The Rise of a Unicorn – Airbnb Duncan Angwin A unicorn is a mythical animal that has been described since antiquity as a horse with a large pointed spiral horn. Legend has it unicorns are very rare...

The Rise of a Unicorn – Airbnb Duncan Angwin A unicorn is a mythical animal that has been described since antiquity as a horse with a large pointed spiral horn. Legend has it unicorns are very rare and difficult to tame. It is a name that has been adopted by the US venture capital industry to denote a start-up company whose valuation exceeds $1bn (£0.6bn, €0.75bn). Airbnb, founded in 2007, was one of these rare and valuable unicorns, already valued at $25bn in 2015. How could this start-up become so successful, so fast? Origins: The original founders of Airbnb, Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky, first met at Rhode Island School of Design. Five years later, both aged 27, they were struggling to pay their rent when a design conference came to San Francisco. All the hotels were fully booked, so they set up a simple website with pictures of their loft-turned-lodging space – complete with three air mattresses on the floor and the promise of a home-cooked breakfast in the morning. This site got them their first three paying guests at $80 each. It dawned on them this could be the start of something big. They both wanted to be entrepreneurs and Brian already had some experience having designed a cushion for back sufferers and built a website. 1 Next day they created a website, www. airbedandbreakfast.com . They decided to target conferences and festivals across America, getting local people to list their rooms on a website created by former flatmate and computer programmer, Nathan Blecharczyk. In the summer of 2008, Barack Obama was due to speak in Denver at the Democratic Party National Convention. Eighty thousand people were expected to attend and Joe and Brian thought there would be a shortage of hotel rooms. They rushed to complete their website in time and recorded 800 listings in one week. However, it did not make any money. To survive they had to make use of their entrepreneurial skills, buying cereal in bulk and designing packaging such as ‘Obama’s O’s’ and ‘Cap’n...