Airbnb: Selling cereal to a globally successful company

Airbnb is a service that is used globally for travel purposes, those looking for a place to relax or even for tenants. The company has become such a normalized thing that it is hard to imagine life before Airbnb. The accessibility that Airbnb provides, allowing you to book a room within a moment’s notice for anywhere in the world, is amazing. It is a platform that provides an incredible service for customers, as well as providing a place for landlords to rent out their properties easily. Airbnb management businesses have also sprang up, creating more jobs. Airbnb wasn’t always such a big company though, and it has some very humble beginnings.

Founders Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia had moved to San Francisco from New York, and had little cash. They decided to buy some air beds and set up a bed and breakfast. 3 guests stayed the night, being the first ever Airbnb guests.

They launched in 2008, with 600 people booking Airbnb’s for the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

In order to fund their startup, they started selling cereals with election themes. They made $30,000, and raised $20,000 in funding from Y Combinator.

Their platform starts to gain traction, after visiting their users in New York.

By 2009, they have 2500 listings and 10,000 registered users. From there on, Airbnb kept growing and growing and now have over 2 million listings in over 190 countries, and the company is now worth $25.5 billion.

Airbnb is an incredible story of startup success, from having barely enough money to fund their company and having to sell cereal, to being worth over $25.5 billion, Chesky and Gebbia’s journey is something else. Airbnb continues to grow to this day, and is a household name which is globally recognized no matter where you are in the world.