WEBVTT - Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky 0:00:02.920 --> 0:00:05.240 One of the most important companies in the travel industry 0:00:05.240 --> 0:00:08.840 today is Airbnb. It started less than two decades ago 0:00:09.200 --> 0:00:11.840 as a concept of renting out one's room to make 0:00:11.880 --> 0:00:14.640 some extra money. Now all over the world people are 0:00:14.640 --> 0:00:17.759 renting out their homes their apartments to other people. I 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:21.000 actually used an Airbnb recently in Alaska and found to 0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:23.880 be quite good experience. I sat down with Brian Schofsky, 0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:26.720 who conceived of Airbnb has now built it into one 0:00:26.720 --> 0:00:29.520 of the largest travel companies in the world. You came 0:00:29.600 --> 0:00:31.560 up with the idea with your partners of starting this 0:00:31.640 --> 0:00:34.839 company around two thousand seven two thousand eight. Did anybody 0:00:34.840 --> 0:00:37.080 tell you it was a good idea? No? I mean 0:00:37.320 --> 0:00:41.200 it was pretty universally considered a terrible idea. I um. 0:00:41.240 --> 0:00:43.400 I remember the first person I told the idea to. 0:00:43.680 --> 0:00:45.840 I said, Hey, we've got this idea. We're gonna build 0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:48.479 this website where you like strangers could other strangers in 0:00:48.520 --> 0:00:51.480 their homes. And the person who was kind of somebody 0:00:51.479 --> 0:00:53.400 I looked up to in Los Angeles, he looks at 0:00:53.400 --> 0:00:56.440 me in the straight face. I said yes. He said, Brian, 0:00:56.520 --> 0:00:58.440 I hope that's not the only idea you're working on. 0:00:59.040 --> 0:01:00.680 And that was by the way one the nicer things 0:01:00.720 --> 0:01:02.920 people said. But the reason I think it worked was 0:01:03.000 --> 0:01:06.520 because I stumbled into this idea of my roommate. I mean, 0:01:06.560 --> 0:01:09.240 there was this design conference coming to San Francisco in 0:01:09.280 --> 0:01:12.840 October two seven. I couldn't afford to pay rent this 0:01:12.920 --> 0:01:15.400 design conference conference service to go. All the hotels were 0:01:15.400 --> 0:01:17.200 sold out. And we have this idea, we said, when 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:19.640 we just turned our house into a bed and breakfast 0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:22.000 for the design conference. I didn't have any beds, but 0:01:22.080 --> 0:01:23.640 Joe had three our beds. We pulled them out of 0:01:23.640 --> 0:01:26.480 the closet. We called the air bed and Breakfast dot com. 0:01:26.560 --> 0:01:28.839 We made enough money pay our rent, But more importantly, 0:01:29.080 --> 0:01:31.040 we actually ended up making friends of these three people 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:32.959 because they live with us for a week. And at 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:36.160 that point, I think we realized if people could experience 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:38.840 what we experienced, that this would be an idea that 0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:41.440 would spread around the world. But little did I know 0:01:41.640 --> 0:01:44.640 that it was going to be a very difficult uphill road. 0:01:44.840 --> 0:01:46.800 Where did you get your initial money? Was that the 0:01:47.000 --> 0:01:51.680 y combinator from Paul Graham? Well, actually, um, there's kind 0:01:51.680 --> 0:01:53.960 of a weird story about how we raised money. So 0:01:54.000 --> 0:01:56.560 we had this kind of quirky idea to sell collectible 0:01:56.600 --> 0:02:00.000 breakfast cereal. Um So, Barack Obama John Keane are both 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:02.520 running for president, and we thought, you know, the breakfast 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:05.080 isn't selling the bet that we're bet and we're a 0:02:05.080 --> 0:02:07.600 bet and breakfast. We're not selling beds. Maybe we can 0:02:07.640 --> 0:02:11.239 sell breakfast. And so we started selling collectible breakfast cereal, 0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:14.560 a Barack Obama theme cereal called Obama Ohs, which is 0:02:14.600 --> 0:02:16.959 like cheerios, and we called it the Breakfast a Change. 