3 ms·

I first met the AirBnB guys in 2007, at their "unofficial Startup School after party". It was my first ever San Francisco startup party. At the time, they wer

by timr 14y ago

I first met the AirBnB guys in 2007, at their "unofficial Startup School after party". It was my first ever San Francisco startup party. At the time, they were in the depths of their existential struggle. The "party" consisted of a few guys, a couple of liters of soda, and a few half-empty bottles of booze. I remember talking to Joe and Brian, and hearing their pitch, and thinking: "oh, so it's like couchsurfing, but for pay....good luck with that, guys". Oops.

joering2 14y ago
The only reason why people are willing to pay AirBnB is because of their audience (classic chicken&egg dilemma). But that audience was initially captured/harvested mostly through illegal or semi-legal ways (at least the ways that a decent human being wouldn't do that). Lookup my previous posts I rant enough about AirBnB owners and their criminal past.