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Subject: Airbnb

paulgraham.com

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Re: Subject: Airbnb

#71

Post by Duff »

ShabbyDoo wrote: post #54

Unrelated to start-up investment, just a random thought about ABNB: I was thinking about the impact of hotel chains' business traveler kick-back schemes (euphemistically known as "rewards" programs) on the independent room providers (a phrase I just coined to run the gamut between someone renting out his spare room and a boutique hotel) ability to attract business travelers. How, as a business renting out 40 rooms in…

You can also hook into the kickback schemes by partnering with major reward programs like Amex Membership Rewards. Or work with state governments to have a voucher program like what Ireland has for BnBs.

It's a great business.

Re: Subject: Airbnb

#72

Post by Eliezer »

joshcrews wrote: post #57
randall wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just did my first AirBNB experience (actually am still in the middle of it) and I can say that it's actually been surprisingly smooth. It's almost like a paid way to make friends. The hosts who I'm staying with are so cool, and since I'm pretty public online, it was easy for them to feel comfortable with me staying at their pad. They've set it up as much like a hotel as I could ask for. It's really great, and it's…

I like Airbnb. I've hosted 8ish times and stayed with people once. Why I think the people on Airbnb are 'cool' is that its a small population that has a lot in common (young or young-at-heart, singles and couples without kids, internet natives, own a macbook, would love to hitchhike Europe while submitting correspond reports for the NYTimes). As it grows, I'm worried that everyone's not going to find everyone else 'c…

What Airbnb would need to do is allow renters to rate rentees. Two-way system like eBay used to be.

Re: Subject: Airbnb

#73

Post by mentat »

jfager wrote: post #59
luckystrike wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You still really think he did all of that only because of YC's ~6% stake in them?

I'm not trying to take anything away from pg here, but " all of that" refers in this case to 7 emails with one VC. AirBnB has raised $7.8M (at, what, around a ~$40M valuation at the time? 6% of which would be over $2m). Is it really that incredible that someone would send a few emails for a shot at that kind of money?

He's risking his reputation if he's pushing a company that he's not confident in. The reputation is worth a lot too, probably mostly in reciprocal connections.

Re: Subject: Airbnb

#74

Post by sportsTAKES »

Fascinating -

I could be wrong but I don't imagine too many people push back so hard on @paulg like that.

I have great respect for @fredwilson for pushing back and then admitting in a very public way that he felt he made a big mistake.

The best line of the email is @paulg describing @fredwilson: "He is the least suburban-golf-playing VC I know."

Glad this story was shared and glad there is continued mutual respect there -

Re: Subject: Airbnb

#75

Post by brianchesky »

Eliezer wrote: post #72
joshcrews wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like Airbnb. I've hosted 8ish times and stayed with people once. Why I think the people on Airbnb are 'cool' is that its a small population that has a lot in common (young or young-at-heart, singles and couples without kids, internet natives, own a macbook, would love to hitchhike Europe while submitting correspond reports for the NYTimes). As it grows, I'm worried that everyone's not going to find everyone else 'c…

What Airbnb would need to do is allow renters to rate rentees. Two-way system like eBay used to be.

We do.

Re: Subject: Airbnb

#76

Post by JoachimSchipper »

webwright wrote: post #53
cloudbrain wrote: post #32

Interesting that completely missing from this conversation is: -- Their website design -- Their code (Rails? Jquery?) -- Their hosting / scalability / "cloud" strategy -- Source control methods, dev environment, tools -- APIs, "ecosystem", social media, "viral rate" etc. -- And more... Basically, all the things that most of us here spend most of our time discussing. Instead: 1) Idea / Team 2) Execute 3) Talk to peopl…

MARKET. http://pmarca-archive.posterous.com/the-pmarca-guide-to-star... That's all Fred is looking at in that phase-- because even an awesome team won't build a venture-sized business in a tiny or low-growth market. At our Demo Day, there was two teams that had a veritable investor feeding frenzy around them-- and they were both attacking markets that were either huge/rich or markets that were growing like gangbuster…

To be fair, anyone who makes it through YC and gets pg's recommendation should be pretty competent.

Re: Subject: Airbnb

#77

Post by seiji »

sportsTAKES wrote: post #74

Fascinating - I could be wrong but I don't imagine too many people push back so hard on @paulg like that. I have great respect for @fredwilson for pushing back and then admitting in a very public way that he felt he made a big mistake. The best line of the email is @paulg describing @fredwilson: "He is the least suburban-golf-playing VC I know." Glad this story was shared and glad there is continued mutual respect th…

How long have you had twitter disease? We're working towards a cure as fast as we can.

Re: Subject: Airbnb

#78

Post by jfager »

mentat wrote: post #73
jfager wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not trying to take anything away from pg here, but " all of that" refers in this case to 7 emails with one VC. AirBnB has raised $7.8M (at, what, around a ~$40M valuation at the time? 6% of which would be over $2m). Is it really that incredible that someone would send a few emails for a shot at that kind of money?

He's risking his reputation if he's pushing a company that he's not confident in. The reputation is worth a lot too, probably mostly in reciprocal connections.

That's true, but he's also risking his reputation (and his paycheck) if he doesn't shop around for later stage investors for his companies. This kind of thing is his job, it's what Y Combinator exists to do. When one of his companies looks like it's going to be successful, he has to do this kind of stuff to actually get a return out of it.

Which, again, isn't to denigrate him at all. He's obviously very good at what he does and deserves a lot of respect for it.

Re: Subject: Airbnb

#79

Post by nolanbrown23 »

robobenjie wrote: post #62
randall wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just did my first AirBNB experience (actually am still in the middle of it) and I can say that it's actually been surprisingly smooth. It's almost like a paid way to make friends. The hosts who I'm staying with are so cool, and since I'm pretty public online, it was easy for them to feel comfortable with me staying at their pad. They've set it up as much like a hotel as I could ask for. It's really great, and it's…

Aww shucks, Thanks, Randall. We really enjoy hosting, and it seems like an even better deal for us (we get paid to make friends). About the only downside Iv'e experienced so far is that I have to wash sheets all the time (most people stay with us for 2-3 days and since we now have between 70%-100% occupancy thats a lot of sheet washing. I'm also about to go to Paris and the value proposition of airbnb there is even b…

My wife and I used AirBnB to stay in paris on our honeymoon, we had an entire apartment (a studio) in a nice part of town for a fraction of the cost of hotel. It was great experience that we couldn't have had without AirBnB.
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