I encouraged employees to embrace the challenge of the crisis as a chance to redefine their ownership and commitment to Airbnb's mission.

Airbnb operates as a technology company, facing challenges like international regulations, safety, and trust, while also needing to provide a world-class user experience.

Witnessing the growth of Airbnb from a small team to a large organization illustrates the potential for startups to scale significantly over time.

In the wake of the Paris attacks, we had to quickly account for the safety of our employees and hosts scattered throughout the city during the crisis.

As young founders, our naivety allowed us to explore ideas without preconceived notions, leading us to discover the unique experience that Airbnb could offer. When we started Airbnb, we were in a very different position compared to Uber; the founders of Uber were already wealthy, while we were just trying to survive.

In the early days of Airbnb, we struggled to achieve product-market fit and faced significant challenges in getting people to adopt our service.

I ran Airbnb like a hardware startup, focusing on efficiency and discipline. This approach has proven beneficial for software development, as it encourages thoughtful decision-making and accountability.

In 2010, Brian Chesky of Airbnb shared a similar graph of his startup's journey, showing that many startups experience a similar pattern of ups and downs.

During the pandemic, we lost 80% of our business in just eight weeks, which was a shocking and challenging experience for Airbnb.