Recon meals co-founders Spencer Rascoff and his daughter, Sophia, in their kitchen with a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies. (Cory Sherwood photography)

Sophia Rascoff and her dad, Zillow co-founder and former CEO Spencer Rascoff, want to take on new dishes in the household kitchen, even if the 16-12 months-historical says they have no extensive cooking event and they're now not incredible chefs.

"We with ease have a good time and do our foremost," Sophia stated.

but when it comes to a new social media app both have created together, the imperative materials are there — Spencer Rascoff has years of startup adventure, Sophia had a vision, and the task is terribly a good deal a serious recreation.

The Rascoffs launched Recon meals out of beta on Tuesday, a free social app intended to bring individuals collectively round a shared love of food.

 I've at all times believed in bringing people with diverse facets of view to the table when tackling big problems, however I don't think I thoroughly realized how positive age variety may be on a founding crew.

loads of americans use smartly dependent structures akin to Instagram to submit photos of what they're cooking at domestic or what they're ingesting at a cafe. Recon is a place for each, the place meals fans can share what they like to consume and evaluation places to do just that. It's also Sophia's approach to attract americans far from the negativity and politics that may weigh down users of mainstream social media and as an alternative connect with pals over shared pursuits.

Rascoff, co-founder of such startups as Hotwire, Zillow, dot.LA and Pacaso, receives the chance to create whatever thing new with his daughter. He pointed out six months of construction has been a good looking journey thus far, and that Sophia is the ideal co-founder for Recon as a result of she lives and breathes social media, she likes to prepare dinner and she's a application engineer.

"I've at all times believed in bringing people with distinct elements of view to the desk when tackling big problems, but I don't believe I totally realized how constructive age variety may well be on a founding crew," Rascoff said. "As an adolescent, she sees the world and social media through a different lens. That, combined together with her entrepreneurial spirit and drive, has made her a fine accomplice and co-founder."

living within the identical l. a. condominium additionally helps with 24×7 collaboration.

Recon food app display grabs. (App store pictures)

Sophia pointed out she has at all times admired her dad's work ethic but "in no way had the opportunity to peer at the back of the curtain fully to peer how everything happens." She delivered that while it's fun to work together, Recon food is "very tons precise" and each she and her father want it to be a hit story just like his old agencies.

up to now: Q&A with former Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff on his new SPAC that simply raised $350M

Recon meals offers users two tracks on their profile — their kitchen, as a place for images of the entire food they make, and their restaurant stories, for photographs of food they ate out. The app employs some desktop vision tech to look a consumer's digicam roll for all food-centric pictures taken during the past and immediately upload them to the app. users can pick and decide which pictures they'd want to demonstrate on their private account to their connections, or to the public. Restaurant photos can be rated, reviewed and geotagged to the restaurant vicinity.

Rascoff observed that throughout pandemic quarantine, his family spent loads of time together and Sophia provided insight all over that period about how exhausting and divisive social media had become.

A Spencer Rascoff pizza photo on Recon meals. (Recon meals screen seize)

"on the same time, we have been cooking plenty as a family unit, stuck at home experimenting with new kinds of food, recipes and getting takeout from eating places we'd certainly not tried earlier than," Rascoff pointed out. "It turned into a meals event we wanted to share with pals but we didn't wish to bombard everyone with our posts and updates."

creating a vertical social media app round meals took the drive off deciding where and the way frequently to share meals pictures, and offers a vacation spot for these craving neighborhood.

"On Recon meals you could publish 100% of your meals with less power of perfection," Sophia referred to. "It doesn't need to look relatively or have the most useful presentation. actually, one of the crucial most fun posts are meals fails — like my dad's first try at timber fired pizza."

Rascoff, who left his Zillow neighborhood CEO job in January 2019, is certainly nevertheless busy in enterprise dealings which are occurring far from the domestic kitchen. His SPAC, operating under the identify Supernova companions Acquisition company, led a deal to purchase true property enterprise Offerpad in March. but Rascaoff spoke of at this stage of his profession he's concentrated greater on mentoring and coaching, and not on running a corporation day after day.

He called the partnership together with his daughter an ideal fit.

"My key piece of assistance to all founders is to are attempting to resolve an issue that they adventure in my opinion," he spoke of. "I'm excited now to have launched Recon meals publicly and let the area see what we've been cooking up."