Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Airbnb Has Arrived: Raising Mega-Round at a $1 Billion+ Valuation

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 116 posts

Re: Airbnb Has Arrived: Raising Mega-Round at a $1 Billion+ Valuation

#11

Post by olivercameron »

drm237 wrote: post #8
olivercameron wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't the point of Airbnb that you don't stay in a hotel? Edit: By hotel, I mean generic hotels like Holiday Inn's. I'm just going by their mission statement: "We are a community marketplace for unique spaces".

I assumed it was to get the best deal on a bed. If it's in a hotel room, fine with me. Some probably do it just for the experience though.

I'm just saying that it doesn't sound like their goal is to have rooms in generic hotels, see their mission statement:

"We are a community marketplace for unique spaces."

Of course, they could expand in that direction in the future, but I wouldn't say the Holiday Inn is a unique space.

Re: Airbnb Has Arrived: Raising Mega-Round at a $1 Billion+ Valuation

#13

Post by moses1400 »

rst wrote: post #7

Techcrunch says, "On any given night in New York there are more people staying in homes via Airbnb than there are rooms in the biggest hotel in Manhattan." For comparison: Starwood Hotels (whose brand names include Westin, W, Sheraton, and others) has more than 20 hotels in New York (some quite large), and a market cap of about $11.3 billion. FWIW, Airbnb's commissions are 9-15% of the rate (3% from the host, 6-12% f…

fyi, the Manhattan Hilton has 2,100 rooms so that means AirBNB is renting out 2,101 or more per night - thats's awesome.

Re: Airbnb Has Arrived: Raising Mega-Round at a $1 Billion+ Valuation

#14

Post by IsaacL »

olivercameron wrote: post #9

I think a lot of startups put too much weight on what an investor thinks of their idea. Airbnb is a prime example of carrying on in the face of rejection, even if people are saying "it's a stupid idea". I know a lot of founders who, after being told by many of the Valley's finest angels that their idea is no good, would just give up. It just goes to show that you can create a $1 billion company, even if no one really…

Yes, it's quite inspiring to see how much it succeeded despite the overwhelming negative feedback. Just goes to show that judging the viability of ideas is hard, no matter how many experts there always seems to be in the TechCrunch/HN peanut gallery. I've really tried to train myself to answer "do you think this is a good idea?" with "I haven't a clue."

Re: Airbnb Has Arrived: Raising Mega-Round at a $1 Billion+ Valuation

#15

Post by photon_off »

olivercameron wrote: post #9

I think a lot of startups put too much weight on what an investor thinks of their idea. Airbnb is a prime example of carrying on in the face of rejection, even if people are saying "it's a stupid idea". I know a lot of founders who, after being told by many of the Valley's finest angels that their idea is no good, would just give up. It just goes to show that you can create a $1 billion company, even if no one really…

I think there's something to be said about knowing when to fold, and not to view these nobody-believed-in-us-but-we-overcame edge cases as motivation to play a losing hand.

There will always be false negatives, ideas that are rejected by angels but which later become enormously successful. However, if the industry's finest angels are all passing, and you can literally find nobody to invest, it is probably a wise decision to give up. While angels are far from being 100% accurate in choosing what to invest in, overall they have to have some sense of what's a good idea in order to sustain themselves. If they're all passing, better off hitting the drawing board.

Re: Airbnb Has Arrived: Raising Mega-Round at a $1 Billion+ Valuation

#16

Post by monopede »

moses1400 wrote: post #13
rst wrote: post #7

Techcrunch says, "On any given night in New York there are more people staying in homes via Airbnb than there are rooms in the biggest hotel in Manhattan." For comparison: Starwood Hotels (whose brand names include Westin, W, Sheraton, and others) has more than 20 hotels in New York (some quite large), and a market cap of about $11.3 billion. FWIW, Airbnb's commissions are 9-15% of the rate (3% from the host, 6-12% f…

fyi, the Manhattan Hilton has 2,100 rooms so that means AirBNB is renting out 2,101 or more per night - thats's awesome.

In the video he mentions it's about 5000 per night.

Re: Airbnb Has Arrived: Raising Mega-Round at a $1 Billion+ Valuation

#18

Post by adambyrtek »

olivercameron wrote: post #9

I think a lot of startups put too much weight on what an investor thinks of their idea. Airbnb is a prime example of carrying on in the face of rejection, even if people are saying "it's a stupid idea". I know a lot of founders who, after being told by many of the Valley's finest angels that their idea is no good, would just give up. It just goes to show that you can create a $1 billion company, even if no one really…

Taking it the other way around, most startups put too much weight on their valuation, which is a quantification of what investors think about their company. Of course assuming their primary goal is to really make a difference, instead of just selling out as soon as possible.

Re: Airbnb Has Arrived: Raising Mega-Round at a $1 Billion+ Valuation

#20

Post by pg »

photon_off wrote: post #15
olivercameron wrote: post #9

I think a lot of startups put too much weight on what an investor thinks of their idea. Airbnb is a prime example of carrying on in the face of rejection, even if people are saying "it's a stupid idea". I know a lot of founders who, after being told by many of the Valley's finest angels that their idea is no good, would just give up. It just goes to show that you can create a $1 billion company, even if no one really…

I think there's something to be said about knowing when to fold, and not to view these nobody-believed-in-us-but-we-overcame edge cases as motivation to play a losing hand. There will always be false negatives, ideas that are rejected by angels but which later become enormously successful. However, if the industry's finest angels are all passing, and you can literally find nobody to invest, it is probably a wise deci…

I can think of cases where startups have found no one to invest, and have ended up doing well. This is where something like YC can help, actually; we can tell people candidly whether we think it's the investors who are wrong, or the startup.
Post reply on HN