Rebekah Bastian is a strategic product executive and corporate culture leader. Coming over from Microsoft in 2005, she helped to build and grow Zillow from a stealth pre-launch startup of 20 employees to a $13B+ market cap company of over 5,000 employees. She served as vice president of product and vice president of community & culture at Zillow before leaving to co-found OwnTrail in 2020.
As CEO and Co-founder of OwnTrail, Rebekah has leveraged her product strategy and social impact background to build a peer support system that drives meaningful personal and professional development for women. In line with this theme, Rebekah published her first book, Blaze Your Own Trail, in February 2020 with Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Rebekah writes articles in multiple publications including Forbes.com, and is a sought-after speaker on topics such as social impact, career navigation and building AuthenTech companies. She has been recognized in the Puget Sound Business Journal 40 Under 40, the Inman 33 People Changing the Real Estate Industry and the Female Founders Alliance Champion Awards.
During Rebekah’s 20 years as a product leader, she started a listing feed program to import millions of real estate listings, spearheaded a cross-platform suite of mobile apps, created and led the product org for the Premier Agent business – responsible for >70% of Zillow’s revenue – and led evolving revenue models for ecommerce and sales platforms. She also managed and led the cross-brand digital advertising integration after Zillow acquired Trulia – a complex multi-team effort that was completed three months ahead of schedule without negative impact on the business.
Recognizing her strategic leadership skills coupled with her success in organizational growth, Zillow selected Rebekah to found the inaugural Community & Culture organization, responsible for Equity & Belonging, Cultural Engagement, and Social Impact Products. This transition proved Rebekah’s effectiveness as an operator and a leader across the business, from products to people.
Rebekah has served on several nonprofit boards, currently serving as secretary of the board of directors for Bellwether Housing. She also serves as an advisor to technology startups, providing direction on product strategy, business models, analytics, scaling and org management.
Rebekah earned her Masters of Mechanical Engineering from UC Berkeley and Bachelors of Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington. She is also an angel investor, a mother to two boys and an aerial acrobat.