Brian Chesky

Brian Chesky
Chesky in December 2011
Born	Brian Joseph Chesky (1981-08-29) August 29, 1981 Niskayuna, New York, U.S.
Residence	San Francisco, California, U.S.
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Rhode Island School of Design (B.F.A.)
Occupation	CEO and Co-founder of Airbnb
Net worth	US$3.3 billion (November 2015)

Brian Joseph Chesky (born August 29, 1981) is an American Internet entrepreneur. He is best known as one of the co-founders of the hospitality exchange service, Airbnb. Chesky is the CEO of the company. He was named one of Time's "100 Most Influential People of 2015".

Early life and education

Brian Chesky was born on August 29, 1981. He grew up in Niskayuna, New York. He is the son of Deborah and Robert H. Chesky, His parents were both social workers. He has an elder sister, Allison. He is Jewish. During his youth, he was interested in art, drawing replicas of paintings, and design, redesigning shoes and toys. Chesky later became interested in landscape architecture and design.

In 1999, Chesky started attending the Rhode Island School of Design, emphasizing in industrial design. He received his Bachelors of Fine Arts in Industrial Design in 2004. During his time at RISD, Chesky met Joe Gebbia, who would later be one of the co-founders of Airbnb.

Career

After college, Chesky worked as an industrial designer and strategist at 3DID, Inc. in Los Angeles. After moving to San Francisco, Chesky became roommates in an apartment with Joe Gebbia. In October 2007, the Industrial Designers Society of America was hosting a conference in San Francisco and all hotels rooms were booked. The pair could not afford rent for the month and decided to rent their apartment for money. They purchased three air mattresses and marketed this idea as "Airbed and Breakfast", with three guests staying the first night.

In February 2008, Harvard graduate and technical architect Nathan Blecharczyk became the third co-founder of Airbnb. Each co-founder assumed a role within the new company, with Chesky becoming the leader and chief executive officer. In order to receive funding, Chesky and his co-founders created special edition cereals known as "Obama O’s" and "Cap'n McCains", which were based on Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain. Y Combinator saw these cereal boxes and were impressed, so it accepted Airbnb into its seed funding program. In its first year, the company began internationalizing and opened several new offices in Europe. In 2011, Chesky wrote a letter on behalf of the company for its handling of a resident complaint about tenant vandalism by announcing a 24-hour hotline, additional staff support and a guarantee for theft or vandalism. In 2015, Chesky announced that Airbnb was the official sponsor of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games in Brazil. He stated that more than 120,000 people stayed in Airbnb homes during the 2014 FIFA World Cup. As of March 2015, Airbnb has a $20 billion valuation.

In 2015, Chesky evoked Mahatma Gandhi's Salt March to complain about New York City's 30-day restriction on Airbnb rentals. He tweeted, "Apparantly during Salt March, Ghandi stayed in homes. Good thing gov didn't require a min 30 day stay. He wouldn't have gotten very far." Chesky deleted the tweet and apologized for making it.

Recognition

In 2015, Chesky was recognized on the Forbes list for America's Richest Entrepreneurs Under 40. Chesky was recognized on TIME's 100 Most Influential People for 2015. In May 2015, President Obama named Chesky as an Ambassador of Global Entrepreneurship.

See also

• Y Combinator