How do 2 poor college students in need of rent money launch an idea that investors initially ignored, and grow it into one of the world’s most successful industry disruptors? Airbnb originated when co-founder Brian Chesky was $150 short for a monthly rental payment of $1,150.
To close the gap, he decided to turn his house into a B&B for a weekend, when San Francisco was facing a hotel shortage due to a large conference. The only problem was that he didn’t have any beds to offer, so he offered air mattresses, and marketed his home as the Air Bed & Breakfast.
From that weekend in August 2008, it’s grown to where the company is today, which boasts 252,000 people booking an Airbnb room every night.
For the 2017 Memorial Day weekend, the company has 1 million bookings, which is twice the number of bookings from 2016.
Chesky shared 4 entrepreneurial lessons in an interview with DeZeen that all entrepreneurs can apply to their own businesses.
1: Ignore the Haters & Non-Believers.
When Chesky and his co-founder Joe Gebbia initially sought investors in Silicon Valley, they weren’t taken seriously. “One of the reasons was they thought the idea was crazy. People thought: ‘I’d never stay in a stranger’s home. That’s creepy’. But the other reason is that they didn’t think a designer could build and run a company. They were straight up about it,” explained Chesky.
However, through it all, the founders never gave up. In the end, their design mentality is what lead to Airbnb’s transformation from failing startup to billion-dollar company.
Getting an idea off the ground requires support, and rejection can be deflating, but successful entrepreneurs persevere. They learn how to shut off and shut down the people who don’t believe in them.
“More than anything, entrepreneurship is a game of attrition. It’s about having the determination, the discipline, and the cash to see it through. It’s about not giving up,” writes Steve Tobak, Entrepreneur columnist and author of Real Leaders Don’t Follow.
2. See the Business Ideas in Everyday Life.
Some of the best inventions and start-ups solve every-day problems. The founders of Airbnb saw an opportunity to earn rent money by providing a service to incoming conference attendees.
The peer-to-peer Airbnb platform provides a solution for both parties. It allows hosts to monetize their homes, and it provides travelers with a cheaper, less corporate lodging option.
“We had this vision: what if you could book someone’s home the way you could book a hotel anywhere in the world? And that’s what we have today,” said Chesky.
“Innovation is not about how smart you are; it’s about the hunt for ideas…The world around you is filled with ideas that can be useful,” says Andy Boynton, co-author of The Idea Hunter.
3. Don’t Let Others Put You in A Box.
While initial investors were skeptical of a tech-based company founded by designers, Chesky attributes some of Airbnb’s success to this unconventional set up.
“I think part of the reason we’re so successful – and it’s partly luck, we’ve been very fortunate – is that we’re from a design background.”
“We weren’t MBAs, we weren’t two PHD students from Stanford. Being designers, they thought we were people that worked for people that ran companies. That’s what they told us. We never believed that; we thought designers were the perfect people to run a company like this. A human-centered company, built around empathy, using creativity. I thought we were the perfect people and we certainly have something to prove,” said Chesky.
4. It’s Not About Being First. It’s About Being Better.
Before Airbnb, there were already home-sharing companies such as Homeaway.com and VRBO. While there are many reasons for Airbnb’s greater success, such as timing in relation to the recession, and its user-friendly interface, nothing may be more important than the novelty of the founders’ unique approach to providing a lodging service.
“We have this methodology that’s called Snow White. It’s inspired by the film Snow White, the feature-length animated movie. It was the first time Walt Disney created storyboards, and we did that for the trip. We storyboarded what was the perfect trip, from the time you book your trip, you leave your home.
“We created this whole end-to-end service design system, design every part of the trip. Hotels, Expedia, booking websites, they don’t do that. They typically use financial data to make their own decisions. We make decisions based on people,” said Chesky.
You don’t have to be first, just be better. Being first to the market does not equate to instant success. Too often, business owners turn away from entering a particular market because they believe it impossible to compete with the products and service providers already saturating that market.
However, to compete, you just need a competitive edge–you only need to be better.
How are you better? What’s your roadmap? Please share how you are solving an everyday problem. We would like to know!
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.