Brian Chesky (Airbnb) Case Study ｜ Strategy For Entrepreneurs

Brian Chesky is the co-founder and CEO of Airbnb with a network of over 3.1 billion, that's billion with a B, dollars. But the road to entrepreneurial success has not been without its speed bumps for Chesky. So how did Airbnb come to be and what can you learn from Chesky's entrepreneurial story? Let's find out in today's video. But first, if you're looking to drive massive impact and profit for your business this year, check out the link in my video description below to join my 21 Days to Infinite Video Impact Challenge. Be sure to subscribe to my channel because I'm going to be doing case studies showcasing some of the most inspiring and incredible entrepreneurs, including today's Brian Chesky. He is the co-founder and CEO of Airbnb. He is 38 years old at the time that I'm filming this and he was named one of Time's 100 Most Influential People. He has a net worth of $3.1 billion. Imagine being under the age of 40 and worth that much. Airbnb, I'm sure you've heard of it. I'm sure you've used it. I've used it a dozen times. It's been used by more than 500 million people in over 100,000 cities in 191 countries. Brian is the son of two social workers. When he first started in his entrepreneurial journey, he made $40,000 a year as an industrial designer in LA before the success of Airbnb. In 2007, Brian and his co-founder, Joe Gabbia, were both 27 years old and they met at the Rhode Island School of Design. At this time, they were struggling to afford their San Francisco rent. Have you ever been there as a startup, when you're first starting in your entrepreneurial journey, not really knowing if you were going to make enough money to pay your bills that month? I know that I personally have experienced that and to see how he went from rags to riches and now has this massive company that is impacting the entire world is so inspiring. That's why I want you to hear this story today. It just so happened that a big design conference was coming to town and these two knew that it would make hotels hard to come by. So they had an idea and they decided to turn their loft into a designer's bed and breakfast, complete with a sleeping mat and breakfast to make a few bucks. And they launched a website, they called it at the time, airbedandbreakfast.com. They bought three air mattresses and prepared for their guests. But Air Bed and Breakfast was far from an overnight success. By the time Gabbia and Chesky launched their company for the third time at South by Southwest in 2008, they only had two customers and Chesky was one of them. So they were broke and in debt, but the pair decided to launch Airbnb yet again at the 2008 Democratic Convention in Denver. So at this time, since their site wasn't doing so well, they bootstrapped by transforming cereal boxes into Obama O's and Cap'n McCain's, selling them on the street for $40 a box. So that spur of the moment marketing strategy gave them $30,000 to put towards Air Bed and Breakfast. Finally, after visiting all of their hosts in New York to personally stay with them and write reviews and professionally photograph their locations, the company, which they now renamed to Airbnb, received a $600,000 seed investment from Sequoia Capital. Isn't that amazing? They saw a need in the marketplace knowing that hotels were going to be hard to come by and from seeing the resources they had, making that available to fill the gap in the market and then knowing that they needed to raise money to continue doing this, they did something so creative that raised them the money to be able to keep going. That's what it's all about, right? By investing in your dreams and investing in yourself. By 2012, four years after they began, Airbnb was in 89 countries and had hit 1 million nights booked on the platform. The company has since dealt with legal battles and undergone a total redesign and expanded its services with Airbnb experiences and Airbnb Plus and other strategic launches and acquisitions. It's been 13 years and far from an easy road, but that single idea is now worth $38 billion. In September 2019, Airbnb announced its plan to go public in 2020, but at the time I'm filming this, they haven't made any public announcement about that timeline just yet. It always amazes me to hear about the slow, determined rise to success of companies like this whose founders just refuse to give up no matter what the cost. What are your thoughts on Brian Chesky's entrepreneurial journey? Did anything about Airbnb's origin story surprise you? Let me know in the comments below and don't forget, if you want to put together a solid content strategy and drive massive impact and profit through video for your businesses here, head to the link below to join my next 21 Days to Infinite Video Impact Challenge and let me know, are there other entrepreneurs that you'd love for me to study and share a case study just like this on the YouTube channel? Let me know what entrepreneurs I should check out next. Thanks so much for watching. If you like this video, hit the thumbs up, comment below and subscribe for more weekly videos.