Assertion Not checkable as stated
20 investor introductions yielded zero seed funding for Airbnb in 2008
“We get introduced to 20 investors in Silicon Valley. 10 of them reply to our email. Five of them meet us for coffee. Zero invested in us.”
Assertion Supported
Paul Graham accepted Airbnb into YC for founder hustle, not the idea
“The reason we got in wasn't because of our idea. It was because through the breakfast cereal, we had proven to him that we had hustle, we had grit, we had the, if we could figure out how to sell breakfast cereal for 40 dollars a box, we could figure out how to…”
Insight
Gebbia: Early-Stage Brands Should Prioritize Channel Reach Over Selectivity
“I think the idea is that eventually over time you build, build a brand that people recognize and you grow out of your reliance on the, on a platform like Amazon and have your own distribution channels that are independent. But I think at this stage, you know, …”
Insight
Gebbia: The Best Time to Raise Capital Is When You Don't Need It
“The best time to go raise money is when you don't need it. And so if you're in a position where you've got, you know, ramen profitability, where you're able to cover your expenses and your costs, and it's effectively unlimited runway. You have a unique advanta…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Gebbia: Top VCs behind Google and Facebook said Airbnb would never work
“I can tell you all the times and show you all the emails from really credible investors, like people that, these, they're investors that picked Google and PayPal and YouTube and Facebook and all of the kind of internet greats that came before us, and so sittin…”
Insight
Gebbia: Airbnb formalized an existing informal way of traveling
“People are already traveling this way. It's just not formalized. It's not easy.”
Insight
Gebbia: Early startups can relaunch repeatedly because nobody notices initial flops
“The good news, though, is that if you launch and it's a dud, you can launch again because nobody knew about the first one, so.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Airbnb founders made $20,000 selling $40 novelty Obama O's cereal
“Well, it almost didn't matter, because at 40 dollars a box times 500 boxes, we made 20,000 dollars in breakfast cereal.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Airbnb's weekly revenue doubled from $200 to $400 after improving listing photos
“Our numbers, that second week, Went from 200 dollars a week in fees, which is what we were making for six months, right? Which is not sustainable. Three guys cannot live off that in San Francisco. Our numbers jumped to 400 dollars in one week.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Gebbia: Samara Completed a California ADU Install in 23 Minutes
“Guy, our last install in California, from the time it arrived on the truck and we took it off with the crane to the time it got installed on our foundation was 23 minutes.”
Insight
Gebbia: Apply 'Some Will, Some Won't, Who Cares, Move On' to Fundraising
“When you're selling a product, you're asking for money, in this case, some will want to give you money, some won't, SW squared plus WC who cares equals MO move on.”
Assertion Partly supported
Gebbia: Airbnb failed through four consecutive launches before finding product-market fit
“So, our next iteration for South by Southwest in 2008 was literally a conference website. After the dud of that launch we regrouped and listened to people's feedback, and then we launched again for the DNC, and that flopped, and then we launched a fourth time …”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
First prospective guests submitted resumes and LinkedIn profiles for airbeds
“People actually started sending us their resumes, their LinkedIn profiles, to vie for one of these limited three airbeds.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Airbnb’s SXSW launch yielded just six listings and two bookings
“We actually had six people put up listings in Austin, and we had two people book those listings. One of them was Brian.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Airbnb had about 100 paid bookings during the 2008 DNC launch
“Well we did a live interview with CNN from our living room, and we had about a hundred people actually book and pay with a credit card through our service, which, this was like the first sign of a working, viable marketplace, even to the point where we were ge…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Airbnb scaled from zero to 800 home listings in four weeks
“We ended up going from zero to 800 homes in a matter of four weeks.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Airbnb survived early on by maxing out binders full of credit cards
“You know those binders where you keep baseball cards? I had one of those, except there weren't baseball cards in it. They were credit cards. We would go through visa after visa to MasterCard and then final to Amex. Just maxing out credit cards, and that's how …”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Airbnb had just 30 hosts in New York when entering Y Combinator
“We have 30 hosts in New York who are renting their extra rooms out in their homes”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Early Airbnb listings lacked bookings because host photos were terrible
“People just generally didn't know how to take a good photo of their home. So the photos were really bad... They were taking pictures at night. It just wasn't, they weren't merchandising their home in a way that you would want to stay there. So, therefore, no o…”
Assertion Supported
Sequoia Capital proactively approached Airbnb to lead its funding round
“We had offers coming in from a variety of different groups, and the one that shocked us the most was Sequoia Capital, which was a pre, it is a preeminent Venture capital firm in Silicon Valley that we thought, well, maybe one day, like a year from now, we'll g…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
A five-acre private Fiji island listed on Airbnb in 2010
“Somebody out in the South Pacific listed a five-acre private island on our site. Complete with personal chef complete with, you know, water sports”
Assertion Supported
Over 100 million people have stayed in Airbnb homes worldwide
“So, I think the world is ready for our invention, given that there's been over a hundred million people that have stayed in homes all over the world.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Gebbia: Airbnb Pitched 20 Early Investors and Received Zero Offers
“And so, we get introduced to 20 investors in Silicon Valley. 10 of them replied to our email. Five of them eat us for coffee. Zero invested in us.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Gebbia sold 2,000 branded discarded proof books before founding Airbnb
“For like a year and a half, I just gathered these books, and I had the 2000 of these books in my garage down the street that I collected, and the cool thing is, everyone was different. No two were exactly the same, and then I came up with a rubber stamp. I gav…”
Joe Gebbia