Ross Buhrdorf, on what to do after a $4 billion success

“It’s very easy to raise money when the business is good.”

Ross Buhrdorf

Ross Buhrdorf knows of what he speaks. As one of the founders of the legendary Austin startup HomeAway he helped build that company into a $4 billion behemoth that sold to Expedia and made his partners lifetime business success stories. It wasn’t easy, and in his conversation on One Man Brand he admits going more than a decade between doctor visits because of the constant demands of growing a company that raised nearly half a billion dollars in investment capital to become a success.

After taking not quite a year off to answer his “What’s next?” dilemma following the sale to Expedia, Buhrdorf is excited about ZenBusiness, his new startup that aims to simplify the business basics like formation, accounting and marketing for small businesses with single operator or a very small team. That “long tail” market of micro-sized businesses represents a huge opportunity for the company, and Buhrdorf said he hopes that the successes he builds there and with his ongoing work as an advisor to startups affiliated with Capital Factory he can play a part in building some of the next great business stories out of Austin: “We want to help this long tail of the small biz market and the best way to do that is to get them off on the right foot.”

Ross Buhrdorf