One of the biggest hosting and travel companies, Airbnb started from the bottom, but leveraged it with an idea from the creators. The company, which is now valued at more than R$300 billion, had difficulty receiving investors at first. After some innovative suggestions, the Airbnb Founders were able to leverage the business worldwide. See more about this company's history below.
How Airbnb Became What It Is
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Airbnb was founded by Brian Chesky and two partners in 2008, who faced investors resistant to the idea for the company.
According to them, investors did not believe that the business could succeed because they did not think that people would accept hosting strangers in their homes while traveling.
After that, they had to look elsewhere for investment funds.
sale of cereal boxes
To support themselves, the company's founders began selling cereal boxes featuring US presidential candidates at the time, John McCain and Barack Obama. The idea is that they were an Airbnb breakfast option.
The product was quite successful, with more than 1000 units sold, raising a value of approximately 30 thousand dollars.
Attention of an accelerator
Due to the success of Airbnb's cereal boxes, the brand caught the attention of Y Combinator, a US accelerator that became interested in the product and decided to invest in the brand. Accelerators are companies that encourage the development and growth of startups.
According to Paul Graham, one of the leaders of the accelerator, if they were able to convince people to If they paid $40 for boxes worth $4, they could convince people to accept strangers into their homes. houses.
Investment by Y Combinator
The accelerator joined as one of Airbnb's first investors, trading 6% of the company for $20,000. Today, the company is worth more than 75 billion dollars, making it the largest hosting company in the world.
