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Brian Chesky

12/01/15

@ Greylock

To solve the chicken and egg problem of attracting guests and hosts simultaneously, we aimed to generate a lot of press, especially around high-profile events like the Democratic National Convention.

Video

Blitzscaling 18: Brian Chesky on Launching Airbnb and the Challenges of Scale

@ Greylock

Blitzscaling 18: Brian Chesky on Launching Airbnb and the Challenges of Scale

12/01/15

Related Takeaways

Brian Chesky

12/01/15

@ Greylock

We targeted major events like the Democratic National Convention and the World Cup to bootstrap our growth, focusing on PR and word of mouth.

Nate Blecharczyk

10/26/13

@ Y Combinator

With the Democratic National Convention approaching, we recognized a significant opportunity for our service, prompting us to refocus and build our new vision quickly.

Travis Kalanick

10/25/13

@ Y Combinator

When we launched in new cities, we hosted big launch events to pay respects to the local community and engage influential people.

Dan Siroker

10/26/13

@ Y Combinator

In 2008, we gained significant media attention by being associated with both the Obama and Romney campaigns, which helped validate our product and attract customers.

Brian Chesky

12/01/15

@ Greylock

We realized that if we could get enough people to use Airbnb, they would tell others about it, leading to organic growth.

Brian Chesky

12/01/15

@ Greylock

We started with bloggers to gain initial press coverage, which eventually led to national media attention, helping us gain traction despite being in debt.

Brian Chesky

12/01/15

@ Greylock

We went into significant credit card debt, using credit cards to fund Airbnb, which led to tens of thousands of dollars in debt before we launched for the Democratic National Convention.

Emmett Shear

10/15/14

@ Y Combinator

Launching our show garnered national attention, and we experienced significant growth, hitting 150,000 unique visitors in the first month.

Brian Chesky

12/01/15

@ Greylock

We would go city by city to educate hosts through meet-ups, which increased their engagement and excitement about the platform.