My Age of Investment

   Chapter 1272 Airbnb

   "You are... you are... Daeron Xia?"

   The white guy who recognized Xia Jingxing was very excited, he didn't even pick up the flyers on the ground, and stared at Xia Jingxing from head to toe, as if he was verifying his identity.

"you know me?"

  Xia Jingxing was a little surprised because he finally met someone who was not blind.

  Although he is well-known in the United States, there are generally not many white people who can recognize his face when walking on the street.

   The white guy nodded towards Xia Jingxing, and then greeted his two companions incoherently.

   "Joe, Nathan, we've got a big shot! Darren, Darren!"

   The other two white guys looked stunned, and didn't seem to remember who they were for a while.

   "Daren Xia, the founder of Facebook, the fourth richest person in the world, the one with a net worth of $30 billion!"

   Hearing this, the two white guys finally reacted, and even their gazes towards Xia Jingxing changed.

  Xia Jingxing looked at the three young men who were almost petrified into a statue, and raised the flyer in his hand, "Man, are you employees of this company? Your company's services are quite interesting."

The young white guy who was the first to recognize Xia Jingxing was very adaptable, he immediately went down the hill, handed out his hand to Xia Jingxing and said, "Daren, it's nice to meet you, I'm Brian, the founder and CEO of Airbnb. Chesky."

   The corner of Xia Jingxing’s mouth twitched slightly. He asked Ricky Milner, the head of the Silicon Valley Office of Vision Capital, to look for this company for a long time, but there was no news.

   It’s really good fortune that can’t be stopped.

  Xia Jingxing shook hands with Brian Chesky, and then met his two partners.

   The guy who got knocked down by Pete was named Nathan Blechaczyk, the CTO of Airbnb.

   Another white guy with a camera on his chest, named Joe Gibbia, is the COO and chief designer of Airbnb.

  Xia Jingxing joked: "The three executives of the company have all gone out. Did you get any big business?"

  Joe Gibbia held up the camera on his chest and explained, “We’re here to take free room photos of the landlord of this apartment building, and then we’ll upload those photos on Airbnb.

  If someone browses the photos on the website and finds one of the houses, they can book a room through our website, and then find a door to check in offline.

  With our help, landlords can rent out spare rooms through the Internet and earn an extra income, which is still very attractive in the current recession;

   And bookers staying in apartments and homestays can pay less than the high room rates for staying in hotels;

   Airbnb, as a transaction matchmaker, can draw a commission from each transaction. "

  Gibia is very smart, taking the opportunity to answer questions, he briefly introduced Airbnb’s business model to Xia Jingxing.

  Since I met such a thick thigh, I have to try to hug it.

  Xia Jingxing nodded lightly. From the description of the other party, he basically understood the development stage of Airbnb. The website and business model should have already taken shape.

   "Would you like to have a cup of coffee together, I'm very interested in your website.

   In addition, I own a rental company. If your business model can impress me, maybe we can try to cooperate. "

   As soon as Xia Jingxing finished speaking, the three of them nodded hurriedly.

   This kind of opportunity for a pie in the sky will be rejected by a fool.

   However, they were still a little apprehensive, because they didn't know what this famous Internet tycoon and financial tycoon really liked about their company.

  Just like this, the three founders of Airbnb followed Xia Jingxing and his party to a nearby coffee shop.

   ordered a few cups of coffee, and everyone sat around a table and chatted.

   Ivanka and the dog basically didn't interrupt, and Xia Jingxing was chatting with the three of them the whole time.

   "Can you give me a comprehensive introduction to Airbnb's entrepreneurial process and some of your plans for the future of the company?"

  Xia Jingxing crossed Erlang's legs and took a sip from the coffee on the table.

Brian, the CEO of Airbnb, immediately introduced: "Joe and I both graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design, and we came to San Francisco right after graduating from college, but it didn't go well, and we couldn't even pay the rent. .

   It was the fall of 2007, and there was a designer conference held in San Francisco. The hotel room was in short supply, and many designers complained on the Internet that they could not get a room.