0:02:17.360 --> 0:02:19.560 And we learned about John McCain was a captain the Navy, 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:22.400 so we called it Captain McCain's a Maverick Entervy Bite. 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:25.360 And we made these really funny like looking cereal boxes. 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:28.400 We actually ended up selling thirty thousand dollars with a 0:02:28.440 --> 0:02:31.800 collectible breakfast cereal and that was actually originally how we 0:02:31.800 --> 0:02:34.760 funded a company. So now it's late two thousand eight, 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:38.440 we're like desperate. We've launched three times, no one's using it. 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:41.720 I'm hockling cereal boxes in my kitchen. I'm thinking to myself, 0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:44.200 I wonder if Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs ever had 0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:46.440 to hock blue cereal boxes in their living room. The 0:02:46.480 --> 0:02:48.960 answer was no, they hadn't done it. This was a 0:02:49.000 --> 0:02:51.920 foreboding sign. And I'm going out to dinner at a 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:55.680 tire restaurant in San Francisco with the founders of Justin 0:02:55.720 --> 0:02:57.880 That TV, who are Ye Combinator, and they said, you 0:02:57.919 --> 0:03:01.280 should join Why Combinator because you guys are dying and 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:03.800 I thought, well, it's probably too late. We already launched, 0:03:04.200 --> 0:03:07.280 but Paul Graham eventually allowed us to apply. We actually 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:09.400 missed the deadline, but he allowed us to apply after 0:03:09.440 --> 0:03:12.600 the deadline and we got an interview, and that's when 0:03:12.639 --> 0:03:15.280 Paul Graham said, like in our first question, people actually 0:03:15.280 --> 0:03:17.959 doing this? And I said yes, and he goes, what's 0:03:18.000 --> 0:03:20.480 wrong with them? So the interview kind of went downhill 0:03:20.560 --> 0:03:23.200 from there. He didn't He's the admitted he hated the 0:03:23.240 --> 0:03:25.840 idea of airbnb at first. Who didn't get it? But 0:03:25.880 --> 0:03:29.639 as we're leaving the interview, my roommate Joe, hands him 0:03:29.680 --> 0:03:32.520 a box of Barack Obama cereal that we made and 0:03:32.520 --> 0:03:34.560 he looks at it and he goes, what what is this? 0:03:34.600 --> 0:03:36.080 Why am I getting this? And we said this is 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:38.680 how we funded the company, and he looks to us. 0:03:38.720 --> 0:03:40.160 He said, if you can figure out how to get 0:03:40.200 --> 0:03:42.320 people to pay forty dollars for a four dour box 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:44.840 of cereal. Maybe you will convince them how to sleep 0:03:44.840 --> 0:03:47.760 in each other's homes. So why commentator let us in 0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:50.840 the program? I think we barely I don't know if 0:03:51.080 --> 0:03:53.600 we got in barely got in. And the moment we 0:03:53.600 --> 0:03:56.240 got into the program, you know, the recession is occurring. 0:03:56.760 --> 0:04:00.280 People are desperate to save their homes, and lot of 0:04:00.280 --> 0:04:02.760 people started trying to Airbnb to save their homes by 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:05.000 renting them out. At the same time, you have a 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:07.200 great recession which is causing a lot of young people 0:04:07.240 --> 0:04:09.640 to feel like, well, I need to save money. You know, 0:04:10.040 --> 0:04:13.720 Facebook and social media is growing, so people are comfortable 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:15.760 meeting people on the internet, and it was kind of 0:04:15.760 --> 0:04:18.760 the supernova forces that led to an opening for everybody 0:04:18.800 --> 0:04:22.360 to finally take off. So traditionally people might build a 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:24.640 company like yours and five or six years later they 0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:27.479 would take a public and liquefy for the employees, the 0:04:27.520 --> 0:04:31.279 founders and also the investors. But you were resisting pressure 0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:33.919 to do that. Why didn't you go public sooner? And 