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Airbnb Raises $555M in Funding

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Re: Airbnb Raises $555M in Funding

#51

Post by linkregister »

holman wrote: post #22
pritianka wrote: post #4

It's interesting they are offering employees the option to cash out. I wonder if that's usual?

It's becoming fairly normal at this point for more mature private companies, from what I can tell. If you've been at a company for 4-7 years with no IPO in sight, it can make some sense for the company to do a buyback. I know Uber has a tenure-based buyback program, Palantir did at least one in the last year or so, etc.

From the rumors I have heard, the Palantir buy-back is limited. My understanding is that most folks with options still haven't exercised the majority of them.

Re: Airbnb Raises $555M in Funding

#52

Post by [deleted] »

beambot wrote: post #48
rezashirazian wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Self driving RVs. It's the future of the hospitality industry.

Not just the future of hospitality... it's the future alternative to home ownership. Think about it: You could literally wake up, do your morning routine, and then step out of the RV and into your workplace. You come back that night... and the next morning you step out into Yosemite Valley for some hiking. You just rent RV berths -- everything from campgrounds (Yosemite) to high-rises (in major cities).

[deleted]

Re: Airbnb Raises $555M in Funding

#53

Post by TeMPOraL »

beambot wrote: post #48
rezashirazian wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Self driving RVs. It's the future of the hospitality industry.

Not just the future of hospitality... it's the future alternative to home ownership. Think about it: You could literally wake up, do your morning routine, and then step out of the RV and into your workplace. You come back that night... and the next morning you step out into Yosemite Valley for some hiking. You just rent RV berths -- everything from campgrounds (Yosemite) to high-rises (in major cities).

> You come back that night...

... to a different RV. There's no reason for RV ownership; a self-driving RV can fulfill the sleeping / transportation roles for at least two people/families on different working schedules.

Re: Airbnb Raises $555M in Funding

#54

Post by mangeletti »

clydethefrog wrote: post #32
shostack wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Massive legal and lobbyist fees?

Yes, they also need the money to fund their lobbying and fake grassroots. One campaign cost 8 million. https://www.fastcompany.com/3059975/how-airbnb-turned-its-ho...

> ... and fake grassroots

Indeed.

Btw, funny thing: fake grassroots is called "astroturfing".

Re: Airbnb Raises $555M in Funding

#55

Post by eric_h »

buckbova wrote: post #47
eric_h wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I can tell from comment history, the GP is quite young and still in school. While I learned a long time ago that a degree (and even a master's degree, can't speak to fresh PhDs as I've not had the opportunity to work with any) from a prestigious university is not worth the paper it's printed on as far as judging someone's ability to actually ship good code, it seems that lots of SV firms hiring people right…

I've been out of college for over 10 years and I wanted the job because it was full stack at a profitable company who treated their employees well. Unfortunately my cs degree was from a state school and I've only worked enterprisey jobs with the current misfortune of an architect title. I still have other paths to financial success like consulting or management (hell no).

Bummer. I did not actually finish my degree and as a result ended up working at a shitty, tiny company that paid at the start Fortunately the problem that the company was trying to solve was actually a bit technically challenging (though quite boring from a user facing perspective) and I was able to jump to a better startup and then a better one because I had good experience.

I've only had three jobs since college, but the ability to bring value on the very first day in all three jobs has given me a great deal of credibility, even without a CS degree, and now I'm making quite a bit more than a recent CS grad, though it took me a while to get there (I'm in my early thirties).

Re: Airbnb Raises $555M in Funding

#56

Post by [deleted] »

GreenPlastic wrote: post #18
forthefuture wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even accepting all of those things, if the company was profitable and had anything in the war chest they wouldn't have to take more funding. They're either getting capital for war or survival which means what they have now isn't enough for either.

Or capital is cheap and it doesn't hurt to raise it while you can.

[deleted]

Re: Airbnb Raises $555M in Funding

#57

Post by pbreit »

palakchokshi wrote: post #2

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong in assuming this but it seems a company like AirBnb would only raise private capital instead of going IPO because it's financials suck. I mean if you were doing really well and had profits that you were pumping back into the company you would want to IPO to raise money for lower dilution right? A private round might cause much more dilution than an IPO. Maybe I'm missing somethi…

Dilution would be about the same and it's only low-mid single digits which no one is worrying about.

The financial are important (and by most/all accounts, AirBnB's are impressive) but there are a number of other implications of IPOing, mainly around severe restrictions of how the business is run.

Re: Airbnb Raises $555M in Funding

#58

Post by jdoliner »

vkou wrote: post #45
jdoliner wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The standard operating practice for Silicon Valley startups now is to put of IPOing as long as possible. Facebook actually got several exceptions from the SEC so that they didn't have to go public. Going public entails a ton of hassle, for example if Airbnb went public and had one of their programmers accidentally introduced a bug that misreported the number of users they had they could be liable for fraud. There's v…

> Because they are lots of employees who want to convert their stock into money to but things this window gets flooded with sellers and employees wind up getting 80 cents on the dollar compared to other stock holders. I receive stock in compensation. I have elected to auto-sell it - this works even during trade window freezes. Alternatively, they may end up getting 120 cents on the dollar, compared to other stock hol…

> I receive stock in compensation. I have elected to auto-sell it - this works even during trade window freezes.

I don't think this works for employees who were already granted a huge chunk of stock pre IPO.

Re: Airbnb Raises $555M in Funding

#59

Post by friendlygrammar »

mangeletti wrote: post #54
clydethefrog wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, they also need the money to fund their lobbying and fake grassroots. One campaign cost 8 million. https://www.fastcompany.com/3059975/how-airbnb-turned-its-ho...

> ... and fake grassroots Indeed. Btw, funny thing: fake grassroots is called "astroturfing".

wow, I never actually thought about why it's called astroturfing

Re: Airbnb Raises $555M in Funding

#60

Post by notyourwork »

imjared wrote: post #43
toomanybeersies wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Airbnb owning actual apartments/hotels Wouldn't that just make them literally a hotel chain, with no disrupting difference to any any other? I'm fairly sure I can book a room online at the Hilton.

and you could call a cab too but you might use Uber if their booking process is better.

Correct but hotel booking process is quite diverse and all the means I have tried are fairly painless. You can call the hotel directly and book a room. You can check one of many online sites and book through them.
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