They Started A $50B Company Selling Cereal

This is the Story of AirBnB and how they almost went bankrupt, but a couple boxes of cereal ended up saving the company.

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Ya know AirBnB? Well they started as a cereal company… kinda… check this out: In 2007, the 2 founders of AirBnB are looking for investors for the DUMBEST startup idea of all time: “When hotels are fully booked, we’ll offer an extra air bed in our apartment for $80 a night.” They get denied by 15 investors in a row… while also stacking up $30K in credit card debt. On the verge of failure they brainstorm a crazy idea to get out of this mess: They’re gonna sell cereal. Seriously… The Obama McCain presidential campaign is heating up and the DNC is in a couple days. So they create limited edition cereal boxes and call ‘em Obama O’s and Cap'n’ McCain’s. They hand-fold the boxes, seal them with a hot-glue gun, and stuff 'em with cereal. They slap a $40 price tag on the box, and within 2 days they sell out & make back their $30K. Fast forward a few weeks and they're re-pitching their idea to Paul Graham & YCombinator. They get denied again UNTIL the very last second when they tell the cereal story that saved the company. And Paul says: “If you can convince people to pay 40 bucks for a $4 box of cereal, maybe you can actually get strangers to stay in other strangers’ homes.” Now AirBnb is worth over $50 billion dollars, all thanks to a box of cereal.