Brian Chesky, Co-Founder and CEO of Airbnb: Designing a 10-star Experience

In this View From The Top interview, James Yan MBA '23, speaks with Brian Chesky, Co-Founder and CEO of Airbnb.
Brian walks us through the founding story of Airbnb, how to acquire customer loyalty, lessons in crisis management and more.
#gsbvftt #gsbpodcast

[@vtomyuk]

Brian’s storytelling is a next level. Simple analogies, clear messages - that’s what makes him successful.

[@filmawayvlad]

Indeed

[@riumudamc4686]

this guy was ambitious and got lucky. He's not super intelligent

[@pizzaearthpancakesandother2549]

Ban all Airbnbs

[@johnmansour7711]

Communication will take your farther than anything in life

[@johnmansour7711]

@@riumudamc4686 most of us successful entrepreneurs aren’t that bright. We just have the will to make it happen

[@gbengaogun]

"When people love your service, they become your marketing department" -Profound interview.

[@geniusprojekt]

To me, he is a star. The interviewer was absolutely brilliant and professional and perfect. Perfect questions, fundamental questions with a lot of business substance. His method. Very short questions and listening without any personal comments or breaks. To me he is the best interviewer I have seen for years. Then there is his precise pronunciation, his calm voice, and by that the creation of a perfect atmosphere for the top performers to be interviewed. I am a professor in excellent communication, based on neuroscience and modern psychology. Thank you very much. I really enjoyed your level.

[@meghajindal]

couldnt agree more !

[@australianpatriot]

you are a narcissist

[@The135813]

Very well said. Interviewer was on another level.

[@MaximoGamezDedicatus]

Where do you teach? Would love to check out some of your courses.

[@michaelpowers9901]

A star??? This clown caused hundreds of millions of dollars in losses from 2008 to 2022.

[@hanslee7037]

Can we just give it up for James Yan. He is a brilliant interviewer.

[@okubowisdom]

Brian is a wonderful storyteller and communicator. Its in the way he weaves narratives with Logic. Great interview!

[@y.yalcin5143]

The interviewer was AMAZING! Great jokes and great questions.

[@rahulanand7315]

Top 3 thoughts from the talks - 1. Make something that 100 people truly love than something that million people kind of love 2. Always try to deliver more that what's expected than just doing ok - make 5 star + experiences 3. In crisis time, be optimistic, lean on your principles and be decisive

[@parrish8386]

There is no greater freedom than handing back the key to a airbnb apartment knowing someone else has to maintain it. If you enjoy renovating and decorating then perhaps home ownership is for you. For me, property is another way we get tied down and outside of exceptional cases I'd rather invest in Stocks/REITS to get exposure to real estate and other investment opportunities.

[@fadhshf]

I suggest you offset your real estate and get into stocks, A recession as bad it can be, provides good buying opportunities in the markets if you’re careful and it can also create volatility giving great short time buy and sell opportunities too. This is not financial advise but get buying, cash isn’t king at all in this time!

[@lowcostfresh2266]

You are right! I diversified my 450K portfolio across various market with the aid of an investment coach, I have been able to generate a little bit above $630k in net profit across high dividend yield stocks, ETF and bonds.

[@TomD226]

@@lowcostfresh2266 Would you be willing to share information about the adviser who helped you? I've been saving for my pension since I was 18 through my company's scheme. However, as I progressed, I hit higher tax rates and decided to contribute to my company pension with a SIPP (which offers tax benefits). Now that I'm 50, I would like to grow my finances more aggressively so that I can afford some of the things I've always wanted, such as a few luxury cars and some amazing vacations.

[@lowcostfresh2266]

@@TomD226 I receive guidance from coach Nicole Joi Anderson, who possesses extensive financial market experience. While others may prefer different approaches, her strategy has proven successful for me, as evidenced by my results. Specifically, she offers valuable insight on entry and exit points for the securities that I concentrate on.

[@hasede-lg9hj]

@@TomD226 After locating her, I composed an email and arranged a phone conversation. I'm optimistic that she will reply, and my goal is to conclude 2023 on a financially successful note.

