Many experts and Silicon Valley luminaries were highly skeptical of the Airbnb concept at first. But the idea took hold, and the following spring the founders were accepted into the prestigious startup incubator Y Combinator, run by venture capitalist Paul Graham. They soon shortened the name to Airbnb and expanded from offering shared spaces to properties including entire homes and apartments, castles, boats, and tree houses. In November 2010 the trio got their first round of VC funding. Today Airbnb has roughly 2,000 employees operating out of 21 offices worldwide, and offers its service in 34,000 cities.
Aside from being a status report on AirBNB’s business, this profile of Brian is very well done. He and I interacted over email and Twitter a few times in 2010-2013 and not only is he extremely active with AirBNB customers, he also spends most of his time staying in AirBNB properties around the world.
A few years back, I debated applying for a job there. I’m happy I didn’t but there are very few companies that I think are doing things right. His growth as a leader has been great to watch.