WEBVTT - Inside Brian Chesky’s Ultimate Airbnb 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.320 Let's just say this isn't your typical Airbnb. 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:04.240 Hello. 0:00:04.559 --> 0:00:10.840 I'm Emily Chang, and this is the circuit. When Brian 0:00:10.920 --> 0:00:12.959 Chesky said he was going to start renting his own 0:00:13.039 --> 0:00:16.439 home on Airbnb, I gotta be honest, I didn't quite 0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:20.160 believe it. Turns out he meant it, at least for now. 0:00:20.440 --> 0:00:23.360 This is the first time me or any journalist set 0:00:23.360 --> 0:00:24.760 foot in Cheskey's. 0:00:24.320 --> 0:00:26.400 Home, and I had some questions. 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:29.120 Just what can a guest expect from a stay with 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:33.479 the CEO of Airbnb Warriors game check? These are ten 0:00:33.520 --> 0:00:34.280 of stark cookies? 0:00:36.240 --> 0:00:38.320 Really ten Stark cookies. 0:00:39.000 --> 0:00:39.800 I was skeptical. 0:00:40.000 --> 0:00:41.640 I know, chocolate chip cookies. 0:00:42.320 --> 0:00:45.600 Check. But we also go deep on his journey from 0:00:46.120 --> 0:00:50.200 young art student to multi billion dollar entrepreneur to hoping 0:00:50.240 --> 0:00:53.159 for a family of his own, the exhilarating highs of 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:57.640 it all, and the lonely lows. He says Airbnb's darkest 0:00:57.680 --> 0:01:01.920 moment may well be what saved it and him. Here's 0:01:01.920 --> 0:01:05.560 my conversation with Airbnb CEO Brian Cheskey, with a few 0:01:05.560 --> 0:01:09.240 cameos from Sophie, his favorite golden retriever. What's it been 0:01:09.280 --> 0:01:10.240 like playing host so far? 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:12.679 Oh my god, it's been it's been a lot of fun. 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:16.800 I'm a co host. I got Sophie Supermo, she's a 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:20.800 nearly two year old Golden Retriever, and it's been cool 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:24.360 because I haven't really hosted that much since the early days. 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:26.319 I was one of the first two hosts in two 0:01:26.400 --> 0:01:29.160 thousand and seven, and for the last maybe five years, 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:31.760 I hadn't hosted. And last year I started living in 0:01:31.800 --> 0:01:34.520 Airbnb because I wanted to show people you can live 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:36.640 and work anywhere. And so the first six months of 0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:38.960 the year, I'm living on Airbnb, I'm traveling, I'm staying 0:01:39.000 --> 0:01:41.160 home to home. And I had a goal in my mind. 0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:43.200 I said before the end of the year, I want 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:45.800 to be a host. And I only have this house. 0:01:46.240 --> 0:01:49.280 This is like your primary house, it isn't your extra house. 0:01:49.280 --> 0:01:51.600 I don't have a second house. And so if I 0:01:51.640 --> 0:01:53.880 had a second house, my instinct would have been to 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:56.080 rent that one and not this one. But I had 0:01:56.080 --> 0:01:59.320 no other house, and I thought a little initially, oh 0:01:59.360 --> 0:02:01.360 this is a little crazy, like you, a little crazy. 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:03.919 I'm a stranger in my house. And then I realized, 0:02:03.920 --> 0:02:06.280 wait a second, that's what like millions of people have 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:09.280 to go through. And I put myself back in the 0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:12.440 shoes of my old self or a host, and I 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:14.280 had to go through the journey of what's it going 0:02:14.320 --> 0:02:15.680 to be like to let someone in my house? And 0:02:15.800 --> 0:02:17.360 what am I gonna what I'm going to ask them? 0:02:17.400 --> 0:02:19.800 How are going to my screen guest? And I started 0:02:19.800 --> 0:02:23.000 really looking at our verification program and our reservation screening 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:25.280 and like is this really And I felt really good 0:02:25.320 --> 0:02:27.119 about it, And so then I started hosting. 