After Joe saw the news, he immediately thought of an idea to make extra money. He arranged our apartment into a bed and breakfast B&B, and provided the designers with wireless internet, small work desks, and air beds during the four-day conference. There is also breakfast.

   After thinking of this idea, we did what we said, put 3 inflatable beds in the room, and after a simple arrangement, we began to "pick up guests".

   As a result, three people came to rent the house, and each paid us $80 for the room. This total of $240 was our first pot of gold.

   We originally just wanted to make some extra money to pay the rent, but unexpectedly discovered that the "online short-term rental" market is bred with endless business opportunities.

  So we came up with the idea of ​​starting a business, and then joined Nathan Blechaczyk, who was an engineer.

  In the summer of 2008, the three of us worked together to develop a website called AirbedandBreakfast, which mainly provides an online trading platform for hosts and travelers. "

   Hearing this, Xia Jingxing suddenly realized that it was because he had misremembered and blamed that he could not find any trace of this super unicorn.

   He remembered now that this online short-term rental website was launched for more than half a year before changing its name to Airbnb. The previous domain name was very long, difficult to remember, and not conducive to rapid dissemination.

  Xia Jingxing continued to ask: "Then your website has been online for almost half a year. How is the daily order income now?"

   Brian smiled, "In the last week, our website generated a total of $4,500 in commission revenue.

   Although this number is not much, it is barely enough to support our team.

   Our company almost went bankrupt half a year ago. "

  Xia Jingxing was interested and asked, "Closed? What's going on?"

  Bryan smiled and began to expose his family scandal: "After our website was launched, we once sent a business plan to 15 angel investors, hoping to raise US$150,000 at a valuation of US$1.5 million.

   As a result, seven people didn’t get back to us, and eight others turned us down for various reasons, saying it was the worst startup idea they’d ever heard. "

Ivanka on the side of    couldn't bear it any longer, and burst out laughing.

   In this regard, Brian didn't feel embarrassed, but shrugged his shoulders very relieved, "I admit, our entrepreneurial idea does not look so sexy, and even a bit low-level.

   But I think online short-term rental is a very big market, and no one is cultivating it.

   The popular "sofa guest" model in the past has always had various security risks and deficiencies.

   Airbnb’s goal is to replace them and provide users with a better and safer place to stay. "

   Ivanka asked with a smile: "No investors are willing to invest in you, so how did you persist until now?"

  Bryan pointed to the two companions beside him, "The three of us overdrafted our credit cards together, just in time for the US election when our limit was about to be overdrawn."

   Speaking of this, Brian's eyes shone with splendid light, and his whole body swept away the decadence just now, and suddenly became a lot more energetic.

   "Didn't Joe and I learn design? So we used what we learned to start a business for extra money again.

   For the general election, we have designed two cereals with the theme of the election-Aoguanhai flavor and McCain flavor.

   Each box of cereal is priced at $40, and once it was launched, it was favored by many voters.

  In the end, we sold a total of 1,000 boxes of cereal, netting a net profit of $30,000 after deducting various costs. "

  Xia Jingxing laughed, "The profit margin of your business is good! In fact, Facebook also made extra money in the early years. We used to sell T-shirts."

  Brian gave a little flattery, "But you guys are better than us, and while making money, you're still advertising!

   At the time, Joe and I were still in college. Like many of our classmates, we once purchased your Facebook branded T-shirts through Amazon, one for $9.9, three for $19.9, five for $29.9, ten for $49.9…

  Joe and I bought ten T-shirts each on an impulse. We haven't finished wearing them yet, and kept them at home as souvenirs. "

   Hearing the words, Xia Jingxing and the dog looked at each other and both understood each other's eyes. I didn't expect to encounter chives, oh, no, it should be iron powder.

After Bryan revealed that he had bought a Facebook T-shirt, he suddenly shortened the distance between them. Even the puppy couldn't help but join the discussion and asked Bryan a few things about Airbnb. and gave some suggestions of his own.

   (end of this chapter)