Airbnb & The Art of Resilience | How a flexible strategy and strong perseverance built a $30B company

In this episode of the Tony Robbins Podcast, we are bringing back to Business Mastery one more time, where Tony recently led a panel discussion with the business leaders behind some of today’s fastest growing companies. And for this episode, you’re going to hear from one of the founders of a company that change the travel industry forever.

When is the last time you booked a trip somewhere? Where did you stay? Was it a hotel? Or did you opt for the alternative and rent a room, or maybe an entire house, from a local?

The idea of staying in a stranger’s home may have blown your mind a few years ago, but today it’s not just a standard practice, it’s actually the preferred accommodation for tens of millions of travelers across the world. And there’s one company to thank for that – Airbnb.

Airbnb started as a simple solution to a pressing problem; co-founders Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky couldn’t afford rent, so they opened up their San Francisco apartment for guests to stay in. They soon realized they may be onto something bigger than just a way to avoid being evicted. So, along with their old roommate, Nathan Blecharczyk, they started to build it into a business. But that was nearly 10 years ago.

Airbnb has evolved substantially since then, though it was by no means a straight path to success. In fact, they launched and relaunched a number of times. They found themselves up to their ears in debt, rejected by investors over and over and were very close to flatlining on more than one occasion.

You will hear their story of perseverance, and how they were able to find opportunities for massive growth where there were seemingly none. You will also hear about the importance their design background played in creating trust amidst strangers and giving customers the experience they wanted. And you will hear how they transcended cultural boundaries and were ultimately able to turn a floundering idea into a global business that operates in more than 34,000 cities in 91 countries, and is now estimated to be worth $30 billion.