Brian Chesky is an American entrepreneur known as the co-founder of AiBnB, an online hospitality service that offers accommodation and lodging – primarily homestays.
Early years and education
Brian Chesky was born on August 29, 1981 in Niskayuna, New York. In Chesky’s younger years, he was interested in arts, paintings, designs, and redesigning shoes and toys, but later on developed interest in landscape architecture and design. In the year 1999 – 2004, Chesky took up Bachelor of Fine Arts in Industrial Design in Rhode Island School of Design, where he later on met Joe Gebbia, his co-founder with AirBnB.
Career
After he graduated, Brian Chesky worked as an Industrial Designer and strategist in 3DID from 2005 – 2007. He later moved to San Francisco, where he shared an apartment with Gebbia. In 2007 when a design reference came to town, all hotels were sold out. Gebbia gave Chesky the idea that they could rent their place out for those who could not find a place to stay – they called it “Airbed and breakfast”. At first, it sounded like a crazy idea, a service that lets home/apartment owners list and rent out spare beds or spare rooms in their own home to strangers – it was really hard to sell. AirBnB was launched three times – the first two times were not much of success, nobody even noticed.
In 2008, Nathan Blecharczyk became the third co-founder of AirBnB. Each co-founder assumed a role in the company – Brian Chesky became the leader and CEO.
AirBnB
Chesky, along with his co-founders created special-edition cereals that caught the attention of Y Combinator, and AirBnB was accepted into its seed funding program. Since then, Airbed and breakfast became AirBnB and has expanded to 34,000 cities. As of 2016, AirBnB has been used by more than 60 million guests. The company is currently the second highest valued startup in the US at 31 billion. In 2015, Brian Chesky was also named as one of the most influential people alive by Time 100.
Net Worth
At the age of 35, Chesky owns 13% stake in AirBnB and his personal net worth is $3.8 billion. This makes him #8 on the world’s wealthiest entrepreneurs under 40, according to Forbes. All three of Airbnb’s founders have signed Warren Buffet’s and Bill and Melinda Gates’ Giving Pledge to donate more than half of their wealth within their lifetimes.