Sometimes it is difficult to find rooms at hotels. It can be even more difficult to find cheap rooms that are still up to your standards. Brian Chesky saw this as a problem and did something about it. Chesky grew up playing hockey and lifting, however, he always had a love for art and design. While he attended the Rhode Island School of Design, he met Joe Gebbia who shared this same concern. After working some design jobs they moved to San Francisco, but they eventually ran out of cash and needed to do something about it. In October 2007 there was a design conference where the hotels in the area ran out of rooms. Gebbia and Chesky had the idea to rent out their space to those who had nowhere to stay. This is where Airbnb comes to fruition. They began to run with this idea while being joined by an engineer friend Nathan Blecharczyk. Since then the service has blown up and is offered in more than 191 countries worldwide. The company is now valued at $15 billion.

What I think is most cool about this idea is how unique and simple it is. They made an app that allows for people to rent out spaces they own. It is a wonderful idea and super cheap for them. Airbnb has no product, they just use the spaces people offer up for others to rent out for short or long term. This idea really gets me thinking that entrepreneurship does not have to be selling a physical product or making an invention, it can just be an idea that uses what is around you to make the lives of customers so much easier and potentially more comfortable.