The real story about how Airbnb was founded - Nathan Blecharczyk Co-founder Airbnb - Startup Success

The real story about how Airbnb was founded - Nathan Blecharczyk Co-founder Airbnb - Startup Success

The Airbnb story is one of persistence, determination, fear and most of all, hustle. Let’s go back to the start. It’s late 2007 in San Francisco. Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia just moved from New York. Without employment, they were having trouble paying their rent and were looking for a way to earn some extra cash.They noticed that all hotel rooms in the city were booked, as the local Industrial Design conference attracted a lot of visitors.

The youngsters saw an opportunity. They bought a few airbeds and quickly put up a site called “Air Bed and Breakfast.” The idea was to offer visitors a place to sleep and breakfast in the morning. They charged $80 each a night.The idea succeeded and the first Airbnb guests were born: a 30-year-old Indian man, a 35-year-old woman from Boston and a 45-year-old father of four from Utah sleeping on their floor.

Soon after, Harvard graduate and technical architect Nathan Blecharczyk joined the team as the third co-founder. They faced a major problem: the site only had two users, one of them was Chesky. They initially launched at SXSW, and only received two bookings.

After changing the website, the company launched again in August 2008, not long before the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

The idea was to cater to the thousands of people that came to the convention, Obama supporters hosting Obama supporters. Over 600 people stayed at Airbnbs, but the success was short lived, as Nathan Blecharczyk explains.

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[FelipeGrajalesIngenian]

Inspiring, Nathan is very analytical. Love Airbnb and their willingness to change the world.

[GumbyTheGreen]

Why can't we see the slides he was showing??? There were multiple cameras, so why wasn't one of them pointed at the slides?

Also, the little video in the last 5 min is incredibly irritating. It's dragged out and its message is unclear. Whatever the message is, it should only take 1 min to convey.

[paquitoperez]

It would be nice if Airbnb would align with all the major tourisms actors and remove their fees if the trip is cancelled. It is definitely quite unfair to keep the money of a deal that just couldn't go through. So far, Airbnb is not moving anywhere near such a measure. Is money the only thing they understand? It had to come from the U.S.A. for sure...

[arjundeshmukh]

it goes blur so many times that I started doubting my eyes...

[keithrowe]

Why show us the boring slides when there are all these interesting shots of audience members and the blue out of focus curtains in the background....

[_baller]

Sounds like a tough story probably very stressful

[maelardizabal]

Very good. I have a beautiful unit in a business park and I want to include it in AIRbnb how will I include it and how much will I pay for ads ? Is this only in U.S. ?

[lilianflynn]

I love my home too much to Airbnb it!
I suppose if you lived alone and strapped for cash you could go Airbnb, if they will cough up the money quick enough.. reading from the comments the money is slow to be paid out ! It must be something generated from USA...!

[robertsteinberger]

I remember when the first guest left our house and we thought in this way we can make money and ruin our neighborhood as well! Lets scrape the vomit off our couch. It felt so much better scrapping the vomit off than it usually does. And lets ask the same price as a three star hotel.

[hippopotomonstrosesquipped]

Ok Nathan clearly the handsome one... why does he look like James Mcavoy or am I just seeing things 😁

[BoTube]

there is no support at Airbnb, I'm waiting for more than 3 Weeks for my money, there is no

[samm]

Incredible how very negative these comments are.

[thekarlacode]

So many angry comments. I'm shocked!

[empressnail]

Hydration keeps the mouth clicks away! Too bad I couldn't get past the sound of sticky saliva. 😪

[JM-gutx]

Air BnB destroys hearing of Americans. Air BnB should know better than to have constant leaf blowers blowing at 8 AM in the morning for an hour many times a weak in residential neighborhoods with lots of trees when not even needed. AirBnB users have OCD and want every leaf off the ground. The National Institutes of Health has already cited 75 decibels at the level at which permanent hearing damage occurs. Americans need to unite to stop this health destroying businesses which increases people's blood pressure, stress and heart rate while damaging their hearing. We need a grass roots effort to stop AirBnB from destroying Americans' health and the American dream of a dignified life.