Brian Chesky

“I'm not saying the whole world will work this way, but with Airbnb, people are sleeping in other people's homes and other people's beds. So there's a level of trust necessary to participate that's different from an eBay or Facebook.”

“Whatever the press is talking about, they want to keep talking about it. So instead of asking yourself, 'How can I get them to start talking about me?', figure out a way to get yourself involved in what they're already talking about.”

“Culture is a thousand things, a thousand times. It's living the core values when you hire; when you write an email; when you are working on a project; when you are walking in the hall.”

“No matter how certain I am about some culture or some group of people, my opinions are only as accurate as the amount of time I've spent with them.”

“When you are in someone's home, in their bed, you see the world from their eyes. You understand 'the other' is not so other.”

“The culture is what creates the foundation for all future innovation. If you break the culture, you break the machine that creates your products.”

“Travel is a new experience that can transport you out of your everyday routine to create memories with the ones you love.”

“Belonging has always been a fundamental driver of humankind.”

“In summer of 2008, I meet a guy named Michael Seibel. And Michael Seibel says, 'There are these people called angels, and they'll give you money.' The first thing I thought is, 'I can't believe this guy believes in angels.' That's how naive I was.”

“My life is longer because of the journeys I have taken.”

“When we started Airbnb, I had no idea about the people we would meet or the friendships I would make.”

“If you want to create a great product, just focus on one person. Make that one person have the most amazing experience ever.”

“I think the key that makes Airbnb is the fact that we're a community, not just a series of commodities.”

“Our shared vision of belonging is the thread that weaves through every touchpoint on Airbnb.”

“People don't use Airbnb overtly to trust people more. They use it because they want to get a better sense of the culture and to save money. A by-product was that they live in someone else's shoes.”

“The stuff that matters in life is no longer stuff. It's other people. It's relationships. It's experience.”

“Every day I would wake up and think, 'Today is another missed opportunity to do something important.' After enough days like this, you start feeling like you are getting old, even when you are relatively young. We are all natural entrepreneurs, and being manacled to a desk job is not for us.”

“Customers are willing to try new things, and if you can survive, you will have fewer competitors. It's like entering the eye of the storm. As long as you are strong enough to survive, you can end up in still water by yourself.”

“I think the next big thing in music, and it's kind of because I come from the tech industry, is actually, I think it's the platform... Spotify is incredibly interesting. I think the platform is becoming the star.”

“Our perception of time is really driven by our perception of the unfamiliar, vivid, and new.”