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.

We started AptDeco out of our own frustration with selling furniture on Craigslist, realizing there was a big opportunity for improvement.

The idea for Airbnb originated when my co-founders, Joe and Brian, decided to rent out their apartment to designers attending a conference, leading to the realization of a larger opportunity.

We were both frustrated with our experiences selling furniture on Craigslist, which led us to discuss and eventually decide to start AptDeco.

After our initial launch, we didn't see immediate success and even explored creating a roommate matching website before pivoting back to Airbnb.

My co-founder Andy and I wanted to skip traditional jobs after college and dive straight into our startup, which we applied for with an idea similar to mint.com for businesses.

We created a bed and breakfast for a design conference because we had no money for rent, leading to the birth of Airbnb.

I met my co-founder Joe Gebbia at RISD, and together we decided to start a company without a clear idea of what it would be.

We stood out to investors because we weren't like everyone else; we had a straightforward business model and were addressing a real pain point in a fragmented market dominated by big incumbents.