My Age of Investment

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"You are... you are... Darren Xia?"

The white guy who recognized Xia Jingxing was so excited that he even stopped picking up the flyers on the ground and stared at Xia Jingxing from head to toe, as if verifying his identity.

"you know me?"

Xia Jingxing was a little surprised because he finally met someone who was not face-blind.

Although he is well-known in the United States, few white people would recognize his face when walking on the street.

The white boy nodded towards Xia Jingxing, and then greeted his two companions incoherently.

"Qiao, Nathan, we met a big shot! Darren, Darren!"

The other two white guys looked confused and didn't seem to remember who they were for a moment.

"Dylan Xia, the founder of Facebook, the fourth richest man in the world, worth $30 billion!"

Hearing this, the two white boys finally reacted, and their gazes on Xia Jingxing changed.

Xia Jingxing looked at the three young men who were about to turn into stone and turned into a statue. He raised the flyer in his hand and said, "Man, are you employees of this company? Your company's services are quite interesting."

The young white guy who was the first to recognize Xia Jingxing was very adaptable. He immediately walked downhill and extended his hand to Xia Jingxing: "Darren, it's nice to meet you. I am Brian, the founder and CEO of Airbnb." ·Chesky.”

The corner of Xia Jingxing's mouth curled up slightly. He asked Ricky Milner, the head of Vision Capital's Silicon Valley office, to look for this company for a long time, but there was no news. Unexpectedly, he met the founder here, and he had to sigh at the wonder of fate.

The fortune is really coming, and nothing can stop it.

Xia Jingxing shook hands with Brian Chesky, and then got acquainted with his two partners.

The guy who was knocked down by Pete was named Nathan Blecharczyk, the CTO of Airbnb.

There is another white guy with a camera hanging on his chest, named Joe Gibbia, who is the COO and chief designer of Airbnb.

Xia Jingxing joked: "Three of the company's top executives have taken action. Did you get any big business?"

Joe Gibbia raised the camera on his chest and explained: "We are here to take photos of the apartment building's landlords' rooms for free, and then we will upload these photos to the Airbnb website.

If someone browses the photos on the website and falls in love with a certain house, they can book a room through our website and then check in offline.

With our help, landlords can rent out unused rooms through the Internet and earn extra income, which is still very attractive during the current economic recession;

When booking a room in an apartment or B\u0026B, you can pay less than the high room rate in a hotel;

As the dealmaker, Airbnb gets a commission from each transaction. "

Jibia was very astute and took the opportunity to answer questions to briefly introduce Airbnb's business model to Xia Jingxing.

Since I encountered such a thick thigh, I had to try to hug it no matter what.

Xia Jingxing nodded lightly. Through the other party's description, he basically understood the development stage of Airbnb. The website and business model should have already taken shape.

"Would you like to have a cup of coffee together? I'm very interested in your website.

In addition, I own a rental company. If your business model impresses me, maybe we can try to cooperate. "

As soon as Xia Jingxing finished speaking, the three of them nodded hurriedly.

Only a fool would refuse such a pie-in-the-sky opportunity.

However, they are still a little uneasy because they don't know what this famous Internet tycoon and financial tycoon likes about their company.

In this way, the three founders of Airbnb followed Xia Jingxing and his party to a nearby coffee shop.

After ordering a few cups of coffee, everyone sat down around a table and started chatting.

Ivanka and Xiao Quan basically didn't interrupt, and Xia Jingxing was chatting with the three of them the whole time.

"Can you give me a comprehensive introduction to Airbnb's entrepreneurial process and some of your plans for the future of the company?"

Xia Jingxing crossed his legs, picked up the coffee on the table and took a sip.

Brian, Airbnb’s CEO, immediately introduced: “Both Joe and I graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design. We came to San Francisco to make a living right after graduating from college, but things didn’t go well and we could barely afford the rent. .

It was the fall of 2007, and a designer conference happened to be held in San Francisco. The hotel rooms were in short supply, and many designers complained online that they could not book rooms.