[@agratapatel1]

the host is amazing 10/10

[@2003_4channer]

He's cringe lol, he sounds so fake hahahaha

[@strategicsaga]

I loved the way how Brian articulated with amazing sense of humor. I appreciate how honest he was throughout the interview ❤️

[@KingsleyOkeze]

Great interview! This guy is a good interviewer. Impressive on from both sides!

[@gandr.e.5136]

One of the best interviewers I've ever seen. He asked questions that were simple enough to let the person talk and not interrupt with his own views.

[@KingsleyOkeze]

@@gandr.e.5136 like for real though.

[@shubhammathur7810]

What a brilliant interview! My favourite takeaway is the rule he had with his co-founders - winning an argument is never more important than preserving the relationship.

[@asharara]

Amazing interview. Really grabbed my attention. Not so many CEOs goes into that much details on how they changed their strategy during crisis and how they manage things internally. Brian is amazing and he really share meaning insights with everyone, he really want everyone to succeed. Thanks James for having a fruitful interview giving your guest the space to share all this experience. Your voice is also so special :) soothing, friendly and inviting.

[@MegaLadyv]

Not many ceos are founders so they can’t always go into this depth and transparency

[@javi_park]

the golden rule: winning an argument is never more important than preserving the relationship.

[@DrRussell]

Thank you for this wisdom. It’s taken me almost 40 years to get this through my thick skull.

[@friarnewborg9213]

What if the person you are debating is a criminal and evil? All too common these days of Woke-Sat@nsts

[@julianxe]

Brian is a phenomenal storyteller. Amazing, honest, humble, and kind executive.

[@josiahamaze]

Studying how to create my own app while having Airbnb guests in my house right creating time for me to create another app is just blowing my mind right now. Mad respect, Brian. After watching this, I owe you and appreciate you providing a way for me to make money and capitalize on my home. This is what I need to have my users feel. That's my only job.

[@OmidReza]

You are a great man Brian!. Thanks for your braveness and innovation.

[@LarryMenta1]

you just gotta love Brian, the way he tells his stories is so compelling and funny!

[@geirwiwansivertsen7981]

Very inspiring - Even for oldies like me who are now 76. Good to hear Brian referred to Linus Paulings “Not everything that counts can be counted, not everything that can be counted, counts.” So easily forgotten in the business world.

[@BrainChesky]

Very 💯 correct

[@barbarabernadin3320]

Man, what a great duo for a wealth of knowledge! ⭐️⭐️

[@andreiarmeanu2661]

Can't believe this has only 700K views. I genuinely hope that those present can recognize and appreciate the immense privilege and blessing of being there.

[@sidzthesoldier]

In times of crisis, you don’t make business decisions as much as you make principle decisions ! GOLD.

[@chapterme]

Chapters (Powered by ChapterMe) - 00:00 - Intro 00:30 - High School Yearbook 01:45 - The founding story of Airbnb 05:40 - How Aribnb was created (the punchline) 06:42 - Rejection emails & investor stories 08:57 - Story behind the cereals & joining YC 11:15 - Accuracy over speed to market & YC’s advice 12:18 - The Worst and Best Advice I Ever Got 13:10 - Make something people love 17:28 - Airbnb's Fight With Government Regulators 20:15 - Biggest surprise starting Airbnb 21:35 - Loyalty and followership - Getting Design in the Boardroom 25:18 - Crisis Management Lessons 29:34 - The Hardest Thing to Do in a Crisis 35:53 - Housing Crisis and airbnb's criticism 38:35 - Post Covid Travel Trend 38:36 - Travel Trends Post-COVID 40:28 - Loneliness Is the No. 1 Killer in America 44:00 - End of Interview & Start to Q&A 44:05 - Co-founder Dynamics - What Made Airbnb So Lucky? 47:20 - Airbnb's Principles and how it has changed during COVID 49:21 - Piece of advice to a young entrepreneur 49:22 - How to Become an Entrepreneur 52:06 - Rapid Fire Q&A 54:46 - Outro

[@aaithubarla]

Best interviewer! No obstruction, nothing. At least it works for a speaker like Brian. He is just fluent.

