Even as late as the early two thousands, the only options for overnight stay were classic Hotel, Motel’s and Inns. People chose from the Embassy Suites, Holiday Inn, Marriott, Motel 6, and the like. All of this changed in October of 2007 with a man named Brian Chesky. Born in Niskayuna, New York he grew up under his mother and

Brian Chesky, CEO of AirBnB

father, both social-workers. He attended the Rhode Island School of Design and earned a degree in Industrial Design. He then moved to Los Angeles and later San Francisco for his job.

He was living with his friend, and would be business partner, Joe Gebbia. The two of them were unable to pay rent that October of 2007, and decided to get creative. Luckily for them, the Industrial Designers Society of America was hosting a conference in San Francisco that month. This is when the genius concept was born. Inflating three air-mattresses on their living room floor, they opened their very own “Airbed and Breakfast” with three guests staying on their first night of operation. These three airbeds helped give the company its name, “AirBnB”. This small scale lodging service continued for several months.

In February of 2008, they adopted Nathan Blecharczyk to the team. Between the three of them, they were ready to begin launching. However, the trio lacked funding to make the launch happen smoothly. In order to obtain the money they needed, they created their own lines of cereal that corresponded with the 2008 presidential candidates: Obama O’s and Cap’n McCains. Impressed by these breakfast endeavors, a seed investment fund took interest them and eventually their concept of AirBnB. With the funding they needed to launch, it didn’t take them long. In its first year, the company could already go international, and was eventually valued at $20 billion by 2015.

The concept of renting out your home on the short term is not a new one. However, back in the late 2000s, there didn’t yet exist a platform to connect guests and hosts. Chesky capitalized on this huge but hidden

opportunity, and was immensely successful because of it. It goes to show that you don’t have to have an amazing invention to start a successful business. You could simply create a more efficient way of doing something, in this case, connecting renters and guests. Because Chesky could effectively serve as the more convenient middle man in this already existing market, his business endeavor was wildly successful.