0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:30.200 Well thanks for having us our best behavior. But you 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:32.959 know you're kind of busy. You're running a multi billion 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:36.200 dollar company. Like what made you want to make time 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:36.760 for this? 0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:41.360 I think two things. I think number one again, I 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:43.680 never wanted to be one of those CEOs that's kind 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:46.440 of an ivory tower, just looking at data and spreadsheets 0:02:46.480 --> 0:02:48.200 all day. You know, when you build a product, When 0:02:48.200 --> 0:02:51.560 you first build a company, you make something, usually for yourself, 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:54.000 you don't have any users, you talk to them, you're 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:56.040 looking the product every day, and the one day you 0:02:56.080 --> 0:02:58.680 wake up and you're running a giant corporation. If this happens, 0:02:58.680 --> 0:03:01.760 if you're so lucky, and the company becomes a series 0:03:01.760 --> 0:03:04.320 of numbers, And I think it's really important for business 0:03:04.400 --> 0:03:07.880 leaders to never reduce their customers to a number. You 0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:10.520 don't want to get emotionally detached. People aren't just numbers. 0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:12.840 They're people, and they make decisions, and they have to 0:03:12.960 --> 0:03:15.160 love your service. And if they love your service, they're 0:03:15.160 --> 0:03:17.040 gonna tell other people about it. And that means that 0:03:17.120 --> 0:03:19.520 you need to be emotionally connected to what you're doing. 0:03:19.800 --> 0:03:22.160 I understand when hosts are complaining about something, or your 0:03:22.160 --> 0:03:24.960 customers complaining, what do they mean? Do you have a 0:03:24.960 --> 0:03:28.160 deep intuitive understanding what they're talking about. So that's that 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:30.519 was like the main reason I did it. But then 0:03:30.680 --> 0:03:33.799 there was another reason I wasn't expecting, which is as 0:03:33.800 --> 0:03:35.360 fun is it really? 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:37.240 I mean, it's fun to you. You're giving people the 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:39.360 full court press, like I feel, you're staying a couple 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:41.520 of days, taking them out in the city. 0:03:41.720 --> 0:03:45.040 And I'll be honest, I wouldn't intuitively have thought it 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:47.880 would be fun. I didn't like grow up wanting to 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:51.560 be a host. It was one weekend I I, you know, 0:03:51.680 --> 0:03:55.000 and so I kind of discovered hosting, and I guess 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:58.280 this whole experience reminded me of how much fun it was. 0:03:58.320 --> 0:03:59.960 And if I wasn't the coo or bingb I would 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:02.920 still host. That's how much. I've decided it's really fun. 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:05.120 It's like, you have this nice house, don't you want 0:04:05.120 --> 0:04:05.880 to share it with people? 0:04:06.280 --> 0:04:08.880 But these are strangers, right, These are people you don't know. 0:04:09.160 --> 0:04:11.720 They arrive as strangers, and I'm really proud that they 0:04:11.720 --> 0:04:14.280 do usually leave as friends. I'm actually one of the 0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:16.680 guests I'm taking to a warrior's game because he's actually local. 0:04:17.080 --> 0:04:19.920 But wow, yeah, so I try to stay in touch 0:04:19.920 --> 0:04:20.360 with my guests. 