[@designeranthony]

He’s dropping gems, I love a design founder

[@BrainChesky]

❤

[@wajs8162]

Definitely a family man… love the way he quotes his mom & dad!!

[@georgiivanov1902]

It's the first interview I see of Brian. Having used Airbnb as a host and a traveler for about two years I can really see how the vision manifests into reality. Inspiring talk with a tonne of useful, practical tips and strategies. 🙌

[@yasminkouzegari688]

1- When people hate you, meet them! Because it is hard to hate people in person! Then you can make the situation into WIN-WIN! 2- It is better that fewer people love you than many people just like you! Airbnb is trying to give better experiences to fewer people and increase the conversion rate! 3- 98% of everything just shows up! And 98% of everything is showing respect to people! 4- The surprise is not how different we are in different cities but how similar we are! 5- You can make the bridge between people and make a win-win situation! That is so easy! 6- You need to be decisive and OPTIMISTIC! 7- You have to go into the det ls as much as you can. 8- The number one reason for death in North America is Loneliness! If you can solve this problem, people will pay you so much! 9- If I win alone, I am not gonna go far alone! 10- Act fast 11- Just start making something! make something with all the resources you have!

[@wybeprod7632]

Amazing, thanks!

[@ThePeteLy]

This was a refreshing take on a legendary origin story. Kudos on both sides of the table Brian and James 👌❤

[@nonefvnfvnjnjnjevjenjvonej3384]

Unfortunately AIrBnb is a failed business and one that only started because of frothy VC market. They are more on the side of WeWork on the startup scale rather than the Apples.

[@yashkatariya2829]

What an absolutely delightful conversation! Fantastic host, great questions and inspiring Chesky!

[@debasmitamanna6166]

Not to be in wurst syndrome. Tota Royce

[@KelLam979]

Quite touching when he talks about loneliness, and their mission to help building real connections in modern, tech-driven world

[@nicoledpaolino9077]

Brian is a soul man who truly reveres the principal of team player-ship and loyalty which fuels their drive to win.

[@kafelomaverdekafelomaverde4985]

Yes, Mr. Brian, interesting that loneliness is a great actor to take into account in the health of the world... Thank you very much for sharing your experience. Greetings from Colombia..

[@cdnsilverdaddy]

The host is fantastic

[@PrinceKoopa]

Thank you so much for sharing and having Brian Chesky on for this talk! 50:30 really hit home for me which I think is a very important lesson and piece of advice for every entreprenuer. Deeply grateful for Standford and Brian! 😊

[@ulbry]

WOW 🤯 What an interview! There are so many insights about product-market fit, product development, design, and more. You can really learn a lot from Brian and the Airbnb story.

[@tracethisspace]

His passion and enthusiasm are highly contagious. These seem to be trademark traits that many successful startup founders have. He's a great storyteller, too. Thank you for this! 🙏❤

[@chriswaldorf1560]

Wow! Fantastic talk and great advice from the heart! This is the best Stanford GSB interview I've seen, which says a lot. Also,I liked the interviewer's excellent questions and how the interviewer let Mr. Chesky do the talking. Often the ego of interviewers really gets in the way and the interviewer does way too much talking. Here this wasn't the case.

[@vivian4081560]

yes! great stage too!

[@hintzepaul2002]

What a great talk. This kind of honesty is hard to find nowadays.

[@anitsh]

That note on DESIGN is PROFOUND. One of the great analogies of DESIGN THINKING. Loved the conversation. It was fun and it made sense, what he did, he did, lessons.

[@sergismael]

Now I am able to understand the raltivity of the time, such a great source of knowledge and experience. Thank you Mr.

