With more than 10 years in the market, the platform founded by two outsiders of the technological universe, seeks to become a comprehensive travel company
15.11.2019 • 18:14hs • UP Stories
UP Stories
If it has to be, it will be: the story of Airbnb, or that of three young people who became billionaires without looking for it
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Technically it is a unicorn -according to the definition assigned by the business world to this word-, since in 2011 it came to be worth the much-desired $ 1 billion.
But, in addition to fulfilling that premise, Airbnb has the peculiarity of being a "rare avis", since it was not founded by people of the "stick" of technology but rather by two design students.
He also failed to fall in love with incoming investors, so he had to appeal to creativity to get his first dollars. In recent years, he abandoned his core of connecting travelers with temporary accommodations around the world ’and expanded into the fascinating tourism industry, to become a travel company with aspirations to go public in 2020.
Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky met at the Rhode Island School of Design and decided to be roommates in San Francisco. They never fantasized about becoming entrepreneurs, much less being millionaires, but when it has to be, it will be: success knocked on his door a little by chance and another by necessity.
To reach the end of the month with some more slack in their bank accounts, they took advantage - with a certain dose of ingenuity - that an important design conference would be held in that city in 2008: they offered their apartment for rent for those who had not Could get hotel.
Quickly, they created the site airbedandbreakfast.com since, each guest would be offered an inflatable mattress (that's why airbed) and breakfast (breakfast), in exchange for $ 40 a night. The three spaces were occupied and the young people saw that the idea had a future as a business, so they incorporated the engineer Nathan Blecharczyk, former roommate of both of them to take care of the more technical aspects of the platform.
The first steps were not easy. For the project to gain momentum, they needed two things: customers and money, but neither of them arrived.
They presented the idea at the prestigious South by Southwest (SXSW) festival without success, adding that the messages they sent to several potential financiers were returned with refusals or silence. "We are not excited about any business related to the tourism industry," one of the seven people contacted responded to offer them 10% of the company in exchange for ... $ 150,000.
Today, these investors must be turning their heads against the wall: in the last round of financing (2017), Airbnb reached a valuation of US $ 31,000 million and they estimate that this year it will exceed US $ 40,000 million.
Last chance
The great opportunity of the founding trio came with the Denver National Democratic Convention. To promote Airbnb, they appealed to their expertise: design.
They created and marketed boxes of thematic cereals with the presidential candidates of that time: the "Obama O’s", by Barack Obama; and the "Cap’n McCain’s," inspired by Republican John McCain. They sold each for $ 40 and included information about the company.
Once again, when it has to be it will be: among so many boxes, one came to the right hands. Paul Graham, co-founder of the accelerator Y Combinator, valued the creativity of entrepreneurs and offered them a space to work. A year later the first injection of capital would arrive with a round of US $ 600,000 led by Sequoia Capital.
The project grew by adding more and more guests. However, the hosts (hosts) would become the true heart of the company. From the company they insisted on keeping them motivated with benefits and showing them the pros of temporarily renting their homes or rooms.
The business expanded rapidly to Europe and Latin America. Three years after its foundation they had already exceeded one million reservations on their platform and the firm was present in 90 countries. It currently operates in 100,000 cities and exceeded 7 million available accommodations.
Chesky, who assumed the position of Executive Director, set a goal to reach 1,000 million guests by 2028. Gebbia retains the position of Product Manager, while Blecharczyk serves as Strategy Director. Each one was gravitating naturally towards what he knew best.
From a small space with less than 20 employees and a bathroom that served as an area reserved for calls, they had more than 10,000 employees and a gigantic office complex in the very center of San Francisco.
There, they designed rooms set like many of their most famous accommodations. They even have a specific place for Argentina: the establishment has two wings called "Almagro" and "Barracas".
The capitals vs Airbnb
The company became a noun, like Uber and Netflix, following the emergence of new platforms that inspired its proposal in its model. However, with this also came the conflicts of the enterprises born under the premise of the collaborative economy. Especially with the traditional leg of the item.
From the hotel industry they claim that Airbnb is an "unfair competition" and in many of the countries in which it operates they ask that their situation be regulated. Some cities chose to limit the number of days per year that owners can rent their homes to avoid a leakage of property from long-term contracts, which causes a drop in supply and, therefore, a rise in prices .
Tourist epicenters such as Brussels, Paris, Barcelona and New York took the spear and became the most combative sites against its operation. Even certain locations threatened to ban Airbnb in their territories and even pressured the company to give them lists with the personal data of all guests.
The firm could not always be victorious and, for example, in its hometown had to eliminate thousands of users whose listings were not compatible with local regulations.
The company had to reinvent itself, blow after blow, slap after slap. In order not to depend entirely on the core business, it first launched Experiences, tourist activities organized by local hosts. Then he acquired the startup Hotel Tonight -focused on last-minute hotel reservations with discounts- and the Canadian Luxury Retreats to expand in the premium range.
In 2017, he gave his brand to the developer Newgard Development Group to carry out the Niido project, two towers dedicated especially to Airbnb lodgings. This year they announced two new real estate ventures, under the Natiivo brand, although this time they would be buildings built from scratch to carry the Bélo seal.
Favorable diagnosis
All the cannons of the company today point to Wall Street. Its objective is to make a difference with respect to the other promising firms that decided to go public this year and, soon after, sank.
Even some, like WeWork, did not even touch the bell due to lack of investor confidence in their numbers. In this last aspect it is in which Airbnb bases its ambitions.
During the second quarter of 2019, it reported more than $ 1 billion in revenue, the second time it manages to exceed that mark in a quarter after doing so in the third of last year.
In 2018, he did not share revenue figures but did report that his Ebitda was positive. The same happened in 2017, the year in which it registered $ 2.5 billion in revenue, 50% more than the previous year.
On September 19, Airbnb confirmed its intentions to make its initial public offering (IPO) in 2020. At first, it had been speculated that the debut in the New York circuit will take place this year, but was ruled out .
While there is no set date to carry out your IPO, what Airbnb is clear about is that this event will be a litmus test: it can confirm the health of its numbers and transform it into fresh capital to develop its expansion in the industry or suffer a I stumbled on the road to NYSE and end this adventure with a couple of blows on top.
Meanwhile, the Chesky, Gebbia and Blecharczyk trio enjoy a financial calm that is the envy of other high profile startups like Uber and WeWork. Their project, which began with air mattresses and a breakfast included, made them billionaires: they amass a fortune of 4.1 billion dollars, which grows as the firm's price rises.
However, success does not seem to make them dizzy: Chesky continues to lead a "relatively modest" life, according to his words and until just a few years ago he was still renting the apartment where the company was born. He even uses his platform to travel the world.
The three founders are also signatories of the Giving Pledge initiative led by Warren Buffett, along with Bill and Melinda Gates, for which they pledge to donate more than half of their assets in life.
Airbnb's success is largely defined by the obsession of its three founders with perfection. To the point that at first they came to visit the properties offered on the platform in New York to understand how to take the service to another level.
They understood that the essential thing for their future success was not only that the visitors were happy, but that the hosts adore the system. So far, the recipe seems to work perfectly.
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