The Tim Ferris Show is an engaging podcast channel to listen. In episode #301, Mr Tim Ferris sits down with Mr Joe Gebbia, the Co-Founder of Airbnb – what a show it was – entertaining, insightful and informative. Don’t miss listening to or watching this show.

In the interview, Joe covers a wide range of topics, right from his college days where his entrepreneur skills were honed, to the motivation/situation leading to starting AirBNB, his early days and others.

“Anything I come across that feels impossible, I probably need to take a second look.” – Joe Gebbia

I liked the formula for life that Joe proposes which is aptly applicable to founders. It goes like this: Some will love it, Some won’t + Who Care = Move On, Keep Keep Going till you find who love your idea. 

Some will love it, Some won't + Who Care = Move On,

Some will love it, Some won’t + Who Care = Move On

 

Some of the highlights from the Interview:

  • His School Prank – Using the High School’s Public Address Intercom, he had arranged for playing songs from a cassette in a loop and then getting caught.
  • Design College Project – To design a Chess set of real-sized (sitting) chairs. His Professor had doubted and said he couldn’t get it done, in the end, he got the school to pay for it as school benches :-)
  • CritBuns – a foam cushion to sit on during art design classes, which got into the New York Arts Museum and also was sold in Tokyo. Here he learnt, that Storytelling is important. People don’t want to know about the product, but more about the story that led to the product.
  • Airbnb – When their landlord in SFO increased the rent by 25%, they thought of renting their roam (Air Bed) to attendees of a design conference that was happening and hotels in their area was sold out. The success of this, led to doing it during SSW in Austin, then, for Obama’s show in Denver and that’s where they got their big break with 800+ hosts signing up in the 2-3 weeks duration. They had done Zero PR/Marketing, other than calling the local press – a blogger picked up their story, then the local paper, then regional paper, followed by regional TV and so on.

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