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Of all of the business discussions that Chad Cohen has had over the years, few are likely as memorable as the 20-second conversation he had with Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff about midway into his 9-year career stint with the online real estate company.

Cohen joined Zillow back in 2006 as corporate controller, a position that he says also had the added distinction of being the company\u2019s first full-time finance role. Over the next 4 years, as Zillow\u2019s back-office finance and accounting team took shape, Cohen\u2019s responsibilities grew, allowing him to step into the role of vice president of finance.

\u201cI had been moving up the ladder, and it was right before we made the decision to go public\u2014I remember Spencer coming into my office and saying, \u2018You\u2019re going to be CFO,\u2019\u201d says Cohen, who recalls Zillow\u2019s CEO saying little more before exiting. For Cohen, the exchange signaled a 6- to 12-month transition that would enlarge his focus from being largely back-office to being both back- and front-office.

\u201cI had built an accounting and finance department, but this was a big step that required coaching from mentors and formal media training and IR experience,\u201d says Cohen, who today views the Zillow IPO as only one of several Zillow milestones during his CFO tenure with the firm.

Says Cohen: \u201cI spent 4 years\u2014or 16 earnings calls\u2014as CFO, acquired about 10 companies, and raised somewhere between a half-billion and a billion dollars in capital from the public markets for Zillow Group.\u201d

Asked to recall a learning moment from his CFO years, Cohen says that he recalls waking up in a cold sweat during the 20- to 30-day period that immediately followed Zillow\u2019s 2015 acquisition of Trulia. Having carefully crafted a 90- to 120-day postmerger integration plan, Cohen says, he realized that as the number of Trulia employee departures began to quickly escalate, \u201cspeed of integration\u201d was going to play a plus-size role in the merger\u2019s success.

\u201cOur retention bonuses\u2014albeit very healthy and robust\u2014were being offset by a very frothy employment market in San Francisco and even larger sign-on bonuses that we were having trouble competing with,\u201d recalls Cohen.

\u201cI called my controller in a panic and said: \u2018Hey, we have to do this faster because I think I see how the scenario is playing out\u2014and it ain\u2019t going to be pretty,\u2019\u201d remarks Cohen, who then instructed his team to \u201crip up\u201d the 90-to 120-day plan, while accenting his new mandate for speed with the words \u201cWe\u2019re going to do this\xa0now!\u201d \u2013Jack Sweeney