0:04:20.440 --> 0:04:22.240 Okay, it was crazy to think you were going to 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:23.680 rent your house to a stranger, or that you were 0:04:23.720 --> 0:04:25.480 going to stay in some stranger's house, and now it's 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:29.520 just what we do. Does the level of human openness 0:04:29.520 --> 0:04:31.520 to that idea still surprise you? 0:04:32.440 --> 0:04:35.599 A lot of people ask me, like, what did you 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:37.600 know that no one else knew in the early days, 0:04:37.600 --> 0:04:39.920 Like Paul Graham, er first investor, said, a founder usually 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:42.919 has to have some insight that no one else has. Otherwise, 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:44.479 why are you doing this? What do you know that 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:47.400 no one else knows? Because if it's nothing, then someone 0:04:47.440 --> 0:04:49.880 would have already done this. And what I like to 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:54.479 tell people is I think I'm less a visionary than expeditionary, 0:04:54.520 --> 0:04:57.560 in the sense that I didn't have a vision I 0:04:57.600 --> 0:05:00.479 discovered something one week and I couldn't pay rent. I 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:02.920 decided to let people in my house only to make money. 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:04.760 For the most part, I thought it'd be fun, and 0:05:04.760 --> 0:05:07.200 I end up becoming friends these people, and it made 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:10.799 me realize that like these homes are these private spaces 0:05:11.360 --> 0:05:14.160 that you'd never let anyone in. And if you were 0:05:14.160 --> 0:05:16.200 like an alien looking down on Earth and you realize 0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:18.720 all these there's all these houses that people live in, 0:05:18.960 --> 0:05:20.560 but then all these other people travel, but they don't 0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:22.800 stand those things. They stay in these other spaces in 0:05:22.839 --> 0:05:24.880 these one district and they all stay together. You kind 0:05:24.880 --> 0:05:26.960 of look at that model and say, it seems a 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:30.760 little inefficient, but you understand why there's no trust. And 0:05:30.800 --> 0:05:33.080 we thought, well, if we could solve a system of 0:05:33.120 --> 0:05:35.840 trust and make them not feel like strangers, this would 0:05:35.839 --> 0:05:38.360 be an idea to spread on the world. But you're right, 0:05:38.480 --> 0:05:42.240 it's like so counterintuitive. It's so funny. I like to 0:05:42.320 --> 0:05:44.880 joke that people could imagine living on Mars easier than 0:05:44.880 --> 0:05:46.760 they can laugh and match I something's laying a stranger 0:05:46.760 --> 0:05:49.960 in their home. You just really think about it. I 0:05:49.960 --> 0:05:54.720 think we have trouble imagining sociological changes, sometimes harder than 0:05:54.720 --> 0:05:58.080 technological changes. We can all imagine things getting bigger, faster, 0:05:58.600 --> 0:06:02.440 kind of moving to more like to other locations, but 0:06:02.480 --> 0:06:04.360 it's hard to imagine changing behavior. 0:06:04.520 --> 0:06:06.720 But Airbnb has actually been a big part of like 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:09.560 maybe a major sociological change probably. 0:06:09.600 --> 0:06:13.279 I mean, it's been now been used one point four 0:06:13.320 --> 0:06:16.800 billion times. And if you had told me when we 0:06:16.880 --> 0:06:20.680 first started that one point four billion people from two 0:06:20.760 --> 0:06:23.400 hundred and twenty countries and reagions will live together, that 0:06:23.480 --> 0:06:26.000 on a typical night we'd have nearly the population of 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:29.080 Los Angeles staying together, people from the Middle East and 0:06:29.160 --> 0:06:33.080 Texas like cultures you wouldn't necessarily think mixing together coming together. 0:06:33.360 --> 0:06:34.839 I think we all would have said you were crazy. 