Whether you’re in a company or you started one, this story is guaranteed. No
matter how big, no matter how small, no matter how old or new—unless it’s the
only case of immaculate incorporation—show me a company or a product, and
I’ll show you a story of how it all began. There are no exceptions.
This is very good news.
Good news because, in a world that closely resembles a Las Vegas expo hall
packed with rows and rows of competitors offering the exact same thing, a
founder story is one of the best ways to stand out and bridge the gap between
you and your potential customer.
Whether you’re in the launch phase and looking to secure investor dollars or
trying to differentiate yourself in a crowded, noisy market or trying to attract top
talent
to scale, founder stories can handle all three situations in different ways
and for different reasons.
The Founder Story to Bridge the Investor Gap
Several years ago a couple of guys who had gone to college together became
roommates in San Francisco. Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever lived in the City
by the Bay or know someone who has, but you’re probably aware it’s not known
for affordable housing. San Francisco is a lot of things, but budget-friendly isn’t
one of them. So you can imagine, when it came time to pay rent, these guys were
struggling to pull it together.
At the same time the guys were trying to pay their rent, there was a big
design conference in town. So big, in fact, that all the hotels on the event’s list of
suggested places to stay were sold out. No room
for any designers at the San
Fran Inn. What were the visiting designers to do? Sleep on the streets? Sleep on
the floor of strangers’ homes?
Wait a minute. What if . . .
When our two poor (literally and figuratively) San Francisco roommates
heard the city was sold out and there were still people looking for lodging, they
got a crazy idea. What if they could rent their room to some attendees? The out-
of-towners would have a place to stay, and the roommates could cover their rent
with the guests’ rent.
It sounded perfect—except for one major problem. The guys didn’t have an
extra room to rent and they certainly didn’t have an extra bed. But they did have
a couple of spare air mattresses and an open floor in the living room. Good
enough, they decided. They’d rent those.
The roommates advertised their air mattresses and got three takers. Totally
random people. And a totally awesome experience. The guests had a great time
at the conference and a great time staying with the roommates, and the guys had
a great time hosting them.
That’s when the roommates had an idea. What if this wasn’t a onetime thing?
What if, instead of making rent one month, they scaled this idea and made rent
every month, allowing anyone to rent their space for a random, awesome
experience at the startup cost of just a couple of air mattresses?
This was the beginning of Airbnb as we know it today.
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And, of course, that is only part of the story. There were plenty of plot twists
and creative triumphs along the way, such as:
• Financing the tough early days with credit
cards and racking up tens of
thousands of dollars of debt.
• Repacking cereal into “Obama O’s” and “Cap’n McCain” boxes to pay off
the debt and live to sell another day.
• Spreading the word by pitching bloggers with the smallest audiences,
because they might give them some attention.
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These stories are now Airbnb lore. But what’s often overlooked is just how
important storytelling was to the company in its early days, back when Airbnb
had just two customers, not millions, and was struggling to survive.
#startuplife
Startups always face challenges, and Airbnb had a few extra hurdles. Namely,
while the idea of turning surplus home space into
a business using the sharing
economy seems obvious now, it wasn’t at the time. Think about it. Someone
says to you, “Why don’t you have some strangers stay at your place this
weekend? . . . What? No, they aren’t friends or friends of friends. They’re just
strangers who found you on the internet. Maybe you can make breakfast for
them too.”
For many people that’s
an instant no, and that’s how many investors
responded to the idea too. Jeff Jordan is a general partner at the venture capital
firm Andreessen Horowitz, a firm that, for the record,
can sniff out a unicorn
from a decade away. Skype, Facebook, and Twitter are just a few of their
successes.
So imagine the burn when Jordan said, “The first time I heard about Airbnb I
thought it was possibly the stupidest idea I’d ever heard.”
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That is a soul-
crushing comment for any entrepreneur, Brian Chesky included. The only thing
that likely made it easier for Chesky, one of Airbnb’s founders, in the early days
of the company is that Jordan’s “stupidest idea” sentiment was one Chesky heard
a lot.
In the first year of business, every venture capitalist
Chesky pitched turned
him down. As he told
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