0:04:33.960 --> 0:04:36.120 you have any regrets about not going public sooner than 0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:39.960 you did. I just didn't feel like we were ready 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:43.120 to go public sooner. And I think in hindsight, maybe 0:04:43.200 --> 0:04:44.720 we could have gone public sooner. I mean, just so 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:47.800 it's important. Remember when we were growing really quickly, there 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:50.080 were not regulations on the books for Airbnb, and a 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:52.480 lot of people are wondering was this business going to 0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:55.560 get regulated out of existence? That to me was one 0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:59.279 of many existential questions. Eventually, we able that we were 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:01.120 able to get law as in the books and nearly 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:03.320 every big city in the world we were able to 0:05:03.360 --> 0:05:07.520 collect four billion dollars. Hotel tax became legitimate. We expanded 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:10.719 a nationally, We built an executive team. But I felt 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:13.560 like going public was a big stage. It was almost 0:05:13.600 --> 0:05:16.640 like it's almost like, you know, if you're I don't know, 0:05:16.640 --> 0:05:18.440 there's a kind of a weird analogy, but if you're 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:20.920 like baking a cake, going public is putting in the oven. 0:05:21.040 --> 0:05:22.920 You know, It's it's hard to change the ingredients after 0:05:23.000 --> 0:05:25.120 you go public, right, And so I wanted to make 0:05:25.160 --> 0:05:29.080 sure that everything was kind of baked before we went public. Now, 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:31.800 once the pandemic hit, that was more than a decade 0:05:31.800 --> 0:05:34.800 after we started, I was accused of having waited too 0:05:34.800 --> 0:05:38.000 long and having missed the I P O window. I 0:05:38.000 --> 0:05:40.520 would have never imagined what had transpired over the course 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:43.640 of but I think looking back, it worked out really 0:05:43.640 --> 0:05:48.320 well for everyone. Well, you went public in December after 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:51.680 the pandemic, but you obviously were probably you had to 0:05:51.720 --> 0:05:53.400 lay off some people during that period of time, Is 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:55.760 that right? You know? Like when the pandemic hit, I 0:05:55.800 --> 0:05:58.320 was working on our S one, and like many people, 0:05:58.400 --> 0:06:00.680 I came back from the holidays and twenty team thinking 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:02.400 my life was going to go in one direction, not 0:06:02.440 --> 0:06:05.479 realizing our entire world was about to get rocked. I 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:07.760 felt like a captain of a ship and a torpedo 0:06:07.839 --> 0:06:11.040 hit the side. We lost eighty percent of our business 0:06:11.080 --> 0:06:13.040 in eight weeks, and we were doing tens of billions 0:06:13.040 --> 0:06:15.720 dollars a year in bookings and then suddenly go from 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:18.680 high flying to people predicting is this the end of Airbnb. 0:06:18.800 --> 0:06:21.800 I mean there were multiple mainstream journalists predicting that we 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:23.279 were going to go out of business. It was almost 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:26.039 like our business flash before our eyes, and I ended 0:06:26.120 --> 0:06:28.520 up having to confront this reality David that I realized 0:06:28.520 --> 0:06:30.760 we're gonna lose half our business. And so it's like 0:06:30.839 --> 0:06:33.360 running into a burning house if you can only save 0:06:33.400 --> 0:06:35.800 half your furniture, Like and half your stuff, what do 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:37.600 you take with you? And I said, we're going to 0:06:37.680 --> 0:06:41.080 get back to the original idea of Airbnb, the individual people. 