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Chesky: Startups make their biggest product leaps when subscale

Brian Chesky · Airbnb's Brian Chesky: Do things that don’t scale · May 3, 2022 · at 28:02

Brian Chesky, co-founder and CEO of Airbnb, explains why early-stage startups have a massive agility advantage over scaled tech companies.

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“The biggest leaps you ever get is when you're small. And another way of saying it is your product changes less the bigger you get, because there's bigger, more customers, more blowback, more systems, more legacy. The most innovative leaps you'll ever make, often, especially through your network, Are going to be when you're really, really small. You can change the product entirely in a week. Try doing that at LinkedIn or Airbnb today. That'd be a huge disaster.”

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