The Airbnb Story: How to Disrupt an Industry, Make Billions of Dollars … and Plenty of Enemies

Inspirational story for those who are at the beginning of their journey to the riches.

The Airbnb Story recounts the remarkable tale of how three college graduates (and roommates) accidently stumbled across the concept behind the now multibillion-dollar company – the simple idea that strangers would be a willing to stay in other people’s homes.In October 2007, Brian Chelsky, Joe Gebbia, Nathan Blecharczyk rented airbeds to strangers at their apartment in San Francisco out of necessity to fund their upcoming rent payment. From these grass roots, this discovery eventually evolved into the travel behemoth you will recognise today.Airbnb is a business fuelled by trust and the book covers how the founders set about designing a system which seeks to enable trust between strangers as well as providing detail on some of the obstacles the company had to overcome along the way. Including, the struggle to find initial funding, the threat from competition (and how the company staved of the infamous Samwer brothers), battles with various regulators and dealing with bad press when things inevitably went wrong.One thing that quickly becomes apparent is the sense of greater purpose (above and beyond any profit driven motive) behind the company’s pursuits and how this purpose has become embedded throughout the culture. Encapsulated by a restatement to the company’s mission in 2014 – to create world where anyone can belong anywhere.This has undoubtedly been a key driver behind the company’s success and management’s inherent focus on doing right by its stakeholders (shareholders, employees guests, hosts, communities) has proved a useful tool when navigating the political landscape on its endeavours to achieve widespread acceptance.My only criticism of the book (and is one the author touches on) in that much of the content will be outdate by the time it gets to the reader. The book draws to a close as the next chapter for Airbnb is beginning – the launch of its second product. Writing this in 2020, we are now four years on since the Airbnb Open where trips was announced and I for one would be interested to revisit this topic and learn more about the challenges Airbnb has faced with the launch of this product.

well written biography with great intimate insights into the though processes and challenges faced and as usual, all the investors who said hmmmm, not this time....turned out to be a great idea...

This book is one of a quartet of my recent reads about the genesis of successful companies.Shoe Dog (Nike) – Phil KnightSuper Pumped (Uber) – Mike IsaacThat will never work (Netflix) – Mark RandolphThe Airbnb story – Leigh GallagherI would rank it at #4. I was looking for more substance around the story of the founding and the early days struggles. Shoe Dog and Super Pumped are superior in this respect. The tack taken here is more a litany of customer and host experiences. One incident in particular is covered in far too much detail, more like a newspaper expose of bad practice.Sorry, this one was my least favourite.

Excellent book, showing just why so many of the internet start ups - Amazon, Uber , ebay,etc, are American. The world wide web was invented by an Englishman, but the financial exploitation is far away from England's shores. Another sad story if you are English.

Think writer did his best to cover the egender stages of the journey though its very diluted; still some questions not really gotten an answer to.

Perfect

enjoyable read and authentic

The AirBnb Story should be read by any entrepeneur Or employee Who works at a StartUp, it provokes a deep sense Of accountabillity and desire To move foward with high speed. Also, the author keeps a simple way of explanation.

Excellent Price! Great read!

Un libro que es 100% recomendable para todo aquel que busque un incentivo, motivación o una musa para poder dar rienda suelta a su emprendimiento. El libro, te narra de forma muy llamativa y bien narrada, el como surgió este gran imperio , incluso, haciendose de renombre y ¿porque no decirlo? generando algunos sentimientos negativos por parte de la competencia, como es común en todos estos casos. Te relata de manera detallada, todos los altibajos que tuvieron que atravesar los fundadores de Airbnb, y lo mejor de todo, es que éste libro adolece de verdadera historia, y es "contemporanea".

Eine beeindruckende Geschichte über den Pioniergeist dreier junger Männer, der das Hotelgewerbe grundlegend auf den Kopf zu stellen vermochten. Angenehm zu lesen, teilweise etwas zu detailliert.

very good book, and must read for any aspiring entrepreneur