4 ms·

28-year-old turned his college side hustle into a $1.3B startup

27 points by prostoalex 6y ago

vidak 6y ago
i don't normally log in, or comment, on hackernews--and i normally don't ever comment negatively on things i see on the internet--but how is this news? i am sick of seeing people fawn over people striving, and succeeding, at being capitalists.
- pedalpete 6y ago
  It's CNBC, if you don't want to read this kind of garbage - and I agree with you, it's junk - don't read it. Pick your sources. A better question might be why is it on HN? TBH, I'm actually more surprised that this is a billion dollar business, as far as I can tell, built on top of AirBnB. Why this one business over all the other companies that are managing multiple units on AirBnB?
- refurb 6y ago
  If you’re not a fan of capitalism you may want to find another website for your news rather than one started by a VC firm!
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- oh_sigh 6y ago
  If you have a couple hours to spare, pull up the home page of foxnews.com or cnn.com and try to find the first article that isn't 1) broad national/global news (news covered by 100 other major outlets with the same facts that don't originate from the site), 2) submarine or bald-faced marketing(including viewpoint marketing), or 3) fluff human interest anecdotes(Jeanne Moos I'm looking at you).
  - forgotmypw17 6y ago
    But that's why I don't go to those sites, and come to HN instead. Just like I don't look for something to eat in a latrine.
- MattGaiser 6y ago
  Then why are you on the discussion board of a startup accelerator?
starpilot 6y ago
He became a landlord for Airbnb's. Good for him.
jariel 6y ago
Wow, this is some serious narrative invention. They struggled with their business for a long time, time to rent out student flats for the summer. They eventually pivoted for a while and took on money to be the 'corporate' AirBnB, i.e. pro managed residences, with th e promise to investors of lower operating costs than the Marriott etc.. However, it remains to be seen if there is any reality to this. The Uber strategy of 'run at a loss until you take over the world' has some merit, because there are critical mass and market dominance aspects. But with hotels, not really, there are always substitutes, one player is tiny in the grand scheme. So either it can operate more efficienty and book the rooms or not. But in the meantime, it's not hard to actually generate revenue by leasing and renting out properties, however well or poorly you do it - which makes it look like something big 'on paper' if you don't look at all the fine print! You can 'show growth' by just operating and write off the losses by pointing to 'market dominance strategy'. This story will play out on their ability to turn it into something efficient or not.
endisneigh 6y ago
I'm surprised it's worth so much given that it would be trivial for Airbnb to add this functionality within its own website. It does make me wonder though - has there ever been a company that's built on top of another that was or is worth more than the company it's building its stuff on top of?
- jariel 6y ago
  These businesses are not 'web sites'. They are operating entities. The 'web site' is the front end as it is for many other companies, it just so happens tech is a more important factor. What they are doing is actually directly operating a ton of rooms, you have to do that in order to get to a certain standard. They are actually closer to a hotel operator than to AirBnB.
- mannerheim 6y ago
  Microsoft/IBM?
- Judgmentality 6y ago
  > It does make me wonder though - has there ever been a company that's built on top of another that was or is worth more than the company it's building its stuff on top of? How about AirBnB building on top of Craigslist? https://growthhackers.com/growth-studies/airbnb https://growthhackers.com/growth-studies/airbnb
  - rapsey 6y ago
    A bunch of billion dollar companies are basically a specialized subset of Craigslist.
    - Judgmentality 6y ago
      There's a difference between creating a niche craigslist, and breaking craiglist's TOS to steal their data and users.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
jonny383 6y ago
Personal preference: I really hate the term "side hustle". Cringe.
bmarquez 6y ago
Original link is here, not sure why the submission links a Google redirect: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/20/how-francis-davidson-started-sonder-in-college-apartment.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/20/how-francis-davidson-started... As someone looking for alternatives to AirBnB, I welcome Sonder as competition. Although I'm not happy that they advertise "40% off 14+ nights" but only honor that in select cities (example: Miami is only 30%)
- SecurityLagoon 6y ago
  The google news link is obviously just a slight on Australians ;)

