On the day of Expedia's IPO, my son was born, and I jokingly promised the team I would name him Expedia if that happened.

I pitched the spin-out of Expedia as an HR experiment to retain talent, as Microsoft was so large that many talented individuals could hide away and not contribute meaningfully.

Expedia was profitable and growing rapidly, which made it a successful business even during the dot-com crash, unlike Microsoft, which took years to recover.

I pitched the idea of Expedia as a consumer-focused travel software company, emphasizing that it should prioritize travel over software.

Going public was a career highlight for me, as it represented a significant achievement after years of hard work.

We explored going public through a reverse merger, and within a year, we uplisted to the American Stock Exchange and later to NASDAQ, marking a significant milestone for the company.

When you launch your company, you hope to see hockey stick growth in the first year, which is what we experienced at Airbnb with the number of guests booking through our platform.

Expedia started as a venture within Microsoft, and I left the operating system group to pursue it because of my wife's medical residency requirements.

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.