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:37.120 Like I remember somebody I remember in the early days 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:38.880 used to tell people this idea is going to be 0:06:38.920 --> 0:06:41.320 huge one day, thousands of people will do it, And 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:43.800 I think that sums up what we thought. But I 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:48.039 think that, like maybe Emily, the lesson is, you know, 0:06:48.680 --> 0:06:51.599 I think we're conditioned to think people aren't good. Yeah, 0:06:51.720 --> 0:06:54.880 and some people aren't maybe at some basic level. But 0:06:54.960 --> 0:06:57.560 I guess I just maybe I was, maybe I was 0:06:57.560 --> 0:07:00.160 too naive to know the difference because I kind of 0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:02.600 it just was optimistic and I thought most people are 0:07:02.600 --> 0:07:06.320 fundamently good. We're probably actually ninety nine percent the same. 0:07:07.240 --> 0:07:09.200 And I know that can sound naive, but I actually 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:12.640 think we probably have more data than almost any experiment 0:07:12.720 --> 0:07:15.200 in human history. There's never been an experiment where more 0:07:15.200 --> 0:07:19.080 people have lived together. And yes, occasionally things happen that 0:07:19.400 --> 0:07:22.480 aren't unexpected, but that's not the parts that surprising me. 0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:25.720 This surprize of me is how similar people are. And 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:28.520 I think that was one of the core insights that 0:07:28.560 --> 0:07:30.720 we had. And it's like most tech comans have to 0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:34.160 understand laws of physics, we call these first principles, and 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:36.200 we also have to know a different law, which is 0:07:36.240 --> 0:07:38.720 a law of human nature, like who are we at 0:07:38.720 --> 0:07:40.960 a very basic level, And if you can start to 0:07:41.040 --> 0:07:43.080 understand that, then you can start to design for people. 0:07:43.600 --> 0:07:46.400 Well, I'm excited to learn a little bit more about 0:07:46.400 --> 0:07:48.920 who you are. We've talked so many times over the 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:51.920 years about the business about new products, Miles Jones, and 0:07:51.960 --> 0:07:55.480 hopefully there'll be many more years for that. But what's 0:07:55.480 --> 0:07:58.400 a day in the life of Brian Cheskey outside the office? 0:07:58.840 --> 0:08:00.520 Like what do you you do? 0:08:01.000 --> 0:08:02.200 Aside from Airbnb? 0:08:03.600 --> 0:08:05.440 There's like a few things I really like to do. 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:07.400 I like to I try to exercise. When I first 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:09.760 started air meanbi, I didn't really exercise a lot, and 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:13.320 I noticed the markercise manage. I have Sophie and I 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:15.640 like to go on adventures together. Last year I went 0:08:15.680 --> 0:08:18.600 to like eighteen different cities. I stayed in a franklaid 0:08:18.640 --> 0:08:22.880 right house in annab, Michigan. For example, lifelong desire I've had. 0:08:23.880 --> 0:08:25.760 I like drawing. I think I have some sketch books 0:08:25.800 --> 0:08:27.880 around the house. I could we could show my art later. 0:08:28.160 --> 0:08:31.480 I guess the other thing is I like connecting with friends, 0:08:32.760 --> 0:08:34.680 so I like I like to learn, I like the 0:08:34.800 --> 0:08:37.080 draw I like to hang out with people I care about, 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:39.040 and I like to travel. I guess those are the 0:08:39.040 --> 0:08:39.480 things I do. 0:08:39.720 --> 0:08:42.280 You know, obviously the pandemic hit. Travel comes to a 0:08:42.320 --> 0:08:47.400 screeching hall. You're the majority of your revenue almost vanishes. Also, 0:08:47.800 --> 0:08:51.240 nobody wants to see other people right in that moment? 0:08:51.360 --> 0:08:53.200 Did it feel like you were standing on the edge 0:08:53.200 --> 0:08:53.720 of a cliff? 