So earnest. Their inability to police fraudulent/scam listings. It comes from a place of earnest conviction. Their blatant attempts to circumvent and disregard local laws about illegal hotel listings. It comes from a place of earnest conviction.
Why is there always a need to sugarcoat these bio pieces like they're describing somebody in line for canonization?
The Doordash piece was even worse.
Come on, dude.
I had multiple break-in attempts, attempted physical altercations and loud parties on weeknights.
Airbnb ignored complaints, my landlord ignored complaints, it took Covid-19 to get rid of the parasitical infection on my peace of mind.
They certainly are wealthy, but I was not happy. Well-intentioned residential zoning laws were ignored at my expense.
Maybe that's your strategy to VC investing. I don't think it's particularly good to apply a zero or negative coefficient to this trait. But that's okay, the market shall speak on this one.
It's a post specifically focused on why someone thinks a certain team succeeded.
Given that, of course it's about positive traits.
> Flaunting social norms
In the case of Airbnb, what was the social norm? Staying in a hotel? Wouldn't all disruption be flaunting social norms??
I think applying your own moral standards to a company in this way can get precarious. Beside the outlier cases of trashed rentals or someone left in the cold (which is harmful, but again, a very small percentage of their volume), the majority or Airbnb hosts and guests seem to find value in their service and choose to use it. How immoral is that, in reality?
The social norm is the expectation that your neighbors won’t be running a hotel next door.
Paying your taxes. AirBnB has managed to avoid VAT by pushing that responsibility onto hosts. UK is looking to changing this arrangement.
https://www.quora.com/Did-Airbnb-get-sued-for-running-a-robo...
"What Airbnb did in 2010 and 2011 was to use a bot to spambot to email who had posted short term vacation rental ads on Craigslist. The emails claimed to be from women who liked their listings, suggesting that they try Airbnb. "
Does Craigslist actively monitor the messages being passed through?
Edit: Why did I get downvoted? It was a legitimate question. It may have deviated from the article subject, but that’s how conversations flow, and how you learn of new things.
It's intended to give would-be entrepreneurs insight into traits of previously successful entrepreneurs. In particular traits the writer believes should be emulated.
Those will naturally be positive traits, because the entire point of the piece is to give readers something to aim for.
Edit: Perhaps I am a bit harsh here. I am frustrated overall at the general idea that nothing can ever be condemned, and morals may not be discussed, merely because they include a subjective value judgment. Those value judgments occur at all times, and are what give importance to the facts.
Your point about the morality of their actions is totally valid in itself. A valid and well supported opinion.
However what I refer to is that you question how a piece like this article can go ahead and not point out the immortality of their ways. And I really think that from their business-centered, libertarian point of view, there just isn't any immortality here. In their opinion, they did things right. Therefore they could not point it out.
Leaves a bad taste in my mouth to ever use Airbnb again.
I don't think that's really fair. AirBnB as originally conceived is something that would make the world better for a lot of people. Something you can be proud of building. What it's turned into is far more of a mixed bag, of course, but that doesn't change the earnestness of how it began.
Like Couchsurfing before AirBNB destroyed it.