"it seemed like he [pg] dismissed the idea itself entirely"
"As they started to pack up to leave, Gebbia pulled out the cereal boxes; against Blecharczyk’s wishes, he’d sneaked them into his bag. He walked over to Graham, who was by then talking with his partners, and handed him one. Graham thanked him, awkwardly"
https://www.wired.com/2017/02/airbnbs-surprising-path-to-y-c...
Graham thanked him, awkwardly — he thought they had bought some cereal for him as a weird or bizarre gift. The founders told him, no, they had made and sold the cereal boxes — it was, in fact, how they’d funded the company. They told him the story behind the Obama O’s. Graham sat back and listened, newly intrigued. “Wow,” he mused. “You guys are like cockroaches. You just won’t die.”
I can add something about the cockroach metaphor. At the kickoff meeting of the W09 batch, pg told us "you have all been chosen because you are cockroaches—except for one group of romantic dreamers". Of course we all thought we must be the romantic dreamers.
And the awkwardness when pg thought they were trying to give him a marketing gift is definitely true to character.