(soft upbeat music)
- Good evening, everyone.
Welcome to yet another
blockbuster event at Stern.
For those of you who don't
know me, I'm Raghu Sundaram
and the Dean of the
Stern School of Business.
Every time we have an event like
this
I think of the bright side of
being dean
which is that I have a
reserved seat for me up front.
(audience laughing)
Today, unfortunately, I was
reminded of the downside
of being dean which is I am
running to another meeting
and I'm gonna miss what
should be a spectacular event.
I know that all of you have
come to listen to our guests
and not to me, so I'm gonna
keep my remarks short.
10 years ago, Airbnb, it's says
10 years.
10 years ago, Airbnb was
three people and an idea.
Today even old fogies
like me cannot imagine
a world without Airbnb.
I'm one of the biggest
user, well not biggest users
but I'm a frequent user of it.
And you know five years ago
when my daughter introduced me
to Airbnb
I didn't even know what it was.
I asked her what exactly is it
and...
I've rarely stayed at hotels
since that experience.
Airbnb today like Google
has become a verb.
In that context we are
extraordinarily lucky
to be joined today by Nate
Blecharczyk
who's one of the co-founders of
Airbnb.
The chief strategic officer of
Airbnb
and the chairman of Airbnb
China.
Nate is an alumnus of Harvard.
And unlike some other
prominent tech founders
who went there he actually
stayed and completed his degree.
He's really an alumnus.
Airbnb as all of us knows an
incredibly prominent company
in today's world.
And as someone once
said, "With great power
"comes great responsibility"
and that is in fact
the topic of today's
conversation
on platform responsibility
and global leadership.
Now on a serious note, this
is a topic that at Stern
we take extremely seriously.
The study of the intersection
of business, technology,
entrepreneurship, innovation
has been a major focus
of what we've been doing at
Stern
over the last several years.
But as important as the study
of technology and innovation
on business is the responsible
practice of the business.
As all of you who are students
here know
we place a great deal of
emphasis
on multi stakeholder thinking
in everything that we do.
For example the social impact
coordinate
in our undergraduate curriculum
that all students are required
to take.
Nate will be joined today
by my colleague Arun
Sundararajan.
Arun also happens to be a
student of mine,
former student of mine.
Arun is well known to all
of you who are students here
and even if you probably are
not.
He quite literally wrote a
book on the sharing economy.
He's been studying the sharing
economy
longer than almost any other
academic.
And I look forward to
wonderful conversation.
Arun, Nate over to you.
-  [Arun] Thank you so much Raghu.
(audience applauding)
Thank you Raghu.
Thank you guys for being here.
I'm so delighted that all
of you are joining us.
Thanks to the Fubon center and
Natalia
for hosting this event.
And Kelly for your
incredible event management
and thank you Nate for being
here.
I'm so delighted that you could
join
our digital leaders series.
You know, as you know, we
were on this stage together
six years ago, almost
six years ago
at you know the first
sharing economy conference
that NYU hosted and it
was making me think about
how much has transpired in
the last six years, right?
I mean, certainly with
Airbnb, but six years
I mean nobody knew what
an ICO was six years ago.
Jett.com didn't exist six years
ago.
You know a perfect phone call
was really a perfect phone call.
You know, it was, you know,
so much has changed anyway.
But, you know, I wanted to start
off
by you know getting a sense
for, like, you know, what
has the journey been like?
You know, not just since
2014 when you were here
but, you know, sort of
since the start of Airbnb.
I mean, like, you know,
walk us through it.
I mean from the early days
to sort of having become the
world leader in your category.
- [Nathan] It's obviously been
an incredible journey.
I mean, for me, in particular
I remember in that first year
2008
when literally everyone laughed
at us
when we told us what we were
working on.
I remember a m entor of ours
saying,
"I hope that's not the only
thing you're working on, right?"
And, you know, basically
people would say, you know,
"How can you trust a stranger?"
And they thought, well
,you know,even if you could
this is not something they would
do
or that they could imagine
it being a big market.
And so, you know, to fast
forward 12 years
and to see the incredible
scale seven million properties
more than half a billion guests
served
you know, two to four
million guests per night
using the service is
particularly remarkable for me
to think back because you
know that feedback we got
you know, it's still surreal in
my mind.
And then now it's happening
at unimaginable scale.
You know, I mean,
there's a lot I could say
about the experience.
I must say that what's been most
rewarding
about the entire experience
has just been the impact
on real people and hearing
individual stories.
For me being able to travel
the world and you know
we are in 220 countries and
territories
pretty much all of them, 100,000
cities.
So everywhere you go I meet
customers, guests and host.
And I like to ask them, "Tell
me what Airbnb means to you."
So opening the question I
hear all kinds of answers.
And, you know, I'll share
one of those stories.
I mean plenty of stories
are around you know
how someone paid their mortgage
or bootstrapped the company
or something like that.
But once story I really
liked, I was in India
and a couple comes up to me
and they're empty nesters
and they said, you know, "When
my daughter left the house
"and moved away I was very
lonely and I was even depressed.
"And my daughter recommended
to me that I become a host
"on Airbnb to meet people."
She says, you know, "Over
the last couple years
"I've met 300 people from around
the world
"and I call them friends at this
point.
"I stay in touch with them."
And so she says, "I'm not lonely
anymore."
But she says, "I wanna
tell you my favorite story
"about one of my friends."
And she goes on to say
that a couple from Canada
booked to stay with her over
kind of the Christmas period.
And she got really excited
by this and was determined
to throw kind of like a
traditional
kind of Christmas celebration.
Dinner and you know all
the kind of festivities
that she had I guess read about.
And so they do that,
they have a good time.
The next day, the guest says to
the host,
"Do you know what happened last
night?"
And the host is a little bit
confused.
She said, "I think we
had a good time, right?
"It was great celebration."
And the Canadian said, "A Jew
and a Hindu
"celebrated Christmas together."
(audience laughing)
And I love that story because
it just shows how human
we all are all around the world.
That there's a certain interest
in just getting together
at a very human level and
celebrating and understanding.
And it doesn't really matter
really what the occasion is.
And Airbnb has connected so many
people.
So I guess those are
the kind of the moments
that fill me with personally
a lot of satisfaction.
I mean obviously the growth
story has been incredible.
It has also been really
interesting to grow the company
and to so many different
countries
including places like China and
Cuba.
It's been interesting to really
grow our audience segments
and start doing Airbnb for work.
And we now have a luxury segment.
We now have a hotel segment.
I mean, there's all these
new different categories
of consumer and supply that
we have basically grown
into and started to specialize
in.