[@romananalytics2182]

I always have great ideas but struggle with Technology implementation, I want to do it myself but never able to implement. Stuck in this pronlem from long time, need to break out. Great talk

[@LordWallyTorres]

This interview was so good! At first I was just planning to take a peak, but his story telling and energy are so impressive that it captivated me enough to stay and listen to the whole vid!

[@zb2747]

Always been a fan of AirBnBs origin story and ofc Brian. He dropped a lot of gems here

[@amine__hammou]

His storytelling is just freaking insaneeeee

[@erikdesando9268]

wow what great interview by james yan... that kid is an AMAZING interview... love his whole vibe. bravo james u are a star.

[@kumarsundaresan]

Extraordinary Stuff. I love the first 15 minutes even more because that involved his early part of life and interactions inside his family involving mom and dad and what they had told him about his choices in life. As a parent, I am able truly related to it. Totally enjoyed it. Very inspirational. Great job Standford GSB for bringing this up.

[@kelvinkhant6305]

You can literally see his vision/thoughts through his voice and how deep he went down to put design to a whole new level. You could even lose in his mind.

[@barbarosozturk]

Loved this. Thank you for sharing! Always inspiring & insightful to hear the journeys of the founders directly from them.

[@nonsoikenwa9781]

After listening to Brian, you can tell he spends a lot of time looking it the data and analyzing it.

[@thecobaltroom]

I don't remember enjoying an interview this much, able to capture my attention and curiosity to this extent. Brilliant!

[@designsinsiders]

Being a designer platform coming from a Design background , this feels so good to be connected through an entrepreneurial perspective. It is so much more relatable on zooming out and understanding the problem and creating creative solutions to any problem. Indeed design is simplifying things . AirBnb is no doubt an amazing startup , covering so many different cities that too in different countries is such a huge Ecosystem in itself. Huge respect!

[@manojroy4u]

Omg! it's so mind blowing how he revived airbnb.

[@jawakar8266]

Brilliant Story Telling by Brian!

[@avinashvij3446]

So inspiring to hear the results-driven decisions he made and the way storytelling

[@filmawayvlad]

Totally clear! Great to watch it!

[@piyush_khaitan]

One heck of an interview it was. AirBnb got the best marketing head of all time.

[@starryeye3482]

Wow what a great interview and Brian is one intelligent and funny guy! Loved the questions from the interviewer and Brian's responses kept me glued watching til the end! 😊

[@BrainChesky]

Thanks for the compliment

[@chiawildy563]

Totally eloquent and Brian didn't need to refer to a script. That is real sharing.

[@elenaputina8885]

Very cool talk, very inspired by Brian and what they're doing at Airbnb 👍

[@aigovbuzz]

Excellent interview. Interesting stats Brian gave on loneliness and how important it is for people to connect in person. Thank you.

[@KP-py5ih]

The interviewer.. Amazing

[@MC-tm2uy]

Has anyone noticed how with how Airbnb, your quoted price would usually 2x by the time you actually booking a place? And then you pay the cleaning fee but yet you still have to take out the trash, do the dishes, remove all bedsheets and pill covers, etc ....the list goes on. Airbnb used to be cheaper because it was heavily discounted to win market shares. But nowadays Airbnb would cost just as much as a hotel room and I would still have to do all of the above mentioned cleaning tasks. My group of friends used to get an Airbnb everytime we went skiing because it was cheaper, but now we favor hotels much more because the cost is the same and we don't have to do any cleaning when checking out, and most hotels have much better cancellation policies

[@kreuzbrg1784]

Fantastic talk!

[@ommanipadmehung3014]

Pure brilliance this guy. Loved his enneagram reference also

[@vietcapital123]

Great sharing! Thanks so much! ❤

[@TobinOsusky]

this was fantastic! i am opening up an airbnb space in Costa Rica this year and it was super pertinent and poignant to see this video. thank you James and Brian, and Stanford of course

[@flat-earther]

hi tobinosusky have you become a flat earther yet? If not I suggest watch a 13 part series called _What on earth happened_ by Ewaranon to learn that the earth is not a globe. I got it in my about tab.

