Brian Chesky is one of the most influential men in the travel business. Back in the day, you had to book a small and pricey hotel room if you wanted to travel anywhere for business or leisure. Brian turned this idea on its head. He got into the entrepreneurship game during his time in college, but his ideas in school always fell through. after he graduated, he took a job at 3DID as a strategist and industrial designer. Brian ended up relocating to San Fransico with his co-worker Joe Gebbia, where they became roommates in the city. In October 2007, the Industrial Designers Society of America came to hold their annual meeting in San Fransico, which led to all the hotels in San Fransico to be overbooked. Chesky and Gebbia pounced on this opportunity; they rented their apartment out to those travelers who weren’t able to get hotel rooms in the city. They bought a couple air mattresses and named their idea “Airbed and Breakfast”, and it was an instant success. The duo continued with their idea, and eventually added another founder to their company in February of 2008. Soon after, the Airbnb name was born, which was launched with an accompanying app. Business was booming, but the trio needed some funding to continue the business at its full potential. Thus, they created some special edition cereals based off the presidential candidates at the time, who were Barak Obama and John McCain. During this first year in business, they established offices in Europe, sponsored the Summer Olympics, and eventually reached their 100-billion-dollar valuation in December 2020. There were a couple hurdles to jump, whether it had to do with housing or taxing laws, but this idea could not be stopped with mere legal constraints. Brian Chesky is a perfect example of the entrepreneur who bootstraps their company and doesn’t stop despite difficulty.