Where, you know, this has
a humble origin of airbeds.
So, you know, these are things
that I couldn't have imagined
12 years ago.
And then finally, you know,
as we continue to innovate
beyond just accommodation
thinking broadly about travel
we have an experiences product
where we have 40,000 people
around the world who have
something it is
that they're passionate
or knowledgeable about.
Could be cooking, making
dumplings or whatever.
And they offer small scale
experiences.
And they do incredibly well.
And so it's been really fun
for me to be able to continue
to innovate and kinda
create new categories
even after we've created
that, you know, first category
of accommodation so
successfully.
And so yeah the journey
continues.
I still think it's early
days for what's possible.
- Yeah and I love the
story about the connection
because one of the things
that did strike me early on
in the sharing economy was
this quest for connection.
You know, you could connect with
someone
like whether it was in
the backseat of a car
in on bla bla car or
hosting them on Airbnb
sort of in the context of
fulfilling an economic need.
It wasn't like, you know, go
off and connect with people.
But this connection was forming.
And you sort of realize that
people really sort of yearn
for connection this--
- And it's one of the things
that gave us so much
confidence in the early days.
When everyone was telling us,
like, why are you doing this?
And how's it ever gonna work?
The fact that, you know, we
were the original customers
when we hosted three
designers in our apartment
and we had that first hand
experience.
And then the fact that
every subsequent experience
that people had, we were, you
know, always interviewing them
and asking them, what was it
like?
And so we really felt like
we understood something
that nobody else did at the time
and it gave us enough
confidence to persevere.
- Yeah, I'm gonna pause
for a sec actually.
And just I forgot to tell
people about asking questions.
So in about 20 to 30 minutes,
we'll take audience questions.
You can either write the
questions down
on these little cards that
you picked up on your way in.
Or you can go to this
website pigeonhole.at
enter AIRBNBNYU type in your
question.
If you aim your camera at the QR
code
well I guess you guys
know how to use QR codes.
I don't know if I should
give you a lesson on that.
And so like, you know,
keep the questions coming
as we're talking and
we'll sort of get to that
in a few minutes.
So you know, I'm, to me, Nate,
you know,
I think one of the things
that people don't realize
at first glance is how
incredibly complicated
it is to make even the simplest
version
of what you guys have
created work at scale.
You know this is very different
from a digital advertising
company
or from a messaging app
where you've got to convince
strangers to let strangers
into their homes.
You gotta convince strangers to,
you know,
stay in strangers homes.
And, you know, I mean, it's
always seemed to me that
you know, of course, as our
students know
solving a real market
need that is really hard
is part of building like, you
know,
sort of a massively successful
company.
But what do you think
made you guys succeed?
I mean, what did you guys do
right?
- I mean I think from the
earliest days
there's maybe two critical
things
that worked out well for us.
I mean one was the team.
And so there's three of us.
My two partners are
designers I'm an engineer.
And so there's always been this
marriage of art and science.
And I actually think
the art and the design
played a big role in us
cracking the second piece of it
which was the trust, the
innovation around trust.
But one more thing I'll say
about my co-founders is, you
know,
yeah we're each very unique.
If I were to put a couple
words to each of us, you know,
Brian is the bold visionary
that is always thinking 10 X
and like really pushing you
outside your comfort zone
and challenging you, you know,
much to meet the engineer's chagrin.
But ultimately making us achieve
things
that we never thought were
possible.
Joe is, you know, incredibly
empathetic
and, you know, really dives
deep into understanding
the user and the user
experience of journey.
And then, you know, myself as an
engineer
I'm very good at, you know,
breaking down a problem
into a logical set of steps and
priorities
and working through these
things.
And I think, you know, to
start a company requires
so many different skills.
And I think we're so fortunate
to find such a complementary
skill set.
And, you know, sometimes
that actually put us at odds
with each other, right?
Cause we'd have different points
of view
on how to go about doing
something and what was important
and most important.
But we very early on, realized
that if we, you know, debated
our points of view and reached
compromise
that there's that middle ground
was always a better solution
that any one of us
could have come up with.
And so we developed a real,
you know, respect and trust
and approach to, you know,
taking our differences
and turning that into a real
strength.
- That really does seem to be,
you know,
cause we live in an age
where a lot of the stuff
you know, a lot of tech startups
have this sort of, like, you
know,
one sort of bright shining
founder
sort of, like, you know,
Obama sort of like, you know,
who assumes this sort of
greater than life mythical
sort of, like you know, sort
of front to the company.
And like, that
balance that you mentioned
really does seem like you know
a better a better path for--
- Yeah and I'd say
you know, nobody is perfect.
We all have our blind spots.
And I think by having three
founders
with very different
personalities and backgrounds
has helped us to kinda cover all
our bases
avoid blind spots.
So I'd say that's the first
piece.
The second piece is, you
know, innovating around trust.
And you know in the early days
that was really three things.
That was one having what
we call it real profiles
because this was still
in the era of, you know,
frankly MySpace and Craigslist
where you like didn't really
know
who the other person was on the
internet.
You know Facebook had just come
along
and introduced the
concept of like, you know,
real names and real identity.
And so, you know, we put a lot
of emphasis
on building a profile of the
person.
Their picture what do they
do, why are they coming.
Two, handling the payments.
All of the other services
around vacation rentals
at that time were really listing
services classified sites.
And they didn't facilitate
the transaction.
And there was a lot of scams
that would occur as a result.
So we figured if we facilitate
the money
if the guest pays Airbnb
and Airbnb pays the host
and if Airbnb is able to return
the money
if anything goes wrong
that would solve a lot
of common trust issues.
And then the third part was the
reviews
that after each day the
guests will review the host
the host will review the guests
and each party will build
reputation over time.
And that will promote you know
clear kinda expectation setting.
- Yeah.
- And unbiased kind of
perspective on what's being
offered.
So I think, you know, that
was the original innovation.
Obviously, around trust,
we've obviously added
a lot over time, you know,
guarantees and machine learning
and all this stuff that came
later.
But, you know, I think
at the very beginning
the common feedback from
everybody
was, you know, how do
you trust a stranger?
And the original formula is
really those three things.
And I don't think we would have
come up
with those three things and
designed it in the right way
without kind of that design
thinking being applied.
- Okay was it reactive in that
light
with the things that happened
that made you wanna sort of
react
and then change how you did
things?
- Yeah, it was absolutely
an iterative process.
It's not like we came
up with that on day one.
Actually, you know, the funny
story is in earlier iteration
of the site that predates
what you see today
was more like a classified site.
