Scaling Airbnb with Brian Chesky – Class 18 Notes of Stanford’s CS183C (2015)

This is an awesome story and I am glad it worked out well for AirBNB. I have used their service a number of times and have only positive things to say. With that said, i think it is a bit crazy to go 30K in CC debt to get a company off the ground, given the chances of a startup succeeding being so low.

If things didnt work out for AirBNB, unless someone helped pay of that debt they would be in a pretty shitty situation given the way credit scores can affect your life in the USA.

I must have heard their story from the full hotels, to the cereal boxes, to the cockroach analogy 10 times now, and it never ceases to impress.

Especially where Brian tells his mom he's a cockroach. Love it.

Many entrepreneurial successes seem to come from people who have their backs against the wall and nowhere to run, or ones that simply refuse to take no as an answer. The small successes that I've been most proud of were also under similar circumstances. Also: Brian's a great story teller.

The video in this post is part of a larger series that I just finished watching. I highly recommend watching through all of them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3RrVmv5WwA&list=PLnsTB8Q5Vg...

This truly is an incredible interview. Brian has a ton of emotional intelligence.