1b @ 30b is very weird.
Airbnb raises $1B at $31B valuation, became profitable in 2016
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Re: Airbnb raises $1B at $31B valuation, became profitable in 2016
#12They should stop calling companies like Airbnb "startups". They are big companies now and should be treated as such.
Re: Airbnb raises $1B at $31B valuation, became profitable in 2016
#13If they are already profitable, why raise money again?
If you can raise money on great terms, it's usually in your best interest to do so. Maybe they want to build up their war chest as they see increasing regulatory hassles, more competition, and a possible downturn in the market. I'd also guess they are expanding their scope now to more expensive endeavors, as they are building physical hotels now (and probably many other things they haven't announced yet). http://www.…
Wow, that is an interesting move. If that is the route they are going after, it is more understandable.
Re: Airbnb raises $1B at $31B valuation, became profitable in 2016
#14Does this mean they're about to IPO? I should probably interview with them ASAP then.
Re: Airbnb raises $1B at $31B valuation, became profitable in 2016
#15I'm not surprised to see Airbnb became profitable. They've expanded everywhere. I nomad around and always use Airbnb, I've booked places on several continents.
However, I'm definitely feeling the effects of their growing pains. For example, many people have bought places to only rent on Airbnb full-time. Most of these people suck at being an hotelier. It's clear people get lazy and are just trying to make money.
Think about how many hotels you've stayed at that were less than stellar? It's hard to have a good hotel with full-time staff. It's much harder when it's just you on the side, renting some place. I've been to many horrible Airbnb's that I had to checkout of early, and go find a new place last minute.
Unless, they fix this and get more people to review honestly. I think they're going to run into a lot of problems.
Re: Airbnb raises $1B at $31B valuation, became profitable in 2016
#16They should stop calling companies like Airbnb "startups". They are big companies now and should be treated as such.
Working for a company like Google, FB or even Airbnb or a questionable 'startup' is still much different than working for any other type of company. It's even markedly different than working for tech companies that would never be referred to as startups, such as Samsung, AMD or even HP.
These large companies (FB, Google, etc) may no longer be bootstrapped and employees may no longer have versatile roles, but they still resemble what we'd call 'startup culture.' It seems reasonable to define a startup based on culture rather than size, though it's not so etymologically sound.
edit: If you disagree, please comment why rather than downvote! This is a question I've heard people discuss extensively and would appreciate input or an opposing perspective.
Re: Airbnb raises $1B at $31B valuation, became profitable in 2016
#17This feels like another example the new gilded age, where the spoils of capitalism stay at the top.
Re: Airbnb raises $1B at $31B valuation, became profitable in 2016
#18A shame that they didn't raise this money through an IPO. I'm afraid of how long unicorns are staying private: it's a big bummer for their employees and early investors. It'll be a tough sell for early employees of the next batch of unicorns if Uber, Airbnb, Palantir, Dropbox, etc. stay private for 10-15 years or more!
Becoming a public company has it's own set of issues, though.
Re: Airbnb raises $1B at $31B valuation, became profitable in 2016
#19They should stop calling companies like Airbnb "startups". They are big companies now and should be treated as such.
Working for a company like Google, FB or even Airbnb or a questionable 'startup' is still much different than working for any other type of company. It's even markedly different than working for tech companies that would never be referred to as startups, such as Samsung, AMD or even HP. These large companies (FB, Google, etc) may no longer be bootstrapped and employees may no longer have versatile roles, but they sti…
But we have a phrase for that already, those things are called "tech companies"
Re: Airbnb raises $1B at $31B valuation, became profitable in 2016
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Working for a company like Google, FB or even Airbnb or a questionable 'startup' is still much different than working for any other type of company. It's even markedly different than working for tech companies that would never be referred to as startups, such as Samsung, AMD or even HP. These large companies (FB, Google, etc) may no longer be bootstrapped and employees may no longer have versatile roles, but they sti…
But we have a phrase for that already, those things are called "tech companies"
Then we'd have to group in rather standard, traditional Samsung-like companies though, which seem to be just as different work experiences from FB or Google as FB or Google is different from newer, smaller startups.