Brian Joseph Chesky (Brian Joseph Chesky) is an American Internet entrepreneur, one of the founders and CEO of the Airbnb online platform. In 2014, Brian Chesky made the list of billionaires according to Forbes: in April, his 15% stake in Airbnb was estimated at $1.5 billion.
Place of Birth. Education. Brian Chesky was born on August 29, 1981 in Niskakun, New York. He is the son of Deborah and Robert H. Chesky. His father is of Polish descent and his mother is of Italian descent. Chesky's parents were social workers. He has a younger sister, Alison. As a child, Chesky was interested in art, drawing replicas of paintings and designing shoes and toys. He later became interested in landscape architecture and design.
In 1999, Chesky began attending a design school in Rhode Island. In 2004, he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Industrial Design. While at RISD, Chesky met Joe Gebbia, who would later co-found Airbnb.
Business. After college, Chesky worked as an industrial designer and strategist for 3DID, Inc. engaged in the development of 3D-products for business in Los Angeles. He later moved to San Francisco where he rented a room next door to his classmate Joe Gebbia. The Airbnb idea was born by friends as an option to earn some money to pay rent. In October 2007, the Industrial Designers Society of America held a conference in San Francisco and all hotel rooms were booked. Therefore, they came up with the idea of renting out beds on air mattresses on the floor, along with this, they offered breakfast to customers. They bought three airbeds and marketed the idea as "Airbed and Breakfast". The service was aimed at those people who could not afford hotel accommodation.
Subsequently, the founders of the company were joined by the programmer Nathan Blecharczyk, who already in August 2008 launched the website airbedandbreakfast.com. In February 2008, three start-up entrepreneurs registered the website Airbedandbreakfast.com, which was later renamed Airbnb. Each co-founder took on a role in the new company. Joe Gebbia became Director of Projects, he serves on the Board of Directors and provides overall project management, leading Samara's in-house design and innovation studio. Nathan Blecharczyk is Chief Strategy Officer and leads the development of major business initiatives internationally. Chesky has become a leader and CEO, leading the company's strategic planning and development, as well as vision and representation for millions of Airbnb hosts around the world.
In order to raise additional funds for the development of the service in the second half of 2008, Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia came up with the idea of selling cereal with the image of Barack Obama and John McCain on the boxes. In 2 months, they sold 800 boxes of $40 each, thus earning more than $30,000 in capital for their company. With such actions, they attracted the attention of the startup incubator Y-Combinator, which made the first investment in the company.
With the participation of Y-Combinator, the functionality of the service expanded: instead of renting mattresses, the site now offered a wide range of services - since the beginning of 2009, it was possible to rent or rent a room, castles, yachts and even private islands. Also the address has changed to airbnb.com. Later Greylock Partners, Sequoia Capital and Ashton Kutcher also invested in the company.
The service began to develop rapidly, in November 2010 received an investment of $ 7 million, and in February 2011 announced the achievement of 1 million bookings. In the summer of 2011, the company raised another $112 million, and within a year announced its 10 millionth booking. During the period of attracting these investments, the company actively bought less similar services around the world.
In 2011, Chesky wrote a letter on behalf of the company for handling a resident complaint about tenant vandalism, announcing a 24-hour hotline, additional staff support, and a guarantee in the event of theft or vandalism.
In 2015, Chesky announced that Airbnb was the official sponsor of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He said more than 120,000 people stayed at Airbnb homes during the 2014 FIFA World Cup. As of March 2015, Airbnb was valued at $20 billion.
State. In 2013, Time magazine named Chesky one of the 40 most influential people in the IT industry, which also included Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and Apple CEO Tim Cook. In 2014, Brian Chesky made the list of billionaires according to Forbes: in April, his 15% stake in Airbnb was estimated at $1.5 billion.
On June 1, 2016, Chesky joined Warren Buffett and Bill Gates in a philanthropic campaign called The Giving Pledge, a select group of billionaires who have committed to giving away the bulk of their wealth.
08/26/2021