When Joe saw the news, he immediately thought of an idea to make extra money. He turned our apartment into a bed and breakfast, providing the designers with wireless internet, a small work table, and an inflatable bed during the four-day meeting. There is also breakfast.

After thinking of this idea, we just went ahead and placed three inflatable beds in the room. After a simple decoration, we started to "receive guests".

As a result, three people actually came to rent the house, and each of them paid us US$80 for the room. This total of US$240 was our first pot of gold.

We originally just wanted to make extra money to pay the rent, but unexpectedly discovered that the "online short-term rental" market breeds endless business opportunities.

So we came up with the idea of ​​​​starting a business, and then we roped in Nathan Blecharczyk, who was an engineer.

In the summer of 2008, after some preparations, the three of us jointly developed a website called Airbed and Breakfast, which mainly provides an online transaction platform for hosts and travelers. "

Hearing this, Xia Jingxing suddenly realized that he had misremembered it, and it was strange that he could not find any trace of this super unicorn.

He now remembered that this online short-term rental website was renamed Airbnb more than half a year after it was launched. The previous domain name was very long, difficult to remember, and was not conducive to rapid spread.

Xia Jingxing continued to ask: "It has been almost half a year since your website was launched. How is your daily order revenue now?"

Brian smiled slightly, "In the last week, our website generated a total of US$4,500 in commission income.

Although this number is not much, it can barely support our team.

Six months ago, our company almost went bankrupt. "

Xia Jingxing became interested and asked, "Closing? What happened?"

Brian smiled and began to expose his family scandal: "After our website was launched, we sent business plans to 15 angel investors, hoping to raise US$150,000 at a valuation of US$1.5 million.

As a result, seven people didn’t get back to us, and eight others rejected us for various reasons, including saying it was the worst startup idea they’d ever heard. "

Ivanka on the side couldn't hold it in any longer and burst out laughing.

Brian didn't feel embarrassed about this, but shrugged with relief, "I admit, our business idea doesn't look sexy, and even a bit vulgar.

But I think online short-term rental is a very big market, and no one is exploring it.

The "sofa guest" model that was popular in the past has always had various safety hazards and shortcomings.

Airbnb’s goal is to replace them and provide users with a better and safer accommodation environment. "

Ivanka asked with a smile: "No investors are willing to invest in you, so how do you persist until now?"

Brian pointed to the two companions beside him, "The three of us overdrawn our credit cards together. Just when our limit was almost overdrawn, it happened to coincide with the US election."

Speaking of this, Brian's eyes shone with brilliant light, and his whole body swept away the decadence just now, and suddenly became much more energetic.

"Didn't Joe and I study design? So we used the knowledge we learned to start a business to make extra money again.

For the general election, we have designed two cereals with a presidential election theme - Ao Guan Hai flavor and McCain flavor.

Each box of cereal is priced at US$40 and has been favored by many voters since its launch.

In the end, we sold a total of 1,000 boxes of cereal, and after deducting various costs, we made a net profit of $30,000. "

Xia Jingxing laughed loudly, "The profit margin of your business is good! In fact, Facebook also made extra money in the early years. We once sold T-shirts."

Brian gave him a small flattery, "But you are better than us. While making money, you are also advertising!

At that time, Joe and I were still in college. Like many classmates, we once purchased your Facebook brand T-shirts through Amazon. One piece was $9.9, three pieces were $19.9, five pieces were $29.9, and ten pieces were $49.9...

Joe and I impulsively bought ten T-shirts each. We haven't finished wearing them yet and have them at home as souvenirs. "

Hearing this, Xia Jingxing and Xiao Quan looked at each other and understood each other's eyes. I didn't expect to encounter leeks, oh, no, I must be a die-hard fan.

After Brian revealed that he had bought a Facebook T-shirt, the distance between them suddenly became closer. Even Xiao Quan couldn't help but join the discussion and asked Brian a few questions about Airbnb. And gave some small suggestions of his own.

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