And famously, Brian used
the service to go to Austin
and the host picked him up at
the airport
and had made him dinner
and set the air bed up with
a chocolate on the pillow.
Put a lot of effort.
And so back then it was a
classified site.
We didn't handle the money.
And so at the end of the
night the host asked Brian,
"Do you have the money?"
And Brian said, "Oh,
you know, I didn't go.
"Can I bring to you tomorrow?"
And the host said, "Yeah,
no problem, of course."
So the next night the
host asked Brian again,
"Do you have the money?"
And Brian had forgotten to go to
the ATM.
And suddenly things got really
awkward.
- Sounding like a New York story
here.
- Yeah, I mean, look, we
were Airbedandbreakfast.com
at the time and it was
like this strange concept.
And this guy from the internet
shows up in your living room
and it's like, conveniently
forgetting to pay you.
So it became super awkward.
And well, anyways,
afterwards, we were reflecting
on that experience we thought
how much better would it be
just to handle the money up
front
and have certainty around that
it'd lead
to better hospitality.
So some people think we
have a payment system
because it led to a business
model.
But actually the payment system
was in response to solving
a user experience problem.
It just so happened as a side
effect
created an easy, you know,
monetization mechanism as well.
- Yeah and like, you know,
trust is sort of central
to a lot of the conversation
around platforms.
And I wanna come back to
this sort of a little later
in the conversation.
But, you know, I still
remember the first time
I visited Airbnb back in 2012.
You guys were at still
I think 99 Rhode Island
you still hadn't moved
to your new headquarters.
And, you know, there was
a family tree on the wall
that had like, you know,
pictures of all the employees
and, you know, so there
was, you know, the cereal
the famous cereal boxes and--
- We still have them.
- So there was all of that
startupy stuff.
But, you know, in many
ways, even at that point
you guys felt like a Fortune 500
company.
And it was very different from
every other sharing economy
non sharing economy
startup I was visiting.
There was like, I remember the
discussion
about the foundation that you
would create in the future
about redesigning cities
and this was like, you know,
you were still relatively small.
There was a very adult feel like
you know
sort of none of that move
fast and break things
kind of thing.
It was very much here like, you
know,
we're gonna create
something big and great.
And like, you know, let's behave
like it.
And so I'm wondering where this
maturity and thoughtfulness
came from, like, how did
you guys grow up so fast?
- A couple of things.
One, from the very
beginning, we had this value
that we called every frame
matters.
And frame really referred to
frames
in the user journey experience
and it was actually inspired by
Brian
was reading the, I think,
biography on Walt Disney.
And he read how that to create
Snow White
which is the first feature
length animated film
you know the first film that
was more than say 10 minutes
that was animated.
They had to innovate all this
technology
and ways of doing things.
And one of the things they
came up with was the storyboard
where they like, you know,
put up key frames of the story
and then built out around those
things.
So, you know, we read them
and said, well, we should make
a storyboard for the guest
journey, the host journey
and identify kinda the key
moments.
And then, you know,
make sure we have teams
focused on optimizing those
things.
So like, you know, how do
you first hear about Airbnb
to like what we called the
moment of truth
when you open the door and you
know,
is it what you expected or not?
You know, we basically framed,
identified these key moments
and then, you know, put a team
around it
to think about how to
make those moments better.
I guess that's a long way of
saying every frame matters
you know, really meant think
holistically
about the experience beyond
just what's on the website
but the entire customer journey.
And frankly not just that but
everything about the company.
From the design of the offices.
If you've ever been there,
you know, they're quite unique
and we've actually recreated
listings.
All our conference rooms
are basically listings
from our website that we
recreated
inside the conference room.
So they're all you know quite
interesting,
to the company culture.
I mean, before we even
hired our first employee
we did a month long exercise to
define
what our culture was gonna be.
Because I guess, one, we're
thinking very holistically
about our business and
who we wanted to become.
But we also had this mindset of
like
you know, we are all working
on this under the assumption
it's gonna be successful.
And if we're gonna be successful
and if we're gonna be, you
know, like, Apple or Facebook
or Amazon and I mean those
were wild dreams at the time
but like I guess we always did
something
did this with a seriousness
that, that is a real possibility
and so if that's whom we're
aspiring to be
like what should we be doing
now?
And when doing that, we
also like, often identified
companies who are best at that
thing.
So in the example of
culture, at the time, Zappos
the company that was
later acquired by Amazon
was really famous for having
a unique corporate culture.
And so we went to Zappos
and through our investor
connections got a tour
and learned a lot about how
did they create culture.
And so we were often
thinking like holistically
and then who is best at this one
thing
that we wanna do and trying to
learn
have this kinda growth mindset.
The final thing I'll say is,
you know, we've been tested
quite a lot over the years.
Even from the early days.
You know, particularly
2011 was a tough year
in the sense that, well,
on the positive sides,
we were able to raise a lot of
money.
We raised 100 million dollars
at a $1.3 billion valuation.
But that was also the year that
we faced
extreme competition in Europe
and suddenly had to kind of
really go on the offensive
and open up six offices within
the span of three months
and really hustle in a way
that goes above and beyond
what we were already doing.
I mean we had been taking
a kind of more organic
product focused approach and
suddenly it was about like feet
on the ground in other
countries.
Two, you know, that summer
we had our first major
trust and safety incident
that generated a lot of bad
publicity.
And where we, you know,
there was really a crisis
of confidence around the
company.
And whether you actually
can trust strangers
and how do you do that
responsibly.
And, you know, in response to
that
we stopped everything going on.
And we brainstormed 40
new features related
to trust and safety and built
them in the span of two weeks
using our 200 employees.
And, you know, basically
went above and beyond
what even our critics
were expecting us to do.
And so, you know, I think
through some of these struggles
that were pretty intense at the
time
you know we ultimately
emerged much stronger.
And, you know, has got
us to, I think, you know,
be more thoughtful about these
things.
- Yeah, I mean, I think
that thoughtfulness comes
it sort of seems so
important at this time.
Cause I mean the description
that you gave is so uncommon
among, like, you know,
sort of high tech startups
who will grow to 100 people
before thinking about culture.
And so it's really I didn't
know that about you guys.
And that's a really interesting
sort of lesson in general
for founders about like,
you know, sort of defining
the imprint of what you wanna be
and investing a whole
bunch of time in that
rather than just saying
well growth at all costs.
- Yeah and that value
of every frame matter.
I mean it really kind of came
out of some design thinking.