0:06:41.120 --> 0:06:44.320 They are sharing their homes and experiences all over the world. 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:46.560 We had to make the hard decision I've ever made, 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:50.200 which we had to lay off of our workforce nearly 0:06:50.240 --> 0:06:53.600 two thousand employees. But I wanted to make sure even 0:06:53.600 --> 0:06:56.240 in a layoff, we could show compassion, to be really principled, 0:06:56.279 --> 0:06:58.720 So we end up giving people a year of healthcare. 0:06:59.440 --> 0:07:01.760 We're I think very chivers our severance. So when you 0:07:01.800 --> 0:07:05.560 went public in December, you priced the I p O 0:07:05.720 --> 0:07:08.320 or the underwriters did at half of the price that 0:07:08.480 --> 0:07:11.160 ultimately ended up that day. So some people might say 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:13.640 you left twenty three or four billion dollars on the table. 0:07:13.640 --> 0:07:15.040 Do you look at it that way where you think 0:07:15.120 --> 0:07:17.480 it was miss price or you're okay with it. We 0:07:17.640 --> 0:07:20.840 came back from nineteen as a somewhere between on the 0:07:20.880 --> 0:07:24.520 private markets a thirty to forty billion dollar valuation at 0:07:24.520 --> 0:07:27.120 the depth of the pandemic. Our valuation was below eighteen 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:29.360 billion dollars. I mean, we probably would have struggled to 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:31.880 raise money at eighteen billion dollar evaluation. We had warrants 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:34.480 and to be able to be a hundred billion dollar 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:38.679 company eight months or seven months after that low point. 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:41.240 It was really hard to imagine any of that was 0:07:41.280 --> 0:07:42.680 going to happen. And I think part of the reason 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:45.160 our stock popped was I believe we had hundreds of 0:07:45.200 --> 0:07:48.440 thousands of people in retail trying to buy our stocks. 0:07:48.440 --> 0:07:50.680 So I don't feel bad. I never took the highest 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:53.200 price in any round. We totally could have priced to hire. 0:07:53.440 --> 0:07:55.600 But it was pretty hard, I think at the time 0:07:55.680 --> 0:07:57.320 to foresee that this was going to be a company 0:07:57.320 --> 0:07:59.680 that was going to reach evaluation like that. Now as 0:07:59.720 --> 0:08:02.640 we talk, you've just reported your earnings for last quarter 0:08:02.680 --> 0:08:05.880 and last year, and they were record earnings, record revenues, 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:07.960 and so forth. And you said, I think at the 0:08:08.040 --> 0:08:11.520 release that Covid has changed everything. People are changing the 0:08:11.520 --> 0:08:13.520 way they work and the way they travel. Can you 0:08:13.560 --> 0:08:15.600 explain what you mean. I think the world is never 0:08:15.640 --> 0:08:18.200 going back to the way it was fully before the pandemic, 0:08:18.280 --> 0:08:20.440 and one of the changes I think, David, it's been 0:08:20.480 --> 0:08:24.280 a change in how we work. You know, for many people, 0:08:24.360 --> 0:08:27.080 not all, but many people had a job at the office. 0:08:27.480 --> 0:08:29.160 They're not going to be required to come back to 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:31.720 the office five days a week, and I think that 0:08:31.880 --> 0:08:34.640 I don't think CEOs per se are going to determine 0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:38.000 these policies. I think workers will because all of us CEOs, 0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:40.880 I think, want the best talent, and I think flexibility 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:44.120 is going to be the second most important benefit after compensation. 