Brian Chesky on Airbnb's Ethos of People-First Capitalism

While many CEOs choose to stay out of the public eye during times of crisis, Airbnb CEO and co-founder Brian Chesky has always opted for the opposite. It was no different during the Covid-19 pandemic, when travel came to a standstill and the company was forced to restructure. Chesky remained open, candid and transparent throughout the experience, and the company was able to navigate the crisis in stride.
As part of Greylock's virtual speaker series Iconversations, Chesky joined Greylock partner Reid Hoffman to talk about how he guided Airbnb from an 80% loss within the first two months of the pandemic to a record-breaking IPO by the end of year; why Silicon Valley needs to redefine how it measures growth; how Chesky’s design background informs Airbnb’s business strategy; and, ultimately, the importance of putting people first.
You can read the essay and transcript of this interview here: greylock.com/greymatter/airbn...
Chapters
0:00 Introduction
2:22 Stakeholder Capitalism
8:50 Identifying the Stakeholders
16:08 Responding to Crises
27:35 Maintaining Morale
31:26 Staying True to Stakeholder Capitalism
35:29 Making Difficult Decisions
39:33 Taking Action During a Crisis
44:00 Evolving Regulation
48:04 What’s Next for Airbnb
49:30 Lightning Round

[@elliswalker551]

I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone nod their head so consistently and so aggressively

[@MrBlereau]

I can listen to this guy all day. One of most interesting CEO by far when it's about giving long term vision

[@adil-hussain-84]

Three nice quotes from this video: 1. "The absence of information is filled with dirt." 2. "How you do anything is how you do everything." 3. "It's hard to hate up close."

[@ashalwalter3726]

The economic crisis , corruption , unaccountability and unemployment by the Government is enough to push one into self financial ventures to seek financial sustainability and security.

[@PedroGabriel-fb9ym]

I think this pandemic has taught people the importance of multiple streams of income unfortunately having a job doesn’t mean security rather having different investments is the real deal… So l really appreciate your transparency

[@boatengcolins5390]

Investing in bonds , Equities still looking to add more to my portfolio

[@emilialucious4068]

@@boatengcolins5390 I'm new to the investment world I need advice on growth portfolio

[@joshwinter7172]

Social Security is not guaranteed because this money that was deducted from the salary of the senior citizens ( aged and retired workers ) during their contract of employment aren't given to some of them

[@egganwhtye2071]

Is there any guaranteed investement on earth ??Cryptocurrency, bonds and even equities are facing a volatility which has resulted to short in value .

[@HassanWorld]

Brian Chesky will be a top 3 CEO in this decade.

[@myaparker]

Agreed Elon musk Brian chesky comes to mind first

[@ignoram9us]

Foregone conclusion at this point. Brian is in a class of his own.

[@mariamaisu7271]

Who's the other two?

[@HassanWorld]

@@mariamaisu7271 Elon & Dr. Sam from CRISPR Therapeutics

[@Itsmenawaj]

Love from Bangladesh. Now I am 13 and my plan is start a business within a month. And achieve financial freedom in 20 year old. And your video is so helpful so sir please upload videos regularly. Thank you

[@tungtjockis]

Good luck

[@fr5229]

How’s it going?

[@Max-px5ym]

Can't believe this has only 12 000 views. It should have a million

[@robinmays]

Amazing talk! Thank you!

[@angelsancheese]

Glad I came across this video. Brian should do more youtube interviews!

[@ronaldolzheim363]

3:34 Reid Looks like a proud dad

[@hurleypiano3953]

Terrific acoustics.

[@mehnazyunus3321]

2:40 - What do you mean by stakeholder capitalism? What are some of the ways that it informs your leadership? 16:30 - How did being a design-based company help with responding to the COVID crisis? 27:40 - How did you maintain morale while downsizing? 31:28 - When did you start adapting to the new travel patterns? 35:28 - decision about going public 39:34 - Decision around DC during the Capitol strike 44:00 - treating regulators as stakeholders. How can founders help evolve regulations? 48:13 - what's next for Airbnb? 49:37 - lightning round

[@alexN350z]

Brian Chesky for President 2024

[@ishangoswami9462]

Best part start at 19:00

[@julytwentytwentyone8750]

Damn Brian has a nice webcam

[@CaptainPlanet007]

Brian Chesky has a ceo face.

[@riskyaltaresh8469]

He looks like young Steve Jobs

[@runderwo]

Spoken from the luxury of someone whose org has already reached escape velocity. It's natural that the established players would want newcomers to volunteer for psychological and organizational fetters like "stakeholder capitalism".

[@gabbykoz8453]

The stupendous tulip ethnically tumble because schedule lily signal despite a mixed approval. whole, odd voice

[@hiufgterde]

they fired half of their staff and didn't give back any money to customers. So they can talk about how great they are all they want, but their actions show a different story

[@piskunov57]

Is he on coke? What's with all the twitching and face touching

[@maddygmail1218]

Just about to listen to your spin ,,,thanks for ruining my community and having a useless neighbours reporting process which I am guessing is all smoke and mirrors to appear ethical ,,I could go on but hey no point talking to a brick wall