6 Lessons from Airbnb’s Rise to $80 Billion

you know we all have that one crazy idea with the potential to turn us into billionaires but more often than not though it stays just that an idea it's easy to look at billion-dollar companies and assume the founders had some magical Stroke of Luck but listen Okay the truth is that the only difference between a dreamer and a billionaire is the ability to make their crazy ideas real but you can do this too in this video we're diving into the lessons every entrepreneur needs to know to turn their vision into reality and since there's no

better shortcut to achieving your goals than learning from those who've already made it we'll dive into the story of Airbnb a company that took an idea most people laughed at and built A1 100 billion Empire welcome to alux the place where future billionaires come to get inspired lesson one start small and solve real problems okay so most people believe that billion dooll ideas come from some brilliant flash of inspiration or some complex technological innovation only Geniuses can come up with sure that happens sometimes but more often than not those ideas come from something much simpler

solving a problem that's right in front of you and that's exactly how Airbnb started out in 2007 Brian chesky and Joe gbia they weren't seasoned entrepreneurs they didn't have millions in funding or a groundbreaking vision and in fact they weren't even thinking about starting a business they were there were just two regular guys in San Francisco who wanted to avoid getting thrown out of their apartment rent was due and money was tight so they had to get creative it just so happened that a major design conference was coming to town and all of the hotels

were booked solid well that gave Brian and Joe an idea hundreds of people were coming to town for this conference so what if they rented out their living room to those who couldn't find a hotel they didn't have any extra bedrooms but they did have a few air mattresses lying around and they weren't Michelin star chefs but what the hell they could scramble an egg so Brian and Joe turned their apartment into a temporary air bed and breakfast offering guests a place to sleep and a simple breakfast in the morning it wasn't glamorous but it

worked and they were able to make rent however Brian and Joe realized their solution wasn't unique to them if this worked in their trashy little apartment just imagine how many other people might be searching for affordable alternative places to stay while traveling and that's how the seed of the idea for Airbnb was born almost by accident but here's the thing okay big ideas often start really small they don't require groundbreaking technology or massive resources the key is identifying a problem that's personal and real because if it's real to you it's probably real for others too

as an entrepreneur every problem is an opportunity so think about your own life what's the one problem you've been facing what are some creative ways that you could solve it instead of waiting for someone else ask yourself what if I'm the one who creates the solution that's how billion dooll ideas are born my friend by doing what you can with what you have where you are lesson two don't take no as an answer now when you've got your billion dooll idea it's kind of easy to imagine investors tripping over themselves trying to get in on

the action well that would make for a great fairy tale but in the real world even the best ideas are met with rejection after their initial air bed and breakfast concept proofed people were willing to stay in a stranger's home Brian and Joe began building out their platform and came face to face with a problem they needed money to make it work to raise funding they pitched their idea to investors but over and over again their response was the same no investors thought that Brian and Joe's idea was not only unscalable but just plain ridiculous

strangers staying in each other's homes on air mattresses who's going to do that well now here's where most people would have looked at the idea for Airbnb and moved on after all so many smart people are saying it's downright stupid and maybe they're right maybe their idea isn't worth pursuing but Brian and Joe didn't stop now instead of of giving up they leaned into that feedback they started asking themselves what are people really looking for when they travel how can we make this idea bigger more practical and more appealing and that's how slowly but surely

the concept for Airbnb evolved from just renting out air mattresses to offering rooms and even entire Apartments it wasn't a grand pivot it was just an adjustment based on what people actually wanted Brian and Joe's willingness to listen learn and adapt is what really laid the foundation for airbnb's Success remember rejection isn't the end of your business idea most people treat feedback as criticism but successful entrepreneurs use it as a compass in this case no doesn't mean stop it simply means improve what if you took rejection and learn from it to refine your approach What

If instead of being discouraged you ask yourself how can I be better and if that's a question you truly want to answer then the Alx app was made just for you let's face it okay reaching your goals isn't about dreaming big it's about taking action and staying consistent every single day with the Alo app you can track your progress on literally every aspect of your life from your finances to relationships Fitness and even intellectual growth every day you'll unlock personalized lessons and actionable strategies tailored to help you overcome obstacles and stay on track with your

goals and the best part is we've got expert courses that cover everything you need to know about building and scaling a business if you're serious about applying the lessons from this video you'll find everything you need inside hundreds of thousands of successful entrepreneurs and professionals have made the alux app a Cornerstone of their daily routines and the reason is simple it works think of it as a coach in your pocket helping you to become the best version of yourself every day and since you're here with us we want to offer you an exclusive chance to

get 25% off your yearly subscription when you download the app and then sign up by scanning the QR code on screen if there's one thing you'll never regret it's investing in your education and now is your chance scan the QR code on screen and take the first step toward leveling up your life and now let's get back to Airbnb because you definitely won't expect what's coming up next lesson three think outside the box literally now it's tempting to think of a successful entrepreneur as some Visionary with endless resources and connections but the truth is what

makes a great entrepreneur great isn't their resources it's their resourcefulness and that means finding Solutions in the most unexpected places at this point you might think the founders of Airbnb were on the verge of a breakthrough after all they had a solid idea and they were pitching it tirelessly to investors but sadly no one was biting and their bank accounts were running dangerously low to put it plainly Airbnb was weeks away from collapse Brian and Joe could have decided it was time to cut their losses but instead they did something completely unexpected they sold cereal