0:08:54.600 --> 0:08:57.320 I remember asking my mom a question, she reminds me. 0:08:57.360 --> 0:08:59.199 I said to her at some point during the bath 0:08:59.200 --> 0:09:01.040 of pandemic, I said, do you think people ever want 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:03.880 to travel again? I mean of course I thought they would, 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:05.920 but I had no idea how long would take. I mean, 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:09.120 I thought we had made it before the pandemic. You know, 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:11.240 we had a business that was doing like, let's call it, 0:09:11.280 --> 0:09:14.800 thirty five billion dollars in sales. That's about similar. That's 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:17.040 more than Starbucks. That's almost like the size of Nike. 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:19.480 If you told me in like the nineteen eighties growing up, 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:21.600 we'd have a business that baby, like, you're totally crazy. 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:24.680 I thought we're making work in IPO and then within 0:09:24.720 --> 0:09:27.800 a decade that happens to then lose eighty percent of 0:09:27.840 --> 0:09:30.480 it in eight weeks, and then you know, I mean 0:09:30.600 --> 0:09:32.440 you remember there were articles like is this the end 0:09:32.480 --> 0:09:37.199 of Airbnb? Will erbmbe exist? And I got to tell you, 0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:40.400 like that changed my life, and it changed my life 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:43.319 and the company for the better. You ever hear people 0:09:43.360 --> 0:09:45.120 say that they had a near death experience and they 0:09:45.160 --> 0:09:48.360 had this moment of clarity. Well, thankful, I've never had that, 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:51.040 But I felt like I got that clarity from a 0:09:51.080 --> 0:09:52.000 business perspective. 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:53.560 How did you change as a person. 0:09:55.120 --> 0:09:57.040 I like to joke that I'm forty one going on 0:09:57.080 --> 0:10:00.800 sixty one, because is that a good thing? We'll see 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:03.120 my hair is a little greater, but I think I 0:10:03.120 --> 0:10:05.240 think it is a good thing. In this case, I 0:10:05.240 --> 0:10:07.160 think I really grew up there in the pandemic. I 0:10:07.200 --> 0:10:09.920 really grew up. And the reason I grew up is 0:10:10.000 --> 0:10:13.880 because I think I felt my responsibility more like we 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:16.440 all probably walk around every day with responsibility, but like 0:10:17.200 --> 0:10:19.880 you know, you don't feel your responsibility to feel the 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:22.840 edges of it, like to you feel people depending on you. 0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:26.439 And in one moment, I had every stakeholder like depending 0:10:26.480 --> 0:10:29.320 on me. Employees are worried about their jobs. Investors were 0:10:29.360 --> 0:10:32.000 they about their investment. Guests were worried about they can 0:10:32.040 --> 0:10:34.720 get their money back when they're traveling, you know, Hosts 0:10:34.720 --> 0:10:36.720 are worrying about like if they're going to ever be able 0:10:36.679 --> 0:10:39.360 to keep their home. And then communities worrying about how 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:41.800 are we going to house all these nurses and firefighters 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:44.959 and doctors. And they were all reaching out to me 0:10:45.360 --> 0:10:48.080 at the same time, and not in a low key 0:10:48.120 --> 0:10:50.440 composed way, you know. It was like there was a 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:53.520 lot of fear, a lot of concern, and I think 0:10:53.520 --> 0:10:58.000 in that moment it was like a total growing up experience, 0:10:58.360 --> 0:11:00.720 and it was almost like a bell rung in my mind. Head. 0:11:01.000 --> 0:11:03.800 And I remember my board member Ken Channel, who was 0:11:03.800 --> 0:11:06.640 a CEO of AMX. He was CEO during nine to 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:09.920 eleven in the financial crisis to his night, so he's 0:11:09.960 --> 0:11:12.840 certainly been through crisis. And he basically said, I've been 0:11:12.880 --> 0:11:14.760 through two of the biggest crisis in my lifetime, and 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:17.160 this is ten times bigger than either of them. He said, 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:20.360 this is your defining moment as a CEO, and I said, well, 0:11:20.400 --> 0:11:22.839 I'm going to be defined by this crisis, and it's 0:11:22.840 --> 0:11:25.040 going to be on our terms. I think before the 0:11:25.080 --> 0:11:27.600 pandemic was a little bit the nice guy that could 0:11:27.600 --> 0:11:29.280 be a little conflict of hers and that makes me 0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:31.240 want to appease people and like not want to make 0:11:31.240 --> 0:11:31.880 hard decisions. 