I think that's right so again,
you know,
some of that early team DNA
caused us to think different
about how we approach problems
think more broadly and you know
ultimately
we then, you know, learned, we
tried to learn from the best
and then apply it to our
business
and struggle through the crises
that arose along the way.
- Yeah well, I mean, it
seems like a natural path
in like, you know, in
sort of retrospect now
from there to, cause I've been
reading about your conception
of the 21st century company.
And I think like, you know,
some of us that's at NYU
and at Stern in particular
have been reading about it
with particular interest.
Because, you know, we've always
placed
sort of multi stakeholder
responsibility
and paying attention to the
social impact of business
at the center of our education
program.
Our undergrads take, like,
four required courses
sort of around this topic
and make it approximately
to Wall Street probably helps,
right?
I mean, but, you know, in many
ways
when I think about the
responsibility of tech platforms
now
it feels like this impact on
stakeholders
other than shareholders,
impact on society, impact
on the world at large
can be bigger and can
be sort of more profound
than the impact banks had or
that the energy companies had
or that the auto
companies had in the past.
So and it's coming at
a time where you know
you guys or you know sort of
other platforms like Facebook
are still so young.
It's not like you're 50 years in
and now you're sort of
thinking about impact.
So what's your conception?
Like, you know, how you taking
all of this
into your conception of
the 21st century company?
I mean what principles are you
basing
your continued growth on?
- Yeah, well, I think
there's really two things
that have drove us to really
formalize
our thinking around this.
One is, you know, every year
for the past at least five, six
years,
as part of like making an annual
plan
we would always write down,
you know, what are the impacts
that we wanna have on the world?
Like long term, like 50 years
from now, 100 years from now.
Like what do we wanna be
remembered for?
And we'd write things like we
wanna create
millions of entrepreneurs
or we wanna create
billions of like friendships
or, you know, things like that.
And you know I think those were
things
that kind of appealed to us
and we thought were good things
and it but it kinda ended there.
And every year we'd kinda
look back at past plans
be like yeah like we still
believe that
but it was really hard to
measure are we making progress
against these impacts that we
wanna have?
So there was kind of that,
that goes back many years.
The second thing that's
happened is you know
I'd say, with respect to tech,
we've been at this for 12 years.
I mean I think back in 2010,
2012,
like tech was a source
of like all things good.
As like, you know, really cool
innovation.
And, you know, folks, we're
doing a lot
being thought leaders in
a lot of different ways.
And, you know, there wasn't
really any negativity
around tech and obviously
that has changed so much.
And you know part of that
I think is as you know
these companies have become
bigger
they intersect with the real
world in much more real ways.
- [Arun] Yeah.
- And you know there are
like any complex ecosystem
many different interactions and
even unintended consequences
and I think that's what
folks are waking up to.
And it's interesting as an
entrepreneur
I mean, I think most
entrepreneurs
are pretty optimistic, right?
And they get into this thinking,
you know,
I'm excited about technology.
I wanna build something
and do something good.
And so I think, you know,
a lot of entrepreneurs
aspire to do good things.
But you know as you
become a bigger company
and you have thousands of
employees,
each with their own goals,
like it's very easy to become
very narrow in your thinking.
and lose sight of maybe some
of the unintended consequences
of what's going on.
So, you know, we've been, you
know,
reading all the same things
you've been reading about
and reflecting on that too.
So, what we've said recently,
is that in our world
we think there's five
stakeholders.
There are guests, there are
hosts, there are employees,
there are the communities
in which we operate
and there's shareholders.
And we feel a duty to serve
the interests of all five.
So we don't exist as a
corporation
just to serve the interests
of the shareholders.
We want to serve all five.
So that's a nice idea.
What does that really mean?
So we took it a step further.
And for each of those
stakeholders
we identified two to three
principles.
Things like, you know, we feel
accountable
to the safety of our guests.
You know we want to promote
diversity
in our workforce, things like
this.
But we didn't stop there.
For each of those principles
we've come up with one to three
metrics
to quantify our progress.
So that very objectively
we can understand each year
are we getting better or not?
And as part of that, two things
happened.
One, you know, we're a
company of 6000 employees.
And so, you know, two
levels down, you know
someone has a goal and they're
very focused on their goal.
And they're maybe not
thinking about all the things
that I might be thinking about.
But how do you empower them
to make the right decision?
The idea is that this is a
framework
that any employee can use
to think about, okay, I have my
goal.
But as I think about solving for
this goal
let's also think about how it
impacts
these other things that
the company has identified.
So it gives them a framework
for thinking about the impacts
they're having in their
decisions.
The second thing is we've
made sure that every team
is doing some work to
drive one of the goals.
And because every team has
signed up for something
all the goals are covered.
And so we expect to be
able to positively move
each of these metrics and
each of these principles
and drive benefit for
all five stakeholders.
So that's kind of the
analytical rigor of it all
which I haven't seen exist
elsewhere.
And then to create
accountability at the board
level
we've created a stakeholder
committee
that will you know, every
quarter
kind of audit the progress
as well as made everyone's
bonus partly contingent
on our meeting, our stakeholder
goals.
And then every year we plan
to have a stakeholder day.
So not just the shareholder
day but a stakeholder day
where you know all five
stakeholders are invited
to participate, we report our
progress,
we listen to concerns, ideas
and really make it a rich
conversation.
So those are some of our ideas
recently
to, you know, recognize
that our long term success
is completely dependent on the
success
of all our stakeholders.
You know in the short term
maybe you can get by
optimizing for shareholders.
But if you wanna build
a long term, you know,
maximally successful company
I strongly believe that
you have to do well
by all the folks in the
ecosystem.
And so, you know, frankly,
I think what's best
for shareholders in the
long term is being mindful
of all the impacts on
all the stakeholders.
And so, you know, I do think
these things ideas reconcile
but it's with a very long term
view.
- I agree completely.
I mean, you've gotta, you
know, like this sort of balance
is really what leads to sort of
success
over a period of decades
rather than sort of looking
at like to quarterly earnings
and it really is a remarkable
vision.
It's the sort of the kinda
capitalism
that we do wanna nurture.
You know, there's been a
discussion about, like, you
know,
are we nurturing the
right kind of capitalism?
And this really does
sound like the right kind
and you know I feel like I know
you guys
well enough as a company to
know it's not just a sound bite
that like, you know,
it's actually it's real.
And it's sort of where
you've been heading.
You know there are trade offs I
guess.
And maybe we'll get to them in
the Q&A
but like, you know,
sort of, like, you know,
how do you balance the interests
of the different stakeholders?
Speaking of the Q&A, I
mean, if you're writing down
your questions of the little
cards
this may be a good
point for the volunteers
to start to collect
some of those questions
so that we can weave them
into the Q&A later on.
