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I don't think AirBnB was ever even slightly nuts. VRBO had been around forever and couch surfing already existed.

• paul 11y ago
  It's all easy with hindsight. It was much less obvious at the time: https://medium.com/@bchesky/7-rejections-7d894cbaa084 https://medium.com/@bchesky/7-rejections-7d894cbaa084 AirBnb was almost dead when they got into YC. Nobody would fund them, and Nate had moved to Boston to get a real job.
• mildbow 11y ago
  Sure, but those were very far from being mainstream. Airbnb is actually still nuts. They probably aren't even to the half-way point in terms of where they need to be to be actually mainstream.
• trevmckendrick 11y ago
  Even after YC and with the full support of PG himself, AirBnb was turned down by one of the top VCs in the country: http://www.paulgraham.com/airbnb.html http://www.paulgraham.com/airbnb.html And that's just one public example. (Chris Sacca also turned them down.) Empirically it would be shocking if they were the only 2 investors who had the opportunity to invest but didn't.
• deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]