0:11:31.960 --> 0:11:33.640 Said yes to too many I said yes. 0:11:33.520 --> 0:11:36.280 To too many things, and it was on me. You know, 0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:38.680 the CEO has to say no. Steve Jobs, you say, 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:41.560 focusing is not about saying yes, it's about saying no. Well, 0:11:41.600 --> 0:11:43.320 I had to learn to say no to a lot 0:11:43.320 --> 0:11:45.440 of things, and some of them were pretty heartbreaking. But 0:11:45.559 --> 0:11:48.800 you have to make hard decisions. And that's I think 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:51.240 what ended up happening is I just think I saw clarity. 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:54.280 We made a lot of hard decisions. I grew up 0:11:54.320 --> 0:11:58.320 by feeling my responsibility. I got more disciplined, We got 0:11:58.320 --> 0:12:01.120 more disciplined. And I think I had lessons that have 0:12:01.240 --> 0:12:03.160 now been sewed in my brain and I'm never going 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:05.160 to forget them. You know, you don't go through something 0:12:05.200 --> 0:12:06.880 like that without it permanently changing you. 0:12:07.080 --> 0:12:07.920 What are the lessons? 0:12:08.640 --> 0:12:11.720 So the first thing I learned is who people really are. 0:12:12.240 --> 0:12:14.559 The good news is that the vast majority of people 0:12:14.559 --> 0:12:17.000 turned out to be great people, still good, still good. 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:19.679 You can also learn a lot about yourself in a crisis, 0:12:20.280 --> 0:12:22.480 and I learned that the hardest thing to manage the 0:12:22.520 --> 0:12:25.920 crisis is your own psychology. And I learned how to 0:12:25.960 --> 0:12:29.240 manage my own psychology. I learned how to be focused 0:12:29.240 --> 0:12:32.080 like never before. I also learned how to run a 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:36.640 company totally differently. Because when you like never seen money 0:12:36.679 --> 0:12:38.760 before in your life, and like, one hundred thousand dollars 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:40.080 is more my I ever see in my life. 0:12:40.360 --> 0:12:43.680 We raised billions of dollars, and you personally made billions 0:12:43.679 --> 0:12:44.000 of dollars. 0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:46.320 Yes, and we raised billions of dollars, and we have 0:12:46.400 --> 0:12:48.480 it in the bank account. And so it's easy to 0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:50.960 say yes to things. I learned to say no. I 0:12:51.040 --> 0:12:53.840 learned to be focused. I learn to focus the entire 0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:57.120 company and point them, every single person, to one direction. 0:12:57.640 --> 0:13:01.080 And I learned to stop apologizing about how I wan 0:13:01.200 --> 0:13:04.960 run the company. I didn't realize until after the crisis 0:13:05.320 --> 0:13:07.960 that I spent five to ten years apologizing every step 0:13:07.960 --> 0:13:09.840 of the way or negotiating how I run into the company, 0:13:10.120 --> 0:13:14.080 because you hire people and they come from Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, 0:13:14.320 --> 0:13:16.360 and they bring their way with them. And what I 0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:18.720 realized I was doing was trying to find some midpoint 0:13:18.760 --> 0:13:20.800 between how I wanted to run the company and how 0:13:20.840 --> 0:13:24.120 they wanted to run the company, which actually made everyone miserable. 