From near-failure to global giant: Airbnb's co-founder on how it all almost never happened

We are back! Our first guest of the new season is Airbnb co-founder & Chief Strategy Officer Nathan Blecharczyk.

Airbnb now spans almost every country in the world.

But there was a point early on where the team agreed: if things didn’t improve in 13 weeks, they’d quit.

In our first episode of Season 2, co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk takes us inside the making of Airbnb — from “ramen profitability” and investor rejection to global expansion, crisis management and what comes next.

In this conversation, we dive into:

00:00: Introduction

03:51: Teaching himself to code at age 12 and becoming an entrepreneur at age 14

05:52: First job and learning 'what not to do' at a startup

07:35: Meeting fellow Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia as his roommate through Craigslist

08:01: The birth of Airbnb

11:02: Handling skepticism, rejection from friends and investors

13:36: Pitch deck advice from OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman