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

After FlightCar, I joined Airbnb as a product manager to learn how successful companies operate and to gain insights into building a great product.

It took us four years to serve our first four million guests, but in the last nine months alone, we added another five million guests, showcasing the rapid growth of Airbnb.

We expanded rapidly, adding staff from 50 to over a thousand in just a few months, which made it challenging to maintain a cohesive company culture.

Airbnb's growth was significantly driven by founders engaging in customer support, which helped them understand user needs and improve their service.

At Airbnb, I learned the importance of quality and detail in product development, especially from observing CEO Brian Chesky's involvement in the experiences product.

After realizing we needed to expand our sales team, we went from 12 to 100 salespeople in less than a year to better serve our growing customer base.

In the early days of Airbnb, we were hesitant to hire senior leadership too soon, but I now believe it's crucial to bring in experienced management when you know you're going to scale.

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