0:13:24.400 --> 0:13:26.200 I had to go into wartime mode. And the crazy 0:13:26.240 --> 0:13:28.880 thing was is as I took more command, more control, 0:13:29.080 --> 0:13:32.520 became more decisive, more bossy, so to speak. I think 0:13:32.520 --> 0:13:35.599 people were happier because they had quarity in direction. I 0:13:35.640 --> 0:13:37.000 think those are some of the lessons I leaned. 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:39.640 And then the tide turned, or maybe it's like the 0:13:39.679 --> 0:13:43.200 Titanic didn't hit the iceberg totally. You know, you go public, 0:13:43.240 --> 0:13:47.440 airbnbgost public. The end of twenty twenty, I'm interviewing you live. 0:13:47.800 --> 0:13:52.160 That was television most memorable And Who've ever done your shares. 0:13:51.880 --> 0:13:54.040 Double before the market even opens. 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:55.440 Yes, and. 0:13:56.880 --> 0:13:59.640 You can't even speak like you're completely tongue tied. I 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:01.199 actually want you to. I want you to watch it. 0:14:03.600 --> 0:14:07.440 Every time I watch it, I like, Yeah, it's such 0:14:07.440 --> 0:14:11.360 a moment when your opening price shares indicated to open 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:13.600 right now at one hundred and thirty nine dollars a share, 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:16.800 which is more than double what you priced that. I mean, 0:14:17.280 --> 0:14:19.960 are you at all concerned about froth? What do you 0:14:20.000 --> 0:14:23.600 think about that number and the potential that you're leaving 0:14:23.840 --> 0:14:25.240 billions of dollars on the table. 0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:29.800 That's the first time I've heard that number. That is, 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:30.480 that's a. 0:14:32.320 --> 0:14:37.600 You know, when we in April we raised money and 0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:41.080 it was a debt financing, that price would have priced 0:14:41.200 --> 0:14:45.520 us around thirty bucks. So I don't know what else 0:14:45.560 --> 0:14:47.960 to say. It's that, that's a a that's a very 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:51.920 that's that is I'm very humbled. 0:14:52.120 --> 0:14:52.320 Wow. 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:54.680 And you know, we know that we're on a very 0:14:54.720 --> 0:14:59.200 long journey and we're going to be very very focused. 0:14:59.360 --> 0:15:01.840 Is obviously to is a very special day for everyone. 0:15:02.000 --> 0:15:05.440 But you know, the highest stock price, the higher expectations, 0:15:05.440 --> 0:15:06.400 the harder we're going to be working. 0:15:06.400 --> 0:15:10.360 Obviously, Wow, I watched that in a long time. Wow, 0:15:10.640 --> 0:15:11.960 that actually makes me a little emotional. 0:15:12.200 --> 0:15:14.040 What's going through your head in that moment. 0:15:14.320 --> 0:15:17.360 I think that moment it was like my hard drive crash, 0:15:17.360 --> 0:15:22.560 and I think it's that like the pandemic happens March fifteenth, 0:15:22.640 --> 0:15:25.440 id's of March. We have a emergency board meeting. All 0:15:25.440 --> 0:15:26.920 of a sudden, I realized, like this is going to 0:15:26.960 --> 0:15:29.640 be a twenty four hour thing. And every day I 0:15:29.680 --> 0:15:34.000 would wake up, put on sweatpants, like go right to 0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:35.960 the computer. I would like shower at night. My schedule 0:15:35.960 --> 0:15:37.840 is so crazy. I would leave my house and I 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:40.280 probably work sixteen hours a day, seven days a week, 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:43.240 and I'd probably never stop at any point to think 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:46.880 about anything. It was just one day after day, and 0:15:47.000 --> 0:15:50.800 that moment I had to think about everything. The whole 0:15:50.880 --> 0:15:53.560 year was like you took a whole year and you 0:15:53.600 --> 0:15:56.160 made it like a fifteen second trailer and I was like, 0:15:56.200 --> 0:15:58.920 oh my god, and it just maybe at that moment 0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:01.320 it all hit me. This is just so crazy. 0:16:01.880 --> 0:16:02.960 The interview went viral. 