27 points by prostoalex 6y ago

i don't normally log in, or comment, on hackernews--and i normally don't ever comment negatively on things i see on the internet--but how is this news? i am sick of seeing people fawn over people striving, and succeeding, at being capitalists.

pedalpete 6y ago
It's CNBC, if you don't want to read this kind of garbage - and I agree with you, it's junk - don't read it. Pick your sources. A better question might be why is it on HN? TBH, I'm actually more surprised that this is a billion dollar business, as far as I can tell, built on top of AirBnB. Why this one business over all the other companies that are managing multiple units on AirBnB?
refurb 6y ago
If you’re not a fan of capitalism you may want to find another website for your news rather than one started by a VC firm!
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
oh_sigh 6y ago
If you have a couple hours to spare, pull up the home page of foxnews.com or cnn.com and try to find the first article that isn't 1) broad national/global news (news covered by 100 other major outlets with the same facts that don't originate from the site), 2) submarine or bald-faced marketing(including viewpoint marketing), or 3) fluff human interest anecdotes(Jeanne Moos I'm looking at you).
- forgotmypw17 6y ago
  But that's why I don't go to those sites, and come to HN instead. Just like I don't look for something to eat in a latrine.
MattGaiser 6y ago
Then why are you on the discussion board of a startup accelerator?

starpilot 6y ago

He became a landlord for Airbnb's. Good for him.

jariel 6y ago

Wow, this is some serious narrative invention. They struggled with their business for a long time, time to rent out student flats for the summer. They eventually pivoted for a while and took on money to be the 'corporate' AirBnB, i.e. pro managed residences, with th e promise to investors of lower operating costs than the Marriott etc.. However, it remains to be seen if there is any reality to this. The Uber strategy of 'run at a loss until you take over the world' has some merit, because there are critical mass and market dominance aspects. But with hotels, not really, there are always substitutes, one player is tiny in the grand scheme. So either it can operate more efficienty and book the rooms or not. But in the meantime, it's not hard to actually generate revenue by leasing and renting out properties, however well or poorly you do it - which makes it look like something big 'on paper' if you don't look at all the fine print! You can 'show growth' by just operating and write off the losses by pointing to 'market dominance strategy'. This story will play out on their ability to turn it into something efficient or not.

endisneigh 6y ago

I'm surprised it's worth so much given that it would be trivial for Airbnb to add this functionality within its own website. It does make me wonder though - has there ever been a company that's built on top of another that was or is worth more than the company it's building its stuff on top of?

jariel 6y ago
These businesses are not 'web sites'. They are operating entities. The 'web site' is the front end as it is for many other companies, it just so happens tech is a more important factor. What they are doing is actually directly operating a ton of rooms, you have to do that in order to get to a certain standard. They are actually closer to a hotel operator than to AirBnB.
mannerheim 6y ago
Microsoft/IBM?
Judgmentality 6y ago
> It does make me wonder though - has there ever been a company that's built on top of another that was or is worth more than the company it's building its stuff on top of? How about AirBnB building on top of Craigslist? https://growthhackers.com/growth-studies/airbnb https://growthhackers.com/growth-studies/airbnb
- rapsey 6y ago
  A bunch of billion dollar companies are basically a specialized subset of Craigslist.
  - Judgmentality 6y ago
    There's a difference between creating a niche craigslist, and breaking craiglist's TOS to steal their data and users.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

jonny383 6y ago

Personal preference: I really hate the term "side hustle". Cringe.

bmarquez 6y ago

Original link is here, not sure why the submission links a Google redirect: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/20/how-francis-davidson-started-sonder-in-college-apartment.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/20/how-francis-davidson-started... As someone looking for alternatives to AirBnB, I welcome Sonder as competition. Although I'm not happy that they advertise "40% off 14+ nights" but only honor that in select cities (example: Miami is only 30%)

SecurityLagoon 6y ago
The google news link is obviously just a slight on Australians ;)