So we thought, the presidential campaign is coming up. What’s a non-perishable breakfast? Cereal. Maybe breakfast will.” So we thought, what if we could sell breakfast? Maybe we can make some money. Brian was at the Democratic National Convention, hatching a PR campaign for Airbnb - one that could rescue the company and their credit card bills.ĬHESKY: Joe and I look at each other and we said, “We’re ‘Air Bed and Breakfast.’ The air beds aren’t going so well. Barack Obama was running against John McCain. HOFFMAN: It was 2008, an election year in the United States. So for anyone who’s worried their company doesn’t have enough traction, that was our traction. By the way, we’ve been working for a year and a half. Eight years ago? A very different picture.ĬHESKY: We have this website and maybe 50 people a day are visiting it, and we’re probably getting like 10 to 20 bookings a day. REID HOFFMAN: That entrepreneur in need of a lifeline? That’s Brian Chesky, co-Founder and CEO of Airbnb, a service that lets you rent a couch for the night.

Joe is tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt. At this point I am $25,000 in credit card debt.

You know those binders that you put baseball cards in? We put credit cards in them. We’re losing weight, and I didn’t have a lot of weight to lose. Chapter 1: Handcrafted work is the foundation of successīRIAN CHESKY: Joe and I are broke.

Brian airbnb