0:08:44.440 --> 0:08:45.920 So I think we're now living in a world where 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:48.920 many people are gonna work remotely. They might go into office, 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:50.880 but not five days a week. If you don't have 0:08:50.920 --> 0:08:53.120 to go in office five days a week, you're more flexible, 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:55.560 You're less tethered to anyone's city. And so I think 0:08:55.559 --> 0:08:58.520 what that means is that for millions of people, they 0:08:58.559 --> 0:09:01.920 can now live anywhere. Some people that don't have kids, 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:05.080 like me, can literally live nomadically. You can stay city 0:09:05.120 --> 0:09:06.839 to city, hopping around. I think a lot of young 0:09:06.880 --> 0:09:09.240 people and retires to do that. All of this, David 0:09:09.280 --> 0:09:12.640 has culminated AIRBB not just being a company about traveling, 0:09:12.960 --> 0:09:16.600 but now a company about living. Half of people don't 0:09:16.600 --> 0:09:19.360 realize is half of our nights booked are for stays 0:09:19.360 --> 0:09:21.920 a longer than a week. A fifth of our knights 0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:24.960 booked are for stays are longer than a month. So 0:09:25.000 --> 0:09:28.760 there's this whole new category of travel that's not classic too. 0:09:28.840 --> 0:09:31.400 Three nights in a city, it's not long term housing, 0:09:31.640 --> 0:09:34.800 and it's completely emerged because of the pandemic. So let's 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:36.640 go back to your background. For those who don't know 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:39.560 your background, what part of the United States are you from. 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:43.200 I'm from a small town in upstate New York called 0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:46.760 Niskey and which is a suburb of Schenectady outside Albany. 0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:49.920 And your parents they were social workers. My mom and 0:09:50.000 --> 0:09:52.720 dad were social workers. Both my grandfather's worked for General Electric, 0:09:52.920 --> 0:09:54.760 but my my mom and dad were kind of lived 0:09:54.880 --> 0:09:58.240 normal lives of social workers. And when you're growing up, 0:09:58.360 --> 0:10:00.240 I understand you wanted to be a hockey play or 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:02.080 when you were young, Is that true? Yeah? When I 0:10:02.160 --> 0:10:04.360 was five years old that would have been nine six, 0:10:04.360 --> 0:10:06.520 Wayne Gretzky was the greatest hockey player in the world, 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:08.040 and I wanted to be just like him. I had 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:10.840 posters and Wayne Gretzky in my wall. The problem with 0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:13.520 athletics is your dreams come crashing down pretty quickly. By 0:10:13.520 --> 0:10:15.280 the age of six, I realized I wasn't gonna be 0:10:15.280 --> 0:10:18.079 Wayne Gretzky. Hey, when that dream went away, you decided 0:10:18.120 --> 0:10:19.640 you might want to be an artist because you had 0:10:19.679 --> 0:10:22.280 good skills in that area exactly. I ended up getting 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:24.960 a scholarship to go to Ronald School Design, and they 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:27.120 only gave away a few scholarships, so it was kind 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:29.440 of a big deal to get the scholarship. And my 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:31.800 mom said like, well, you know, my mom, Dad, you 0:10:31.800 --> 0:10:33.840 can go to art school, but you've got to promise 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:36.560 me that you one day get a real job. And 0:10:36.559 --> 0:10:38.280 I said, well, what's a real job. She said, A 0:10:38.280 --> 0:10:40.200 real job is a job that gives you health insurance. 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:42.360 And I said, okay, I promise I'm gonna go to 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:44.160 Risdy and one day I'm gonna a real job with 0:10:44.200 --> 0:10:46.719 health insurance. That was kind of my ambition. I mean, 0:10:46.720 --> 0:10:50.280 my high school yearbook quote literally was I'm sure I'll 0:10:50.320 --> 0:10:52.280 amount to nothing. I don't. I think I was being 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:55.800 kind of sarcastic, but I didn't really think I was 0:10:55.840 --> 0:10:57.520 going to be a tech founder. I mean, you know, 0:10:57.520 --> 0:10:59.840 I didn't really see very much beyond my small town. 0:11:00.600 --> 0:11:02.760 So let's talk about it. You graduate from Rhode Island 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:06.320 School Design and then you moved to California, Los Angeles 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:09.280 to become a designer, So then you ultimately didn't like 0:11:09.320 --> 0:11:11.439 it that much and decided to move to San Francisco. 