[@dhvdbsadjksb3686]

Excellent interviewer and interviewee!❤

[@RickMeza]

This interview is just fascinating! 🔥🔥

[@aneetkaur9924]

what a smart man! enjoyed listening to him. good lessons learnt

[@user-br8uo5me3k]

Amzing interview.

[@alirezaebtekar1044]

Amazing interview. As a super host on airbnb I am thankful to Biran and his co founders for creating an opportunity for me to make a great living. Thank you for this interview Stanford

[@rakhmetzhanov]

a remarkable story of professionalism and life

[@KazzyOfficial]

One of the best interviews on this channel wow

[@Adadinditv]

Hi Kazzy, I would like to do a podcast with you. Are you available? I want to know your insights

[@devjeet_choudhury]

What a fantastic storyteller!

[@hasantarek6521]

Always been a fan of brian and air BnB. Great talk. ❤️

[@A_A_12_]

Brilliant. Thanks for sharing!

[@pratyush511]

Thanks for sharing! Incredible talk :)

[@petervuong5221]

Great interview. Many products are built without a thought of what problem it solves for. What value does it create for customers so they love it. The interviewer sounded like Joel Olsteen.

[@parkjoe1]

Breakthrough thinking and resilience

[@NeuraPod]

Excellent interview. Well done.

[@ginaochieng2409]

This was a random pick that turned out to be surprisingly impressive. Brian is quite engaging.

[@DaffodilPClimited]

Great talk,very inspiring

[@dushimejackson7783]

One thing I loved about this interview is that it's clear

[@vlsiupdates22]

Insightful talk, Thanks

[@AndrewOnTestingCars]

Absolutely fucking amazing! Inspires me so much!!! Thank you!

[@celestialcleaningservice]

It is interesting because this video came up after I watched a video of something completely different but I decided to leave it on and it has turned out to be an amazing video that I needed to hear.

[@im_Vinjo]

This is called story with perfect thought flow

[@jasonwillems9959]

MVP.. this is a classic PM framework model. 100 people sample and get it 100%. Then scale . You can see Brian's education is not lost on him. He clearly knows industrial design and what makes a product successful.

[@gabb05]

great talk, very engaging

[@amandadetour4365]

I hope this interview addressed how this paradigm of turning homes which are meant for raising families and providing a haven for workers and ownership into one of the greatest variables contributing to high rents and ultimately homelessness. Sad that his parents are social workers. And the connection isn’t being made.

[@mapatojuma]

Found it insightful! Great talk.

[@rabihaze9169]

I'd advise newbie traders to take this video seriously, trading digital assets is complex and this video did a good job of shedding some light. However, I know for a fact that nothing beats the one on one guidance from a pro analyst

[@roypark8885]

I know how lucrative the market is, but I've never partook active in profit making myself. What strategy do you have going for you? Please let me know

[@joshbruno3756]

During my research 3 years ago I was introduced to a licensed investment manager Shana Heckel. She has been trading for me and raking in profits in the market. She predicted we invest in some stocks and crypto with momentum, stocks that would triple their net worth in the nearest future. I did not regret making that investment. I've made a comfortable 350,000 Euros on EV stocks alone

[@joegurru]

Shana Heckel is an absolute genius, she has so many testimonies and accolades to her name. I've invested in the financial markets through her and her team in the recent past, zero regrets so far, she has a full grasp of how the markets work and has been coming through with payouts promptly. Definitely recommend👍

[@joegurru]

you can communicate with her on tel'gram

[@joegurru]

@Shanatrades

[@zucchinipapi]

Love you Brian Sir, you are so inspiring

[@normadenys8089]

Great talk and good direction AIRB is taking

[@kunzsimon7102]

One of the greatest talks

[@CalmDown4628]

Great insights. Thank you.

[@pskaranth]

Superb interview...Lots of business insights and also insights into personal experiences which enlighten as well as inspire. Thank you for the beautiful interview

[@BrainChesky]

You are welcome subraya

[@Log1cTech]

Huge fan of Brian after this

[@johnmansour7711]

GREAT storyteller