only home exchange for its customers. Allison described it as a de facto “golden ticket” for traveling the globe. 

As for the Zillow where Allison and Rascoff first teamed, and where serial tech founder Rich Barton (Expedia and Glassdoor are his, too) is co-executive chairman, it remains one of the most used sites in real estate. Zillow, in fact, claims that “Zillow” itself is searched more than “real estate.”