Airbnb lies down with VCs, wakes up with money

These guys sure iterated into something desirable. I think they have a great URL name too. Very catchy and rememberable.

One thing that I get as a "take away message" from the company is "austerity". I think this was reinforced by the founders speech about the business at Startup School 2010, and articles like this one in TechCrunch stressing the founders homelessness: http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/21/airbnb-brian-chesky/

I may not be the only one with this perspective. If you look at the picture that Venturebeat chose for the article, it is someone sleeping on the floor in an empty room. Which to me does not seem exactly like the kind of PR message that is congruent with hospitality.

Based on his speech at Startup School, the founder and CEO Brian Chesky seem s like a very charismatic guy, which is great for a CEO, but from a business perspective, it seems like it might be time to think about changing the message that is sent out to the public and leave the old message of austerity in the deep dark past.

Good job Brian, and congratulations on the financing!