When Internet entrepreneur Michael Smith founded the real estate Web site StreetEasy.com in 2006, he took an unorthodox approach to staffing.
"For the first year, we had no one from the real estate industry working here," Mr. Smith said, adding that many of the site's most popular features, such as apartment price changes and days on the market, might never have become part of the site if an industry insider had helped to sculpt it. "We didn't want any of the assumptions that come from being in the business a long time."