Brian Chesky
Rhode Island School of Design · Airbnb
Three Air Mattresses and a Dream: The Airbnb Origin Story
25 March 2026
Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia met at RISD studying industrial design. After graduating, they couldn't pay rent in San Francisco — so when a conference filled all hotels, they bought three air mattresses and charged $80/night.
Cereal Box Funding
Seven investors rejected them. To survive, they sold custom cereal boxes during the 2008 election for about $30,000. Their acceptance into Y Combinator in 2009 was the turning point.
Building the Platform
Paul Graham said the idea sounded "terrible" but was impressed by their resilience. Sequoia Capital led a $600K seed round shortly after.
$100 Billion IPO
Airbnb went public in December 2020 at over $100 billion. Over 7 million listings now exist across 100,000+ cities — all from three air mattresses and a design school friendship.
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