So, you know, I wanna
turn to the other piece
of like you know what we decided
to talk about today, right?
I mean, which is the global
leadership.
You know, you guys are
a worldwide phenomenon.
And, you know, your
there's very little doubt
about your global leadership
and it is unique in many ways.
You know cause I can't think
of another tech company
or a tech sort of centered
company
that has this kind of global
footprint
where you've sort of gone in
and won in so many different
countries around the world.
There are always gaps whichever
other company you look at.
And so I mean, like, you
know, my question's simple.
It's like, you know, what do
you think was the confluence
of factors that allowed
Airbnb to actually dominate
in these 220 countries that
you're in?
- I mean, it wasn't always
certain to us
that this would be as
ubiquitous as it is today.
I mean, really, in 2009, for
example,
like 75% of the business was in
New York.
And then you know very
quickly it spread throughout
I would say the Western
Hemisphere
over the next couple of years.
And there's this question, you
know, will work it in Asia?
And eventually it did and
then the next question
was will work in China?
And yes it has we have
a big business in China.
So, it has been, we never
assumed it would work
everywhere.
Although you know very
early on we realized
the power of the model as well.
And I think you know the
realization is that you know
people are, you know,
fundamentally very similar
in terms of, you know, what they
value.
- Yeah.
- People all around the world
wanna travel and experience new
things.
And people around the
world, you know, value
the chance to meet new
people and earn extra income.
And so those basics are true.
I mean, I think we've seen a
lot of things that defer too
but that's more on the
product implementation
versus kind of the core consumer
behavior.
At least, you know, in
our sector of travel.
You know certainly the
global network effect
has been, you know, very
powerful.
- [Arun] Yeah.
- And we understood that,
you know, very early on
some of the trends that we
see, you know, in the beginning
like I said it was in New York.
People from around the
world wanna come to New York,
they were having good experiences,
then they were going back home
to Paris, Berlin, wherever.
And often times the guests
were becoming hosts.
So there was this cross
pollination both globally
but also this conversion
of demand into supply.
And so, you know, starting
a two sided marketplace
was really hard.
But when supply and demand can
start to be interchangeable,
that's actually very powerful.
And when you have that
global network effect.
So, you know, that's what led
to the global cross pollination.
You know, we also did a
lot to understand like
when does a market take off?
When does it reach critical
mass?
When is it functioning
well in the marketplace?
And we had early findings like,
you know,
when there's, once there's 300
properties,
and say 100 properties with
reviews
that's when it becomes
an interesting enough
consumer experience that
the conversion rate goes up.
And so I think very early on
we started to model this
quantifier
so that we could tell
our story to investors
and justify raising
some of those big rounds
early on, yeah.
- Yeah, and I, you know, one of
the things
that always struck me was that,
you know,
you sort of did that
while preserving the...
A lot of platforms grow by sort
of bringing in bulk supply.
And like, okay, like, you know,
let's bring in sort of like,
you know, traditional retailers
on eBay
to sort of like shore up supply
or let's bring in commercial
lenders on a, you know,
a peer to peer lending platform.
And you guys sort of went
down this growth path
while resisting sort of the
temptation
to sort of bring in
like thousands of units
sort of in bulk--
- Yeah and I think
its been very important to
us to continue to invest
in a differentiated product.
And again I don't think the
product
is actually even our website,
like, the website facilitates
everything, but the product is,
you know,
the host, the supply.
And so, you know, we've been
very aware that you know,
as the size the community
grows we want to be diverse
we want to offer different
options.
We don't want it to be all
professional.
That doesn't mean there
can't be professionals
but we wanna make sure that the
core hosts
the small ones are succeeding
too.
You know, another thing, I think
that's been super important
to the growth is, you know,
really taking on more
responsibility as a marketplace
in order to, you know, create
the trust.
I talked about some of
the early innovations.
But over time we've added
things like the million dollar
host guarantee which
covers property damage.
We also have a separate
insurance for you know
any kind of bodily harm.
We have a dedicated trust and
safety team
24/7 seven customer
support and like you know
25 or I forget how many
languages
there are but a lot of
languages.
And so, you know, over
time, we've invested
a lot into really taking
responsibility
for you know everything that's
happening on the platform.
And of course, you know, that's
an impossible feat, okay.
I mean, it's big, there's two
to four million stakes
every night, you can't
possibly control it.
At the same time, you know,
every one of those trips
our brand is on the line.
And, you know, if you're
gonna be successful
and grow to this scale,
like, you have to know
that when Airbnb is a noun and a
verb
and if something goes wrong,
everyone's gonna know about it.
It's gonna be in the headlines
and it's gonna be a big story
and certainly there's been,
there have been those stories
I'm sure you got to see them.
Every one of those stories
for us is a challenge.
A challenge to invest
more into the platform.
And whether it's a safety
issue or regulatory issue
or whatever it may be
thinking about you know
how can we innovate further?
How can we solve this going
forward?
So it's been an iterative
process.
- [Arun] Yeah.
- And we're still learning.
But I think, you know,
over the span of 12 years
we've done a remarkable line
and our kind of global success
and leadership has been a
resultive (mumbles) kinda
mindset.
- And China seems sort of
particularly
striking as well, right?
I know you've personally
sort of led the growth
of Airbnb in China
and, you know, there
aren't too many examples
of large tech companies that
have succeeded in China.
There are plenty of examples
of large tech companies
that haven't and so what's sort
of the key
to your success there?
- Well, you know, we saved China
for last.
Like we focused on Europe and
then Asia and China for last
because we knew China's
was gonna be so difficult.
Everyone was telling us that.
And frankly maybe it seems
surprising in hindsight
but at the time we weren't
sure if we should try China
because everyone was saying,
"You're not gonna succeed.
"You're gonna spend a lot
of years and a lot of money
"only to lose so maybe you
shouldn't try."
Ultimately we decided we have to
try
because our mission is to create
a world
where you can blog anywhere
and if 1.4 billion people
live in China like that's
a really important part
of the mission is to connect
the world in that way.
But we had to have a strategy
that we thought was credible.
And so as part of that exercise
we said, "Well, you know,
what are the competitors
"good at what are we good at?"
So we realized and quickly
agreed that the competitors
will always be able to move
faster
and be willing to spend
more money than you.
So if they can do that, what can
you do
that's gonna cause you to,
you know, be successful?
And so the thing in our business
we identified was, were outbound
travel.
The local companies don't
have a global network.
The local companies can't
offer Chinese travelers
to go abroad.
