Airbnb has completely changed the way we travel, and even the concept of ownership itself. Very few companies have had the economic success and cultural impact that this startup has had. And yet, as we all know, it almost failed on multiple occasions. Many, many times. Let's look at Airbnb's story, break it down, and see what we can learn. On this workshop, Balthazar will take the startup's full story, the stuff you might not have heard before, and see what lessons we can learn.

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CASE STUDY: AIRBNB
BALTHAZAR DE LAVERGNE

2. AN EASY RIDE ?
✓ Built the wrong product first
✓ Almost died before P/M Fit
✓ Feared competition & regulation

3. ADVICES ARE NOT
GENERIC
MINDSET IS
✓ Location, team, industry
✓ Before - After P/M Fit
✓ Create a market - Conquer a market

4. AN UNUSUAL TEAM
✓ 2 DESIGNERS THAT MOVE TO SF
✓ NO DESIRE TO START A COMPANY
✓ NO TECH

5. MEETING A PROBLEM
✓ Paying their own rent
✓ Designer conference in SF
✓ Creating airbedandbreakfast.com
Airbedand breakfast screenshot

6. AND DOING A COMMON
MISTAKE
✓ They became friends with their hosts
✓ So they created a Roommate app

7. THE ACTUAL IDEA
LOOKED (WAY) TOO
BAD

8. LAUNCH 3 TIMES
✓ SXSW
✓ No one sees you, launch again :)
✓ Built an actual MVP in the process

9. MVP
✓ 3 clics away
✓ Including payment

10. REAL CLIENTS
✓ Not at conferences anymore
✓ City by City approach

11. GO FOR FUNDING
✓ 150k at 1.5M pre
✓ No deck
✓ 8 intros, 2 meetings
✓ Techcrunch article
✓ Website down

12. NO GO

13. CREATE A MARKET
✓ It takes time
✓ You need the right team
✓ You need to cross the chasm
✓ You’re not all like this

14. BECOME A
COCKROACH
✓ It’s a NEW market
✓ So be creative

15. AND SELL
CEREALS !!

16. THAT KIND OF
ATTITUDE GETS
YOU TO YC
✓ People, People, People
✓ They get full time

17. 100 FANS
✓ More difficult than 1M likes
✓ They are going to craft the all
experience
✓ First users are even more important in a
marketplace

18. MEETING
EVERYONE
✓ What works ? Photos
✓ Why do they host on Airbnb ? Money

19. MAKE THEM EARN
GOOD MONEY
✓ Banks
✓ Promote best listings

20. THINGS THAT
DON’T SCALE
✓ Photos
✓ Founder did it himself
✓ —> 8k photographs

21. GO RAISE MONEY
✓ But difficult times ..
✓ So they became Ramen profitable
✓ 600k from Sequoia

22. “One of the startups from the batch that just started, AirbedAndBreakfast, is in
NYC right now meeting their users. (NYC is their biggest market.) I'd recommend
meeting them if your schedule allows.
I'd been thinking to myself that though these guys were going to do really well, I
should introduce them to angels, because VCs would never go for it. But then I
thought maybe I should give you more credit. You'll certainly like meeting them.
Be sure to ask about how they funded themselves with breakfast cereal.
There's no reason this couldn't be as big as Ebay. And this team is the right one
to do it.”

23. “It's also counter-cyclical. They just arrived back from NYC, and when I asked
them what was the most significant thing they'd observed, it was how many of
their users actually needed to do these rentals to pay their rents.”

24. “This is after only a few months. I bet you they will get hotels eventually. It will
start with small ones. Just wait till all the 10-room pensiones in Rome discover
this site. And once it spreads to hotels, where is the point (in size of chain) at
which it stops? Once something becomes a big marketplace, you ignore it at your
peril.”

25. EXPAND TO MORE
CITIES
✓ Conversion: Craigslist hack
✓ Acquisition: PR, Word of mouth
✓ No Adwords, that’s after P/M fit

26. :BE YOUR STARTUP
✓ Travel to every city
✓ Onboarding meetups
✓ Lived one year in a Airbnb

27. RAISE 7M TO SCALE

28. ◊FEAR COMPETITION
✓ After P/M Fit
✓ It’s always future competition when you create a
market
✓ Rocket Internet launched Wimdu

29. GO EVEN FASTER TO
EUROPE
✓ Scaled to 10 offices in 3months
✓ Dramatically changed the company in 1 year

30. GOVERNMENTS
✓ NYC law in 2010
✓ Won in court
✓ Don’t prepare for this

31. ATTENTION TO DETAILS
✓ The 7 star experience
✓ The superhost program
✓ The office
✓ The design
✓ The daily email

32. STAY FOCUS
✓ They could have diversified and didn’t: why ?
✓ Will now be the issue to sustain growth

33. TIME HORIZON
✓ Before P/M fit you need to survive —> Week
✓ After you get a plan —> Month / year
✓ Never think 10 years from now until you’re rock solid

34. BUILD TRUST
✓ Actionable rating
✓ Curated content
✓ Focus on supply
✓ Best Customer Support EVER

35. INSURANCE ?
✓ Wait if you can
✓ Airbnb PR crisis

36. AND THEIR FUTURE ?
✓ 52% of americans never heard of Airbnb
✓ “20% of our business are now stays longer than 30
days”

38. THANK YOU !