0:16:03.280 --> 0:16:07.360 It did people could see it hit you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 0:16:07.440 --> 0:16:09.360 My eyebrows went to the top of my head and 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:13.640 I didn't know they went to high. That was but yeah, 0:16:13.680 --> 0:16:17.880 that was that was one of the most surprising moments 0:16:17.880 --> 0:16:19.520 in my life. I'm not usually speechless. 0:16:20.520 --> 0:16:22.040 Yes, you're normally quite eloquent. 0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:26.240 I did not know what to say. I guess I'm 0:16:26.320 --> 0:16:32.000 also thinking back now, I feel so lucky because I 0:16:32.040 --> 0:16:34.600 did not manage the crisis on my own, and I 0:16:34.720 --> 0:16:38.440 kind of felt like I had the wind in my back, 0:16:38.480 --> 0:16:41.000 as if like people were working with me and helping me, 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:43.600 people I knew, and I kind of felt like I 0:16:43.640 --> 0:16:45.280 had a lot of benefit of the doubt that like 0:16:45.800 --> 0:16:47.960 maybe people were rooting for us, and maybe they weren't. 0:16:47.960 --> 0:16:50.280 Maybe they weren't, but it felt like people could have 0:16:50.280 --> 0:16:52.040 made it a lot harder if they wanted to, and 0:16:52.080 --> 0:16:57.000 they didn't. Employees, like very few employees resigned after and 0:16:57.040 --> 0:16:58.440 then they could have, like they could have gone to 0:16:58.600 --> 0:17:00.400 work at Google or like who wants to work at 0:17:00.400 --> 0:17:03.880 a travel coming pandemic? You know, the board stuck by me. 0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:07.800 My founders gave me so much support. Hosts kept listing. 0:17:08.080 --> 0:17:11.159 They adn't take their listings down. I remember in the 0:17:11.200 --> 0:17:14.480 depths of my darkness, you know people who are writing 0:17:14.560 --> 0:17:16.440 articles what air can be exists? I would get text 0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:19.760 me as former employees, I want airb me to still exist, 0:17:20.600 --> 0:17:23.680 and I remember asking like, well, why, like why other 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:26.159 than having emotional attachment, like why do you want it 0:17:26.200 --> 0:17:28.840 to exist? I think the best answer I heard was 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:30.480 because if you don't do what you're doing, no one 0:17:30.480 --> 0:17:33.800 else will. Like there's many sites that you know, you 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:36.359 can get a house or you can travel on vacation, 0:17:36.520 --> 0:17:38.960 but there was something a little different by Airbnb. There's 0:17:38.960 --> 0:17:40.879 not a lot of designers running companies that have this 0:17:40.960 --> 0:17:44.200 created spirit. There's this idea of like real the roots 0:17:44.240 --> 0:17:47.600 of airbb around connection to people living together that doesn't 0:17:47.640 --> 0:17:52.000 really exist anymore on any other platforms. So that was 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:56.160 like pretty moving to me. And I mean twenty twenty 0:17:56.240 --> 0:17:59.200 was an intense and emotional year and that was the capstone. 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:01.840 Do you ever think about what would where Airbnb would 0:18:01.880 --> 0:18:03.320 be if the pandemic didn't happen. 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:06.639 Yeah, it's almost scary to think about. We wouldn't be 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:10.600 here today. That's the crazy thing. Like your culture is 0:18:10.640 --> 0:18:13.960 often forged in your darkest moments. I think people think 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:16.760 of culture as like, you know, the perks, the yoga, 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:21.760 like the yoga, free food snacks, kombucha. No culture or 0:18:21.800 --> 0:18:24.639 the shared behaviors that you all have based on lessons 0:18:24.720 --> 0:18:26.960 you've learned together, and the lessons you remember most are 0:18:27.040 --> 0:18:29.399 during the moments of trials and tribulations of things that 0:18:29.440 --> 0:18:32.560 forge you. We basically made like five years of progress 0:18:32.560 --> 0:18:35.159 in like six months, and I think we would have 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:38.320 never reached the potential that we can now reach because 0:18:38.400 --> 0:18:41.280