0:11:11.559 --> 0:11:13.839 Was that right? I liked it for like three months, 0:11:13.880 --> 0:11:16.400 because there's like a thrill when you're a student. Nothing 0:11:16.400 --> 0:11:18.720 you make is real, and you just have this yearning 0:11:18.720 --> 0:11:20.800 that you want to make something that's real, that's not 0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:23.400 a shelf and people pay money for. But then after 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:25.760 a few months of doing that, maybe a year, I 0:11:25.840 --> 0:11:29.120 kind of remember thinking my I was like twenty four, 0:11:29.360 --> 0:11:32.640 maybe twenty five years old. I remember like feeling like 0:11:32.679 --> 0:11:34.760 I could see the rest of my life and the 0:11:34.840 --> 0:11:36.840 rest of my life look like a road that disappeared 0:11:36.880 --> 0:11:38.800 in the horizon and exactly look exactly like the road 0:11:38.840 --> 0:11:40.280 behind me, and it kind of terrified me. I was like, 0:11:40.320 --> 0:11:43.280 I don't really want to just be a designer. I 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:45.000 at this point realized, I think I want to be 0:11:45.000 --> 0:11:47.160 an entrepreneur, but I don't know what I'm gonna build 0:11:47.240 --> 0:11:49.559 or what I'm gonna start. And this is now two 0:11:49.600 --> 0:11:52.520 thousand seven, and so I think like the Internet revolution 0:11:52.640 --> 0:11:55.520 was really taking hold. You know, YouTube was just sold 0:11:55.520 --> 0:11:57.840 to Google, it was kind of the biggest company. Facebook 0:11:57.880 --> 0:12:00.640 was rising, the tech had come out, the ashes, the 0:12:00.720 --> 0:12:04.000 dot com crash, and it just felt like the gears 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:06.840 of the world we're starting to turn in San Francisco, 0:12:07.280 --> 0:12:09.440 and so I just had this premonition that, like, I 0:12:09.480 --> 0:12:11.679 have to come to San Francisco. It's pulling me. Right. 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:15.880 So you started the company with your roommate Joe, right, yep, 0:12:16.080 --> 0:12:18.480 you brought a third partner in. Yeah, so really not 0:12:18.600 --> 0:12:21.160 long after it was just Joe and I were both designers, 0:12:21.200 --> 0:12:23.680 so we can design a website, but we can't actually 0:12:23.720 --> 0:12:26.040 code and build a website. You need a software engineer 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:28.920 to do that. And so after we host the three guests, 0:12:29.440 --> 0:12:31.920 I looked at Joe and I said, like, who's the 0:12:31.960 --> 0:12:35.319 best engineer you know? And Joe said, well, it's funny 0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:38.199 you ask, because there was an engineer who used to 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:40.079 live with me before you moved in the house of 0:12:40.120 --> 0:12:42.040 me named Nate. And so the three of us got 0:12:42.040 --> 0:12:43.640 together and we said, you know what if you could 0:12:43.679 --> 0:12:45.719 build a website where you can book someone's home the 0:12:45.760 --> 0:12:47.800 way you can book a hotel anywhere in the world. 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:50.440 And that was the original vision. Um, little did I 0:12:50.480 --> 0:12:51.880 know how hard it was going to be to get 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:53.760 it off the ground, but that was a pretty simple idea. 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:56.240 So as you look back on what you've built, what 0:12:56.280 --> 0:12:58.600 would you say is the best decision you made, and 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:01.080 what was the biggest regret you had have so far, 0:13:01.120 --> 0:13:04.440 and what you do, what you built. The most important 0:13:04.440 --> 0:13:07.319 piece of advice I ever got was when I first 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:10.880 started Airbnb. It was actually Paul Graham. He told me something. 