How do stripe and Airbnb not sound useful? "Need to get paid" and "find accomodation" are among the oldest business models on the internet.
Airbnb is a favorite textbook example of VCs being wrong. They were rejected early on because people were thinking it's risky to rent out your house to strangers, and well, motels exist. But I think that's always been a blind spot with VCs - they just don't understand what it's like to be broke. Airbnb pivoted quite a bit from what made them big; they used to have top tier hosts and hospitality for much cheaper, now they're just alternative motels with no free breakfast.
Airbnb… idk. Who wants to rent their house out to total strangers? I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t have thought it would take off like it did.