They can only maybe build
a network domestically
at least first, at first.
However, on day one, we
have that global network
already in place.
So why don't we expand into
China
and just solely focus on that?
Let's not even try to
do the domestic thing.
Let's not even try to go head
to head with any competitors.
- [Arun] Just outbound travel.
- Just outbound travel.
And so that was our approach
and it would took off very well
and we're growing the outbound.
Now we knew because we had
done all this modeling before
and seen how this progressed
in other countries.
That the Chinese travelers would
go abroad
have good experiences come home
and again the guests would
become hosts.
And so organically there'd be
properties appearing in China.
And it'd be increasing awareness
of what Airbnb is and
what home sharing is.
And a domestic market
would eventually spring up.
Even about a large scale
investment.
And indeed that's what's
happening.
Indeed, today, more than two
thirds of the nights booked
by Chinese travelers are
domestic.
Even though we spent a
fraction of the money relative
to our competitors.
And so that's...
- [Arun] Okay.
- That was our strategy.
- Yeah, I mean, there are
close to 100 questions
that have come online.
This is the problem when you
lower transaction costs, right?
But I've got like, you
know, a few former students
emailed me questions that
they wanted to ask you
earlier today and so I've made
a shortlist of three of them.
So I'm gonna ask you all three
of them.
Ones they're short questions
and then we'll sort of go to
questions from the audience
that are physically present.
And, you know, we'll sort of
a mix up the physical world
and the digital, right, I mean.
And so the three questions that
we sort of that my students
sent you were, what's the one
thing
you would have done different
if you had to do it again?
What's the one key piece of
advice
for entrepreneurs out there?
And also one message you
have for entrepreneurs
who wanna succeed.
And I mean these are business
school students after all.
So their third question
was like, you know,
when you guys going public?
(audience laughing)
- Well the third one is very
easy--
- [Arun] What's the inside scoop
you can give us about--
- No sorry on the third one
I can't share any insider scoop
for legal obligations around
that.
So I can't say too much except
to say that
as we've shared publicly
in 2020 we will go public.
We've said that publicly
and I'll confirm that today.
As to the other two questions
I guess something I wish
we'd done differently.
I mean this whole
stakeholder framework I think
I wish we had done sooner.
I think it's super useful
because you know
over the course of the 12 years
I've certainly seen many
examples
where, you know, a team that
it's someone in the company
is trying to maximize their
goal.
Let's say it's, you
know, they're optimizing
the search results and trying
to maximize nights booked.
But as they're doing that
they're not thinking about
you know, are they favoring
some hosts over others?
Are they thinking about quality?
And the, you know, reviews
that are being left
to taking that into account?
Are they thinking about the
diversity
of inventory they're showing
in terms of price point?
There's actually a lot to think
about
when you're particularly
in a marketplace business.
You can't optimize for one goal.
It's very dangerous to
optimize for one goal.
And yet, you know, teams,
particularly engineers,
you know, they really love
to have that like real
quantifiable goal and to
like really knock it out
of the park and you know
use that as the justification
for promotion (laughs).
And so I think this stakeholder
framework
really communicates well
to a large employee base.
Like, look, these are things
that are incredibly important
to us and we're all responsible
for understanding our impact
on these things.
So there's that and I
think the other question
was around, just kind of advice
or tips.
- [Arun] Yeah.
- I mean, there's lots
of things I could say.
I guess one big topic is like
talent.
Like, you know, it takes a
village to build any company.
You know particularly
a successful company.
And so you know it might
start with the founders
but very quickly it
becomes about the team.
And what I'd say about that is,
you know,
one thing we always would tell
managers
is like hire someone better than
yourself.
You always have to be
up leveling your talent.
And you know it's somewhat
of an unnatural thing
for a couple of reasons.
One, you know, typical managers
wanna be the smartest person,
right?
Like and then two, you know,
they might not know what talent
looks like that's, you know,
better than themselves.
They might not have seen it,
frankly.
So related to that what we've
often done
is like learn from the best.
So if you're trying to hire,
you know, a general counsel
or CFO or whatever, you
know, think about, you know,
who are the famous CFOs or
whomever that are out there
and go meet with them.
And ask them you know what is
a good CFO look like and do?
Who do you know?
Who knows maybe they're even
interested.
We've been surprised that
once you start talking
to them about what you're
doing you can engage folks
that you never thought you could
engage.
They would have never said
they were interested in a job
right off the bat.
But once you build that
relationship
you can actually start a reel some
people in
with some capabilities
that you might have thought
were out of reach.
We had the saying from the early
days,
"Just get them up the elevator."
So what we are, one of our
tactics
was just invite them over to
lunch
to tell 'em what we're up to.
Not under the premise of
that you're interviewing
or that you might want a job
just say, "Look, we'd
love to learn from you.
"We'd love to show you our
office do you wanna come over?"
And I would say that most people
would take us up on that offer.
But once they were in the space
and they saw the energy
and they were learning
about what we're doing
you could really start to reel
people in
that you wouldn't otherwise get.
And that's, you know,
those are some strategies
for how we've grown the
team, grown our talent,
which I think is really
important.
As, you know, if you're
in a hyper growth company
you have to constantly
be kind of up leveling
your own skills but also
the skills of the team.
- Yeah that actually
answers one of the questions
that like, you know, came about.
Sort of an early stage hiring,
how do you hire people?
This whoever asked this
question also wanted to know
how do you know when
they're a culture fit?
Like, how do you sort of
make that call early on?
- Well a few different things.
One, like as I mentioned
earlier, we're very deliberate
and explicit about what we
thought our culture was.
And so, since the beginning
we, since the very early days,
we had once in the very
early days the founders
participated in all the
interviews
up until we had 400 employees.
So that was one way to create
consistency of culture.
And then once the founders
weren't able to interview
all day we created what we
called core value interviewers.
Specific people in the
company that were trusted
to have good judgment around the
culture
good understanding of the
culture.
And so besides, you know,
as an engineer interviewing
for your technical interviews
you'd still go through
two core value interviews
that had nothing to do
with you know tacker
or being in finance or
whatever the function might be.
So there was that, you know,
especially in the early days
we would spend time with folks
outside of the interview
process.
Whether it's happy hour
or we used to have recess
back in the day, you know,
you just do something socially
so you see how people behave.
We still do this at the
executive level.
And you know just get them
outside of their context.
Cause you know in the interview
people are often times
like on guard they're trying to
project
a certain sense of self.
We always found that getting
people
in different environments
was also a good way
for them to get a sense for,
you know, what kind of person
are they really?