0:13:11.400 --> 0:13:14.640 He said, it's better to have a hundred people love 0:13:14.679 --> 0:13:18.120 your service then have a million people that are kind 0:13:18.160 --> 0:13:20.559 of like your service but a little apathetic. He should 0:13:20.640 --> 0:13:24.040 start with a small group and perfect your product. Do 0:13:24.200 --> 0:13:27.079 things that don't scale, turn them to advocates. Because of 0:13:27.160 --> 0:13:30.160 those hundred people love your service, they're gonna tell everyone 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:33.080 about them. They're gonna become your marketing And it's easy 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:35.320 to improve your service when you only have a hundred customers. 0:13:35.360 --> 0:13:37.360 When you have a million customers, really hard to change it. 0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:40.800 And so do things that don't scale, go above and beyond. 0:13:40.880 --> 0:13:42.679 And that was something we did, and I think that 0:13:42.720 --> 0:13:46.800 really helped explain why we're so successful. I think the 0:13:46.800 --> 0:13:51.280 biggest mistake I made was when you're in your twenties 0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:54.160 and you never imagine being an entrepreneur and suddenly you're 0:13:54.200 --> 0:13:56.840 a multibillion dollar company and somebody gives you billions of 0:13:56.880 --> 0:14:00.720 dollars and you hit on something that's hugely successful. You 0:14:00.760 --> 0:14:03.439 tend to start to believe that you can do anything, 0:14:03.840 --> 0:14:05.480 and you try to do everything, and you try to 0:14:05.480 --> 0:14:08.040 do everything at the same time. And before the pandemic, 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:10.800 we had like ten divisions and we were extending all 0:14:10.840 --> 0:14:14.400 different places. And in hindsight, I think having too much 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:17.120 money is sometimes worse than having not enough money, because 0:14:17.160 --> 0:14:20.800 I think not having enough money creates constraints, It creates discipline, 0:14:20.840 --> 0:14:23.360 it creates focus, It forces you to create trade offs. 0:14:23.600 --> 0:14:26.600 I think when corporations and start ups to get over capitalized, 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:30.720 they can avoid making tough decisions. The accountability goes down. 0:14:30.840 --> 0:14:34.320 There's a real sense of complacency that goes into the company. 0:14:34.560 --> 0:14:37.280 And I think a little that lack of focus happened 0:14:37.320 --> 0:14:39.600 Airbnb before the pandemic. So you have a lot of 0:14:39.600 --> 0:14:41.600 mentors that have helped you over the years. How did 0:14:41.600 --> 0:14:43.560 you get to know Barack Obama? Is he's staying at 0:14:43.560 --> 0:14:47.920 airbnbach he has stayed in the Airbnb is actually um. 0:14:47.960 --> 0:14:50.600 You might recall that UM we lifted the embargo in 0:14:50.640 --> 0:14:53.080 Cuba when he was president. President Obama end up going 0:14:53.080 --> 0:14:56.200 to Havana, Cuba, and he wanted to bring American businesses 0:14:56.200 --> 0:14:58.360 with him to show that business is now open between 0:14:58.480 --> 0:15:01.160 US and Cuba. Well, the problem is there weren't really 0:15:01.160 --> 0:15:04.120 any of US businesses in Cuba except for Airbnb. So 0:15:04.160 --> 0:15:05.880 I went with him to Havannah. I got to know 0:15:06.000 --> 0:15:07.880 him and we kept in touch, and so I think 0:15:07.880 --> 0:15:10.240 it was just helpful to have somebody who could help 0:15:10.280 --> 0:15:11.920 me see the world in a broader away and just 0:15:11.920 --> 0:15:15.000 think a little more systematically about my decisions and the 0:15:15.040 --> 0:15:17.600 consequences that we would have on society. So that's where 0:15:17.880 --> 0:15:19.920 how he became very helpful to me. Now, as I 0:15:20.000 --> 0:15:23.400 understand that you're spending a year or so going to Airbnb, 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:26.120 is around the United States, Yeah, most of the United 0:15:26.120 --> 0:15:28.680 States kind of reasonable time zone. So when you want 0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:30.960 to book an Airbnb, do you have a trouble getting 0:15:31.000 --> 0:15:33.200 a place where you want to go or no? I 0:15:33.560 --> 0:15:35.480 you know, there's six million homes to choose from, so 0:15:35.720 --> 0:15:38.720 I've got more than enough options. I don't really say 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:41.240 who I am, Um, I you know, and I think 0:15:41.320 --> 0:15:44.080 sometimes they find out, sometimes they don't, but um, yeah, 0:15:44.080 --> 0:15:48.640 I kind of his book last minute. I was in Atlanta, Nashville, UM, Charleston, 0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:51.600 Los Angeles, now Miami. I need ideas for where to 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:54.560 go next. So when you book when an Airbnb, do 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:56.080 you do it yourself or you have a team of 0:15:56.120 --> 0:15:58.480 people that pick it for you. I do it myself. 