How AirBnB Became a Billion Dollar Company

Re:How AirBnB Became a Billion Dollar Company by c2 on Tuesday May 31, 2011 @05:57PM (#2604822)

I agree the 'attaboy' comments are way out of place, but there is also an over the top reaction the other way with the criticism being heaped onto the AirBNB guys in my opinion.

It was technically wrong of them to leverage craigslist by circumventing the community's own "no commercial email" request, and they should get dinged for it.

But in the grand scheme of things, when you are a tiny start up struggling to survive, this is a relatively benign grass roots attempt at marketing which the AirBNB guys even probably regret doing.

Comparing RIAA's scare tactics to this seems a little out of place, but it is right in line with Microsoft's shady attempts at astroturfing.

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Re:How AirBnB Became a Billion Dollar Company by thomasgerbe on Tuesday May 31, 2011 @08:23PM (#2605305)

"But in the grand scheme of things, when you are a tiny start up struggling to survive, this is a relatively benign grass roots attempt at marketing which the AirBNB guys even probably regret doing."

Hmm. Maybe. If you built a billion dollar business would you look back and regret a part of it that may have been instrumental to your success?

I'm definitely not excusing them for their actions but if I were in their position, I don't know if I could honestly say I would've regretted the past.

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Re:How AirBnB Became a Billion Dollar Company by ThomCarver on Tuesday May 31, 2011 @07:31PM (#2605138)

Can we all agree that a $1Bn valuation stops you being "a tiny start up struggling to survive"?

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Re:How AirBnB Became a Billion Dollar Company by c2 on Tuesday May 31, 2011 @07:42PM (#2605178)

Sure, but the story is from a year and half ago.

AirBNB didn't become 'ramen profitable' until April 2009.

http://www.quora.com/How-much-money-did-Airbnb-raise-What-is...

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Re:How AirBnB Became a Billion Dollar Company by rakkhi on Wednesday June 01, 2011 @04:19AM (#2606482)

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."

http://lesswrong.com/lw/uu/why_does_power_corrupt/

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Re:How AirBnB Became a Billion Dollar Company by pbreit on Thursday June 02, 2011 @01:16AM (#2610812)

I agree. Likening this to spammers sending out millions of wholly untargeted emails is incorrect. These were extremely well-targeted communications likely sent out one-by-one by humans who had done some research.

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Re:How AirBnB Became a Billion Dollar Company by vacri on Wednesday June 01, 2011 @08:36AM (#2606992)

Well, as long as the spammer vaguely regrets it later, it's okay for them to spam me!

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