An air mattress and some extra floor space. That was the start of the now $63 billion company. The idea was conceived in 2007, a mere 9 years ago. Who are the men behind this amazing story? Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky, 2005 graduates of Rhode Island School of Design.
In 2009, Gebbia and his roommate, Brian Chesky quit their jobs to pursue entrepreneurial endeavors. However, they quickly found themselves unable to pay the rent for their San Francisco apartment. They shifted their focus from starting a business to digging themselves out of their immediate predicament.
Soon they came up with a “quick cash” idea to bring in some extra money. They knew about a huge design conference that was in the city, and decided to rent out their living space. They found a few extra spaces on the floor and got air mattresses for their potential guests. They decided to go the extra mile and offer breakfast along with the accommodations for an extra incentive. Within 24 hours they had a website created and were busy marketing it to all the people in the design industry that they knew. And thus the first version of AirBed and Breakfast was born!
Gebbia and Chesky ended up having three people stay with them through the site during the conference and made over $1000, enough to pay their rent for the month. But more importantly, these people gave them valuable advice and encouragement regarding the future of such a business plan.
The two men soon decided to expand their website to allow others to use it to do the same thing. After a successful run in Austin, Texas during anothe
r conference, they decided to expand the business model. Feedback from users showed that people would make use of this amazing service for much more than the occasional conference trip. So the company shifted again and now it became a way for hosts to list any type of sleeping accommodation, from a couch in the living room to an entire upscale apartment in Manhattan.
The most recent updates show that Airbnb, as the company is now called, has 100 million users. They also have an amazing 640
,000 hosts, 2.3 million listings, and an average of 500,000 stays per night. The company continues to grow and it is estimated that by the year 2020 they will have an annual revenue of $10 billion. It is amazing to see the success of a company that simply started with an attempt to solve an immediate problem. It begs the question; how many new ideas are there all around us waiting to be discovered?
I have heard of AirBnB but didn’t know this is how it started! Such a cool story! This is such a great example of identifying a problem and seeing an opportunity. Its incredible to see what the business has grown into after such humble beginnings.
This is a great story! It is also a perfect example of how important digital marketing skills are in today’s world. Today’s technology enables any entrepreneur to gain publicity by publishing interesting and engaging content on the Internet.
This was a great story and I loved hearing about how AirBnB was started. I love how accidental this entrepreneurial endeavor was for these two men. They realized that they may have created something that could be meaningful and decided to pursue it. Sometimes it’s important to recognize when you have come up with a good idea and take a chance at expanding and pursuing it. The success of this company shoes that good ideas and simple solutions could be the next best thing the world is looking for.
Problem solving to start “digging themselves out of their immediate predicament” is a great example of entrepreneurship. And growing from two guys to 100 million worldwide is incredible. Using the resources around them and identifying a need these two men show that simplicity is often the best idea.
I feel like a lot of budding entrepreneurs try to solve gigantic problems, but I like how their idea came from something as simple as needing rent money. It seems like the business adapted to demand and changed quite a bit from just renting out space with air mattresses, which is essential for long-term sustainability for a company. I’ve never used it, but I know my sister looks at AirBnB before hotels when she goes out of town.