0:15:58.560 --> 0:16:00.600 I I gotta I gotta see whatever else is doing. 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:03.720 I mean, I always feel like people who build great 0:16:03.720 --> 0:16:06.840 products ideally are building products they themselves want to use. 0:16:06.960 --> 0:16:08.920 I also think there's only so many things you see 0:16:08.920 --> 0:16:10.640 in the data. You have to like just have a 0:16:10.680 --> 0:16:12.680 feel for the product, and so I try to use 0:16:12.680 --> 0:16:15.480 it as much as I can. I always wonder who 0:16:15.520 --> 0:16:18.320 sets the rate? Do you set the rate and airbnbad 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:20.280 or is they host set the rate? And do you 0:16:20.320 --> 0:16:23.760 negotiate rates? No? No, no host sets rate. They can 0:16:23.840 --> 0:16:26.280 charge whatever they want from ten dollars a ten thousand 0:16:26.320 --> 0:16:28.640 dollars a night or beyond. And you know, we have 0:16:28.720 --> 0:16:32.720 people renting luxury villas that are incredible, like Luxy villas, 0:16:32.800 --> 0:16:36.080 and then we people renting like, you know, little spaces 0:16:36.080 --> 0:16:38.320 in their backyard. I mean we had in two thousand 0:16:38.400 --> 0:16:40.200 nine a member when we first launched, we had people 0:16:40.280 --> 0:16:43.160 renting spaces under their kitchen table because they kind of thought, oh, 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:44.920 it's space. I can rent any kind of space. So 0:16:45.280 --> 0:16:47.600 it's kind of everything from a couch to a castle 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:49.760 and everything in between. And they set the rate and 0:16:49.800 --> 0:16:52.680 we basically take So when you stay at a place, 0:16:52.720 --> 0:16:54.240 do you ever call up the host and say, by 0:16:54.280 --> 0:16:56.840 the way, you're charging too much or charging not enough. 0:16:57.520 --> 0:16:59.920 I try to give feedback less on the value, but 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:02.240 more on the kind of hospitality. Like sometimes like a 0:17:02.280 --> 0:17:04.879 host will want me to like, you know, like go 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:07.399 through some like they'll give me like a rental contract 0:17:07.400 --> 0:17:08.960 because we used to doing on other websites, and I'm like, 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:11.920 Airbnb is a contract. You don't need to do this, um, 0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:13.760 But it would be pretty weird to be a tech 0:17:13.800 --> 0:17:16.320 founder of Airbnb and saying, hey, I think you're overcharging me. 0:17:16.320 --> 0:17:18.240 It would just kind of send a slightly weird message. 0:17:18.280 --> 0:17:20.520 But I try to give them feedback. And we have 0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:24.719 a review system. Guest and host review each other at 0:17:24.720 --> 0:17:26.480 the end of day. So I've tried to write a 0:17:26.480 --> 0:17:29.320 pretty detailed review for every host. I I try to 0:17:29.320 --> 0:17:32.480 be positive but honest about the reviews. But you signed 0:17:32.680 --> 0:17:36.239 b C or Brian Ky, Brian Sewsky, so they know 0:17:36.320 --> 0:17:38.560 by the time I leave review who I am. I'd 0:17:38.560 --> 0:17:40.040 say half the time they know who I am when 0:17:40.040 --> 0:17:42.080 I book either half of I don't like I don't 0:17:42.080 --> 0:17:43.960 want to be a secret shopper where I'm like lying 0:17:44.000 --> 0:17:46.399 to them and then booking under a pseudonym. But I 0:17:46.440 --> 0:17:48.040 also don't want to tell them who I am, like 0:17:48.080 --> 0:17:50.680 I'm expecting special treatment, because then I'm not going to 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:53.040 get the real experience. So be half the time I 0:17:53.119 --> 0:17:55.040 know they know who I am. Half they don't. But 0:17:55.080 --> 0:17:58.080