- Okay, you have a question from
Troy
asking were there times early
on were you when the team
thought about giving up?
And what were the reasons
that you decided to push on?
- There was only really one
time where we almost gave up
and that was at the end of the
first year.
Where we had been unsuccessful
in raising the capital.
And the recession had just
began.
This was the end of 2008.
And it'd been a year and
after trying for a year
you know when do you know
that it's just not a good idea
and it's time to give up?
And you know there was three of
us.
And so no one of us really
wanted to abandon the other two
cause we're all really
dependent on one another.
And we agreed that we would
give it 13 more weeks.
And that over the 13 weeks we
would apply to Y Combinator
which is an accelerator program.
Only 13 weeks long they give
you a small, small amount of money
at least back then now they give
you more.
And it culminated in demo day.
And we thought, okay, if we
can get into this program
then we commit to each other
that will give it 13 more weeks
and we'll be super serious and
regimented.
But at the end of the 13 weeks
if we are not in a materially
better place
we all agree that will be time
to quit.
And it won't be an awkward
conversation
like we'll pre agree.
And so that was the agreement
before entering into Y
Combinator.
And basically for 13 weeks
we really hustled like
we lived together woke up at
eight went to bed at midnight
worked all day, six to seven
days a week.
Only stopped to go to the
gym or buy groceries or cook.
And, you know, things really
turned around
during that period.
So we never had to have
that difficult conversation.
But it really came down to that.
I mean we were basically 13
weeks away
from walking away from it all.
And it was during that
period that you know
we got some advice that
caused us to reflect
about meeting our users
doing things that don't scale
coming to New York,
photographing the properties.
That really started the flywheel
going
and allowed us to show
growth every single week.
At the time we had been making
$200 a week
for the last five months
and nothing we did moved that
number.
And so that's why we're in
such a state of despair.
And our goal over the 13 weeks
was to get to $1,000 a week.
And we ended up getting to $4300
a week
and every week basically showing
progress
and we're then able to raise
money
and never have the awkward
conversation.
- All right and there are
literally
over 100 questions here and--
- [Nate] I'll try to
keep my answers short.
- I'm having trouble
sorting by popularity.
Someone has complained that I'm
not asking
the most popular questions
that I don't know
how to work this--
- Tough questions (mumbles)
- Yeah and well but here's
sort of a simple one
which has many votes from
searching
which is, what's your go to
Airbnb
when you visit New York City?
(audience laughing)
And are you staying there today?
- Yes, I'm staying at an Airbnb.
I mean, I'd say every time
it's a different Airbnb
just cause, you know, you can't
rely
on getting the same one.
Actually the most my trips are
to China
over the last couple years or to
Asia.
So I haven't been coming
to New York that much
probably once a year although I
expect
a lot of trips this year.
- Okay there's another
question from Krishna.
Asking about like, you know,
how do you sort of keep control
over the brand narrative when
so much of the experience
of a guest is sort of relies on
the host?
Like how do you sort of
maintain that brand narrative
and keep it consistent?
- Well I think a lot
of that what the brand
stands for is unique,
authentic experiences.
And so in some ways that really
promotes
you know a wide variety.
I think what we're very
cognizant of is not skewing it
one way or another.
I talked earlier about the
search results
and how there was a
team that was optimizing
for nights booked using machine
learning.
And the result of machine
learning
was like everything was like
$50 a night on the first page
I'm like people are coming to
me saying, "I went to Airbnb
"I didn't see anything
that looked good to me."
I was like how could that be?
And I went to the first page
and I started tapping through
and it's like everything
was like the cheapest
stuff possible and I was as like
wow
no wonder you couldn't
find anything he wanted
like you know he was probably
wanna pay 200 bucks a night
and all the first couple pages
just 50.
And so we have been much more
thoughtful
generally speaking about
making sure that we showcase
all the different kinds of
experiences
you can have on Airbnb.
So Airbnb is not just
about one kinda thing.
There's this, you know,
whole great diversity
which is what makes it special.
- Okay and I'm favoring the
questions
that are sort of little more
personal
and a little less sort of
generic Airbnb challenge issues.
And so there's another question
which is this might be a
difficult one
which is, what is something
that you once valued
that you no longer pay attention
to?
(audience laughing)
- Well, I mean--
- [Arun] You told me to
bring on the tough questions.
- Yeah I mean this is this
practical thing
is like the company's gotten so
big
that you just can't be in
the details of everything.
You have to learn to delegate
let go.
And, you know, I was
originally the only engineer
and originally running
the engineering team.
And so I've had to let go of the
tech side
of things over time.
That was hard, you know,
particularly, you know,
there's certain things that I
would have liked to kept doing
or had eyes on, but at some
point, you have to let go
and just say, you know, as a
co-founder, I always ask myself
what is the intersection
of what's most important
for the company and what
can I do uniquely well?
And that has meant over time
that I do very different things.
And so I had to pivot from,
you know, being the engineer
and doing more technical things
I was able to hire for that.
To, you know, kinda surprise
challenges like running China.
And now we're getting lot more
involved
in our public policy stuff.
So, you know, that makes it
also very interesting for me.
But that would, you know,
be one of the things.
- Okay and there's so here's,
you know,
there are some questions about
sort of the responsibility
of big tech companies more
broadly.
And so, you know, this is a
challenging time for big tech.
And, you know, there's
a lot of public trust
to be placed in tech companies.
And now, there's, you know,
there's a time of pause
I guess, where we're sort of
sitting
and thinking what's next?
So is there anything that you
feel the big tech companies
not just Airbnb, but sort of
like, you know, more broadly,
mean, what should they
be, what are a couple
of the important things
that they need to do
in the next few years to make
sure
that we sort of move down the
right path?
- I think all tech companies
need to lean into these
challenges.
I mean, you just, it's not
sustainable
to say that we're a platform.
And, you know, we can't solve
this
or someone else needs to solve
this.
I think the intersection
between tech and the real world
is just so strong.
That, you know, people are
demanding that, you know,
I think tech companies play a
bigger role
in helping the right thing to
happen.
Now, I'm not saying tech
companies alone
should figure out what's
the right thing to happen
in place of government,
absolutely not.
I think government ideally finds
like what's the common
denominator and defines that.
And it sets those expectations.
You know, on the other hand,
you don't want the government
to over dictate the solution
because that prevents all the
innovation.
So there is a balance there.
I mean, I think ultimately,
you know, the government
has the final say, most
governments, at least our
government
is elected by the people.
So it's the best representation
we have
of what the people want.
And the government will mandate
that
and has the power to do that.
