We handcrafted cereal boxes and sold them for $40 each, which surprisingly generated $30,000 in revenue and funded the company.

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

We realized that to grow our business, we needed to raise capital, as we had no money in the bank after three years of operation, and we didn't want to remain a lifestyle business.

Initially, we thought we were on the path to success, but I later realized that we were not converting users into paying customers because we were too focused on fundraising and PR instead of creating a product that people actually needed.

In the early days, we launched multiple times to gain press attention, even if it meant rebranding and changing our approach frequently.

Despite having a promising product, we struggled to secure investment, leading us to consider launching on Kickstarter, which was suggested by Paul Graham. We built our Kickstarter page and filmed the video ourselves, starring our friends and interns.

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

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

After some negotiation, I agreed to work on a simplified version of the project, which we called 'Airbed and Breakfast'.