Brian Chesky created Airbnb in his own house, supplying an Airbed and Breakfast to guests for only $80 a night. Being unemployed, this allowed him and Joe Gebbia to pay for their rent. Chesky believed the idea of Airbnb could evolve into a digital platform. After launching it the first time, he and Gebbia noticed it struggled to gain trust and traction. Chesky has publicly shared this was a stressful time for him. He remembers having a binder full of credit cards, an enormous amount of debt, and trouble attracting investors. During the Democrat National Convention in Denver, however, Airbnb started to gain success. This was mainly because a level of trust existed between Obama supporters opening up their homes for other Obama supporters.
As bookings started coming in, Gebbia and Chesky contemplated what their hosts should provide for breakfast. They decided on their own branded cereal: Obama O’s and Cap’n McCains, which were the two presidential candidates at the time. Chesky contacted a variety of cereal companies, including Kellogg’s and General Mills. Yet, they were uninterested. To improvise, Chesky and Gebbia bootstrapped the cereal by handling the designs, supplies, and logistics independently. This endeavor had decent success, amassing $30,000 for Airbnb.
The climax of Airbnb’s beginning was their first round of funding from Y Combinator: an incubator that provides mentorship and financial support for early startups. Since then, Airbnb has grown to become a $100 billion-dollar company. When sharing his story, Chesky confesses this success did not come easy. Many people told him Airbnb was the worst idea ever. Chesky has said:
We had really smart, credible people out their telling us “No.” Had we listen to them, there might not be Airbnb today.
Airbnb shows how an entrepreneur must be flexible, persevere, and learn from failure. If an entrepreneur neglects these attitudes, their business may not last.
Sources
https://getpaidforyourpad.com/blog/the-airbnb-founder-story/
https://www.businessinsider.com/airbnb-ceo-brian-chesky-30-billion-startup-2016-8
Great article! Although documenting people’s successes is so vital, I appreciate also that a lot of people are pretty open about their struggles. Lots of entrepreneurs find themselves in debt and having to just fake it ’til they make it. But it is that spirit and attitude that really gets them far with their ideas, similarly to AirBNB!
I like the point you make at the end that Airbnb shows flexibility and entrepreneurs must learn how to adapt to the market if they want to survive.
I love AirBnB’s creativity and determination in bootstrapping their own cereal brand! This is an inspiring story of perseverance.
Great post! I think it’s interesting how the founders explored various different possibilities to find out exactly what their customers wanted. Pretty interesting that they started a cereal brand! Your point about learning from failure at the end is helpful. Businesses need to keep innovating within their core competency to maintain customer interest and support, and need to learn from their mistakes.