How AirBnB Became a Billion Dollar Company • Hacker News Board

Re: How AirBnB Became a Billion Dollar Company

#41

Post by marcamillion » Tue, May 31, 2011, 9:43 PM UTC

Is this 'grey' ? In the sense that it can be interpreted as 'shady' ? Hell yes. But is it "wrong" ? I don't think so.

I always thought that getting that first set of customers that will take you to product/market fit was going to be easy. What with the Twitterverse, Facebook and all and sundry. But let me tell you, from experience, it is DAMN HARD!

I guess the true test of whether or not this is 'unethical' is whether those people that signed up felt scammed after using the service.

If I were one of those people that got that email, sure I might feel a bit 'weird' that they presented themselves as 'Jill D' and not AirBnB, but after going through what I have been doing the last few weeks - trying to get customers - I can't say I would be upset.

Re: How AirBnB Became a Billion Dollar Company

#42

Post by marcamillion » Tue, May 31, 2011, 9:46 PM UTC

pgroves wrote: post #35

I started my own company to get away from the do-anything-for-a-sale attitude of corporate america. I do not admire or respect AirBnb for this behavior. I don't care that it worked. I don't care if it was legal or not, it was dishonest. I know it's common, but it takes a fundamental lack of respect to lie directly to another human being. I'll just continue to toil in obscurity; self-respect intact.

I am not being facetious by this question, but did you make a product that you are selling ?

If so, how did you get your first set of customers ?

Please share.

If you have not made a product that you need to sell yet, I think you will find when you do it, it's MUCH, MUCH more difficult than you ever thought it would be.

Also, selling a service - i.e. web development/design is very different than selling a product.

Re: How AirBnB Became a Billion Dollar Company

#43

Post by [deleted] » Tue, May 31, 2011, 9:47 PM UTC

MatthewB wrote: post #6

I love this. Being scrappy is one of the best qualities among entrepreneurs. The attitude of "do anything" to succeed usually results in success not to mention it is one of the characteristics that PG looks for in founders.

[deleted]

Re: How AirBnB Became a Billion Dollar Company

#44

Post by colinplamondon » Tue, May 31, 2011, 9:50 PM UTC

prodigal_erik wrote: post #31

Mizza wrote: post #26

Is anybody else slightly disturbed by all of the 'attaboy!' comments here on a post exposing unscrupulous and probably illegal business tactics? Think the response here would be the same if it was MicroSoft or the RIAA caught in something like this and not a YC alum? Anyway, great investigation and great analysis here, I think.

This. I used to think they were clever, but now we know they're such repellent scumbags willing to abuse public resources for private gain that it's actually a black mark against Y Combinator to have been partly responsible and holding dirty money.

Seriously?

Re: How AirBnB Became a Billion Dollar Company

#45

Post by [deleted] » Tue, May 31, 2011, 9:50 PM UTC

buildorfail wrote: post #40

I do not want to argue if this type of stuff is good or bad. But I do want to point out to you all that list of tech gods is full of similar stories. Off the top of my head: MySpace started out purely through spam...Tim Ferris started out in online supplement sales...People complained about Plaxo doing black hat stuff... they sold ok. People complained about Zynga ripping off other games and about breaking every Face…

[deleted]

Re: How AirBnB Became a Billion Dollar Company

#46

Post by c2 » Tue, May 31, 2011, 9:57 PM UTC

Mizza wrote: post #26

Is anybody else slightly disturbed by all of the 'attaboy!' comments here on a post exposing unscrupulous and probably illegal business tactics? Think the response here would be the same if it was MicroSoft or the RIAA caught in something like this and not a YC alum? Anyway, great investigation and great analysis here, I think.

I agree the 'attaboy' comments are way out of place, but there is also an over the top reaction the other way with the criticism being heaped onto the AirBNB guys in my opinion.

It was technically wrong of them to leverage craigslist by circumventing the community's own "no commercial email" request, and they should get dinged for it.

But in the grand scheme of things, when you are a tiny start up struggling to survive, this is a relatively benign grass roots attempt at marketing which the AirBNB guys even probably regret doing.

Comparing RIAA's scare tactics to this seems a little out of place, but it is right in line with Microsoft's shady attempts at astroturfing.

Re: How AirBnB Became a Billion Dollar Company

#47

Post by psawaya » Tue, May 31, 2011, 9:59 PM UTC

ChuckFrank wrote: post #29

Clearly the unethical part of this discovery is that Airbnb used 'shell' gmail accounts to do their work. Instead they should have found a way to present themselves with honesty and integrity to future members. What are the good reasons for Airbnb's success and valuation? Are there any stories about their actions that inspire both confidence and congratulations. (aside from their Obama O's and Capt'n McCain flash suc…

I agree. As if they're fooling anyone pretending to be an anonymous stranger from gmail who just happens to love promoting airbnb.

Re: How AirBnB Became a Billion Dollar Company

#48

Post by temphn » Tue, May 31, 2011, 10:10 PM UTC

AirBnB raided Craigslist for users. Those users made more money and had a far better user experience on AirBnB to boot. Not exactly your traditional Viagra/Nigeria type spam.

When the end doesn't justify the means, sure, complain about the means. But this is not such a case.

Re: How AirBnB Became a Billion Dollar Company

#49

Post by techcofounder » Tue, May 31, 2011, 10:11 PM UTC

can we please get a response from one of the AirBnB founders?

Re: How AirBnB Became a Billion Dollar Company

#50

Post by nhangen » Tue, May 31, 2011, 10:21 PM UTC

This is the same thing spammers do to steal money from people, and it's the same thing that dating sites do to pretend to have women interested in meeting dudes. Either way, it's fraudulent.

I don't hate that they did this, but I hate that they tried to pretend they were anonymous women that happened to really like AirBnB. Why be so shady about it and instead why not just be honest?

"Hey, we noticed your rental and thought you might like something we built. It's helped a lot of people fill vacancies and make money; check it out - url"