So I think that's inevitable.
And I think that's a good thing
in the sense of serving the
people
and creating a level playing
field.
You know, on the other hand,
look the pendulum swings
back and forth and you know
it's very easy to over correct.
And so, what I'd say is, yes,
you know,
more regulation is inevitable
and probably desirable.
On the other hand, you
know, I would say, you know,
be cautious and encourage tech
companies
to really lean into these
challenges
and start embracing them.
Even if historically one
might be of the mindset
that that's not something they
do.
You know, obviously,
when it comes to like,
free speech and stuff I know
it's like super complicated
topic.
You know, but look, at
Airbnb and you know,
topics of, you know, short
term rental law and enforcement
and topics of housing
affordability.
- [Arun] Yeah.
- You know I think we've come to
the place
where we're very committed
to building the tools
that allow government to
effectively enforce the rules
that they ultimately decide
upon.
And of course, we have a
viewpoint
on like what those rules should
be.
But we recognize that it's
not gonna be one size fits all
that every locality is gonna
come up
with their own version of that.
And that, you know, in the long
term,
it's best for us to make that
work
by providing the technology
that's needed to make that work.
And what we found in
places like San Francisco
where we did this relatively
early on
will say two years ago
is that, you know, once you get
a stable
regulatory framework in place,
you know, the marketplace
can resume growing again.
And all could be well.
And so there is often times,
there's definitely a period
of adjustment, where you take a
hit.
- [Arun] Yeah.
- But that, you know, once
there's a stable set of rules
you know, life goes on, growth
goes on,
and all stakeholders are
generally happier
or at least better aligned.
- [Arun] Yeah.
- So I, you know, that's I
think applies to everybody
but a little bit about our
specific journey on this matter.
- Yeah and it's complicated,
because, you know,
defect to a lot of things that,
you know,
traditionally you would
go to the government
to get to the side platforms
sort of a force to take on
cause there's a market failure
there's a problem that needs to
be solved
and you need to come up with a
solution
and you can't wait for the
regulation to catch up.
And so I think that balance
between platforms and
governments
and them sort of working
synergistically--
- I'll give you one more
just like really real example
to make it super tangible.
Like, there's this issue
of hotel tax, right?
So most hotels, at least in
North America,
there's a hotel tax
that applies, you know,
anywhere from five to 15%
generally
at the local level.
So, you know, very earlier
on, there's this question,
like if you're renting
out a room in your home
should that be...
Should that have to pay hotel
tax or not?
Is that like a hotel, more like
a hotel
or is that more like, you
know, not like a hotel?
And so I think, you know, very
early on
we decided that, look,
you know, there is a case
to be made that if you're
doing this on a part-time basis
then it's your extra bedroom
you should have to pay hotel
tax.
On the other hand, look, you're
gonna get a lot of pushback
if you're kind of fighting
what looks like an obligation
or looks like something
that's not your best interest.
So we embraced it earlier on.
We made an open commitment
around the globe
to say that whatever
the local hotel tax be
we're committed to playing
by those same rules
in creating the technology
to effectively collect and remit
it.
Because again, it is the
responsibility of the host
to pay this tax.
The reality is a lot of
ordinary people, casual,
they don't know how to
do the tax paperwork.
They're not sophisticated
enough to do that.
But we platformatized it
and over the last few years
we've collected $2 billion in
hotel tax
that we've collected remitted
to local governments.
It's covered 75% of the US
and we continue to grow it.
And so, you know, these are the
kinds of practical decisions
where, you know, you can
go one way or another.
And I think we've often, you
know,
had this stakeholder mindset
of like, you know, let's
create value for all parties.
Let's not try to say
that we're somehow exempt
from the rules just
because we're a platform
and technically the
responsibility
lies with the hosts.
- Yeah, but in many ways,
you also need governments
who will sort of open up their
minds
and realize that maybe
some of what I used to do
can now be done reliably by
the platform and we can sort of
give them the responsibility--
- Well and in this case
like often times we can't
collect tax
unless the government gives
us permission to collect tax.
And so, you know, we've
done this in so many places
but here in New York, you
know, due to political reasons
we have not been given the
permission to collect the tax
and so $100 million goes
uncollected every year
because of politics.
- Yeah, well, so I'm gonna
end with one question.
- We'll keep it simple.
- I mean we're pretty much
out of time, but there was
a question that came online
and offline and it's, you know,
it has,
it's not Airbnb specific.
And this is about, like, you
know, what are some books
that have influenced
you sort of particularly
or like are there any particular
books that you've read
that, you know, sort of have
had a big impact on your life?
I know that there's this 500
page--
- [Nate] 500 page programming
book.
- Yes, that you read when you
were 12 years old, but yeah.
- Oh, geez, what's it called?
Well one book I really like
around entrepreneurship
and thinking about business
ideas is Peter Thiel's
"Zero to One" book.
I think it's really good
about you know making sure
that as an entrepreneur
and you're identifying
opportunities
you're not going to
incrementalism.
And doing something slightly
better that you know
you really find ideas
that are almost completely
unbelievable
in terms of like will they work?
And certainly Airbnb is
one of those examples
where everyone thought we're
nuts.
And he talks about how those
are some of, ends up being
some of the biggest companies.
So you know that one
always resonated with me
in terms of how to think
about opportunities.
Man, there's another one
that I really (mumbles)
It's like the five something of
a team.
- [Female Member] Five
Dysfunctions--
- "Five Dysfunctions of a Team"
right?
That's a great book.
You know especially as we
were growing the company.
You know there was a lot of
questions
about how do you create that
alignment
that shared that trust
shared vision of success,
accountability and that
book was a great template.
- [Arun] Okay.
- "Five Dysfunctions of a Team."
- Right there so many other
questions
on so many different topics.
We're gonna have to have you
come back
and do another one of these
at some point and--
- Yeah my pleasure.
Thank you guys for coming out
tonight
and being so interested in--
(audience applauding)
- [Arun] So we do have a gift
for you.
Since you're a successful
tech entrepreneur
we bought you a hoodie.
So we..
- It's good because this is not
my usual uniform.
- Yeah and so this
an NYU Stern hoodie for you.
- Oh, guys, thank you
I will represent.
- Yeah, and it's, you know Nate
it has been a real pleasure
watching Airbnb grow
over the last few years.
I mean, I think, you know,
you're one of the startups
that really sort of creates a
template
for like, you know, what
a responsible successful
startup should be.
So I hope next eight years
are as good as the first
like, you know, 10 have been.
- [Nate] Thank you Arun.
(audience applauding)
(soft upbeat music)
.