yeah that's right cereal it was 2008 and the US presidential election was in full swing Brian and Joe came up with a quirky idea to create limited edition serial boxes Obama O's and CPP McCain themed after the two candidates they designed the boxes printed them and sold them as collector's items for 40 bucks each Brian and Joe thought creatively here just like when they rented out their apartment they found an unconventional solution to their immediate problem this time it was definitely a weird move but they managed to sell $30,000 worth of cereal which kept the

business alive just a bit longer even better the serial boxes grabbed headlines and made thousands of people curious about Airbnb that kind of media attention was priceless for Airbnb because it finally helped them land an investor now was their chance to become huge when faced with the imminent failure of their business most people would either double down on their original plan or give up on it entirely but sometimes thinking outside the box literally can unlock opportunities you never even expected when you hit a roadblock on your path to success don't be afraid to explore unconventional

paths you have to do do whatever it takes to keep your dream alive Lesson Four trust is everything when you're trying to disrupt an industry it's easy to focus on growth and assume the rest will just work itself out but one deadly mistake so many entrepreneurs make is forgetting how important trust is in a business for Airbnb trust wasn't just a challenge it was a full-blown crisis think about it the idea of staying the night in someone else 's home and especially the idea of letting some stranger into yours is pretty out there when Brian

and Joe began seriously scaling Airbnb they got a lot of push back from people worried about theft damage and personal safety but this wasn't just coming from customers entire cities and Regulators were raising red flags landlords were objecting and the media was questioning whether the platform could ever be safe enough to succeed for most startups this kind of push back would have spelled disaster but at Airbnb Brian and Joe recognized that these weren't just random issues they all stemmed from the underlying issue of trust so they made one of their most important decisions everything about

Airbnb would be designed to build trust between users hosts and the platform for people to do something as radical as letting a stranger into their homes they had to know for sure they were safe so Airbnb implemented user reviews for both hosts and guests allowing everyone to see exactly who they were dealing with before committing they built a robust customer support system to handle disputes quickly and fairly and they even went as far as introducing a $1 million insurance policy to protect hosts from property damage this was huge for Airbnb and it's for a simple

reason people don't Embrace what they don't trust if you're willing to face people's concerns head on and solve them honestly and transparently well you can turn doubt into confidence and confidence into growth so think about your own goals for a moment what are the trust barriers holding you back it could be earning your customers or your Investor's confidence or even your own either way building trust isn't optional it is everything lesson five to win big help others win big now most people assume that once you've created a great product and you've got people using it

you've won but success doesn't end with building the product now it is your responsibility to make sure the people who use it succeed because if they fail you fail airbnb's Founders learned this lesson the hard way after launching their platform they noticed that many hosts who listed their properties weren't getting any bookings to potential users it looked like Airbnb didn't deliver results but when Brian and Joe dug deeper they realized the issue wasn't with their platform it was actually the host's fault they were uploading lowquality polet photos of their spaces which made even great properties

look unappealing this wasn't airbnb's fault but Brian and Joe understood that it was their responsibility if their hosts couldn't succeed Airbnb couldn't succeed either so they took things into their own hands Brian and Joe began visiting hosts personally and even hired professional photographers to take highquality photos of their spaces it was an unconventional move for a tech startup but this small detail made a massive difference better photos led to more bookings which led to happier hosts who were more likely to stay on the platform and recommend it to others it was a ripple effect which

strengthened airbnb's reputation and accelerated their growth what you should learn from this is that sometimes even if a problem isn't your fault you still have the power and the responsibility to solve it because successful businesses create systems where it's effortless for their customers to thrive so think about it who are the people you serve what's holding them back from getting the best possible results and how do you help them succeed at the end of the day the more you help others the more you win and lesson six the power of network Arch effects okay so

a lot has changed now from the early days of Airbnb but at the time there was certainly no shortage of sites doing similar things so why is it today that Airbnb is the go-to website for booking a place to stay well you might think Airbnb had better marketing a better product or a better team and yes those are all indispensable parts of a business but the other sites had those things as well what truly let Airbnb grow faster than any other site was something far more powerful you see when Airbnb started it faced the classic

problem of the Chicken and the Egg Travelers didn't want to use Airbnb because there weren't enough listings and hosts didn't want to list their properties because there weren't enough Travelers booking and that could have killed Airbnb from the very start but Brian and Joe tackled the problem head-on building value for both sides of their Network at the same time for travelers they made the experience seamless and personal offering unique stays that were more affordable and interesting than traditional hotels for hosts they showed how listing on Airbnb could turn unused rooms or properties into reliable sources

of income as more Travelers joined Airbnb hosts began to see their listings fill up encouraging more people to list their properties and as more hosts signed up Travelers had more options which brought even more users to the platform suddenly their chicken and egg problem have become a powerful Snowball Effect the more people who joined Airbnb the more valuable it became for everyone involved which makes even more people want to join which makes it even more valuable this self-reinforcing cycle is called a network effect and it's the single most important reason why Airbnb is the top

dog in online Hospitality worth over 80 billion dollar the most successful businesses grow exponentially because they build systems where growth feeds on itself if you're working on your own project think about how you can create systems where growth compounds on itself maybe it's fostering a community connecting customers with each other or creating shared value that grows with each user and that's it for today alexer let's hope you learned something here but remember these lessons only help if you put them into action your first step is downloading the AO app writing down your goals and we'll

give you everything you need to reach them education is the foundation of your dream life so go ahead invest in it just scan the QR code on screen to get 25% off your yearly plan and we'll see you on the inside we'll see you back here next time axer until then take care my friend