Airbnb is worth $70 billion
when i worked there i learned how it almost failed
here’s the story of how it was saved by cereal:
in 2008 a young Airbnb was in need of cash
on an NPR podcast, co-founder @jgebbia said:
“You know those binders where you keep baseball cards? I had one of those except there weren’t baseball cards in it, they were credit cards.”
as designers, gebbia and ceo @bchesky both understood the power of novelty
2008 was a presidential election year
they came up with a crazy idea:
they'd make money by selling themed cereal
Obama O’s and Cap’n McCains
they designed the boxes, ordered 500 of each design, and filled them with Cheerios and Cap'n Crunch
total cost per box: ~$5
they priced them at $40 each
even more genius?
they took the boxes to the democratic national convention in denver
they marketed them as exclusive, limited-edition products
people loved them
katy perry and other celebs bought boxes
the boxes got coverage on CNBC
and in a week they sold $30,000 worth of cereal.
the money was enough to pay off the credit card debt and keep Airbnb alive
when they got a YC interview soon after, YC was on the fence
but paul graham loved their ingenuity and hustle. he said:
“we want cockroaches, and you are cockroaches, you will not die. you’re selling cereal boxes for god’s sake.”
airbnb joined YC's next batch
i was a product manager at Airbnb before founding @launchhouse
the company highly values creativity and thinking outside of the box
case in point?
one of our cultural values was to "be a cereal entrepreneur.”
if you're interested in growing your startup then apply to @launchhouse
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- fundraising support
- and more
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launchhouse.com
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tldr:
in 2008, airbnb had no cash
the founders sold custom cereal boxes called Obama O’s and Cap’n McCains to keep the company alive
this got them into Y Combinator
they keep this spirit alive with the cultural value "be a cereal entrepreneur"