This Week in Startups · Thursday, October 1, 2026
Brian Chesky shared that Airbnb faced significant investor rejection, with many dismissing the idea as too risky or citing 'too many designers' on the founding team. One investor even famously stated they liked 'everything but you and your idea.' Despite these rejections, which included an offer to sell 10% of the company for $150,000 at a $1.5 million valuation, the founders persevered, eventually building Airbnb into a multi-billion dollar company.
“The first time we came up with the idea, it was October 2007. It was for a design conference that was coming to San Francisco. There was an after party at the Fermat Hotel. We went to the Fermat Hotel. The first person I told about the idea, he looks at me with a straight face. He said, Brian, I said, yes. He goes, I hope that's not the only idea you're working on.”
“Now at the time, Jason, we were trying to raise $150,000 at a $1.5 million post-money valuation. So for $150,000, you could have owned 10% of Airbnb. And the majority of them didn't even reply to the email.”
“It was three founders, one software engineer and two designers. And they thought, well, you have like too, too many designers in your founding team. Like people just... associated designers as like non-technical and therefore like maybe not adding value.”