AIR MATTRESS
"Build something 100 people love, not something 1 million people kind of like." — Brian Chesky
ONE
THE AIR MATTRESS
INT. APARTMENT - SAN FRANCISCO - NIGHT (OCTOBER 2007)
A small apartment on Rausch Street in SoMa, San Francisco. BRIAN CHESKY, 26, and JOE GEBBIA, 26, sit at a kitchen table surrounded by unpaid bills. They are two Rhode Island School of Design graduates who moved to San Francisco with big dreams and no money. Rent is due. They are $1,000 short.
San Francisco. October 2007.
JOE
(looking at a bill)
Brian. Rent is due Friday. We're a thousand dollars short. I've applied to seventeen jobs. Nothing.
BRIAN
There's a design conference in town this week. Every hotel is booked. I checked — there are literally no rooms available anywhere in San Francisco.
JOE
(a lightbulb going off)
We have space. We have air mattresses. What if we rented our living room floor to conference attendees? Air mattresses, breakfast, a local guide. "Air Bed and Breakfast."
BRIAN
(staring at Joe)
You want to rent our floor to strangers?
JOE
We need the money. They need a bed. It's a match.
They blow up three air mattresses. They build a simple website: airbedandbreakfast.com. They charge $80 per night, breakfast included. Three strangers book. They make rent.
BRIAN
(V.O.)
That night, three strangers slept on our floor. We made breakfast. We talked. We showed them the city. And something unexpected happened — they became friends. Not customers. Friends. And I thought: this is not a business. This is a new way for humans to connect. If we can scale this feeling, we can change the world.
INT. VC OFFICE - SAND HILL ROAD - DAY (2008)
A sleek venture capital office. BRIAN and JOE sit across from THE VC WHO SAID NO. They have a pitch deck. The concept: a platform where anyone can list their home, apartment, or spare room for short-term rental. The VC flips through the deck, increasingly skeptical.
Sand Hill Road. 2008. Rejection #1 of 12.
VC WHO SAID NO
Let me get this straight. You want people to let strangers sleep in their homes. Strangers they've never met. From the internet.
BRIAN
Yes. With reviews. With verified identities. With a trust framework built into the platform.
VC WHO SAID NO
Brian, no one is going to let a stranger into their home. That's not a startup. That's a horror movie. The total addressable market for "people who want strangers sleeping on their air mattress" is approximately zero.
JOE
With respect, CouchSurfing has proven that people will —
VC WHO SAID NO
CouchSurfing is a nonprofit for hippies. You're describing a business. And this is not a business. I'm going to pass. Good luck.
They are rejected twelve times. The same objection every time: strangers will not trust strangers.
INT. APARTMENT - SAN FRANCISCO - NIGHT (2008)
BRIAN, JOE, and NATHAN BLECHARCZYK sit around a laptop. Nathan has joined as the technical co-founder. The company is out of money. Zero investors. Zero revenue. They have maxed out their credit cards. In desperation, they have designed and sold limited-edition cereal boxes — "Obama O's" and "Cap'n McCain's" — during the 2008 presidential election to fund the company.
NATHAN
We just made $30,000 selling cereal boxes. We are funding a technology company with breakfast cereal. This is either genius or the end.
BRIAN
It's not the end. It's the story. Someday, when Airbnb is worth billions, people will say — they sold cereal to survive. And that story will matter more than any VC check. Because it proves we were willing to do anything.
JOE
We're still broke, Brian.
BRIAN
I know. But we're not quitting. We need to get into Y Combinator. That's our last shot.
INT. Y COMBINATOR OFFICE - MOUNTAIN VIEW - DAY (JANUARY 2009)
PAUL GRAHAM's office. BRIAN, JOE, and NATHAN present to the legendary startup accelerator. Paul listens to the pitch. He is skeptical of the business. But he is fascinated by the founders.
Y Combinator. January 2009.
PAUL GRAHAM
I don't understand the business. People are really going to rent out their homes to strangers?
BRIAN
They already are. We have bookings. Real people in real homes hosting real guests. The demand exists. We just need to scale the trust layer.
PAUL GRAHAM
Show me the cereal boxes.
Brian pulls out an Obama O's box. Paul examines it. He is quiet for a long time.
PAUL GRAHAM
You funded your startup by selling cereal. That is — that is the most cockroach thing I've ever seen. You guys are not going to die. If you can sell cereal to fund a tech company, you can figure out anything. I'm in. $20,000 for 6%.
BRIAN
(barely containing his emotion)
Thank you. You will not regret this.
PAUL GRAHAM
I know. Because the founders who sell cereal to survive are the founders who build empires.
INT. AIRBNB USER'S HOME - NEW YORK CITY - DAY (2009)
BRIAN and JOE fly to New York, where most of their hosts are located. They go door to door, meeting hosts in person. They photograph the listings themselves — professional photos to replace the grainy phone shots. This is the design school training paying off.
BRIAN
(photographing a Brooklyn apartment)
Joe, look at this listing photo. It's dark, it's blurry, it looks like a crime scene. No one is booking this. But the apartment is actually beautiful. If we take professional photos, bookings will double overnight.
JOE
We are the CEO and CPO of a startup and we are taking apartment photos in Brooklyn.
BRIAN
Good. Because this is what "do things that don't scale" means. Paul Graham told us that. Every successful company starts by doing something that looks insane. We are doing insane things. And they are working.
The photography program doubles bookings in New York within weeks. Brian learns the lesson that will define Airbnb: obsess over the details that the user sees.
TWO
THE SCALE
INT. AIRBNB OFFICE - SAN FRANCISCO - DAY (2011)
Airbnb's growing office. The company has raised a $112 million Series B. BRIAN stands before the team. Airbnb is in 89 countries. The growth is exponential.
2011. 89 countries. $1 billion valuation.
BRIAN
Two years ago, we were selling cereal to pay rent. Today, we are in 89 countries and valued at a billion dollars. But here is what matters more than the valuation: last night, 50,000 people stayed in a stranger's home. And almost all of them will say it was one of the best travel experiences of their lives. We are not a hotel company. We are a belonging company. We help people feel like they belong anywhere.
THE AIRBNB SUPERHOST, one of the earliest hosts, visits the office. She has hosted over 500 guests.
SUPERHOST
Brian, I started hosting because I needed the money. But I kept hosting because of the connections. I have hosted people from 40 countries. I have become friends with guests from Japan, Brazil, Germany. My life is bigger because of Airbnb. My world is bigger.
BRIAN
(moved)
That is exactly why we built this. Not for the money. For that feeling. For the moment when a stranger walks into your home and leaves as a friend.
INT. AIRBNB HEADQUARTERS - SAN FRANCISCO - DAY (2014)
Airbnb is now valued at $10 billion. BRIAN meets with his design team. He is obsessed with the end-to-end experience. He has hired the head of Pixar's animation team to storyboard the Airbnb guest experience.
BRIAN
I want you to storyboard the entire Airbnb experience. From the moment someone thinks about traveling to the moment they leave a review. Every touchpoint. Every emotion. We are going to design this like Pixar designs a movie — every frame matters.
DESIGN LEAD
You want to storyboard a technology product like a film?
BRIAN
Yes. Because Airbnb is not a technology product. It is a human experience that happens to use technology. And human experiences are stories. The best stories have great beginnings, meaningful middles, and endings that make you want to come back. That is what we are designing.
INT. AIRBNB HEADQUARTERS - DAY (2016)
BRIAN launches Airbnb Experiences — not just homes, but activities hosted by locals. Cooking classes in Tokyo. Surfing lessons in Lisbon. Street art tours in Buenos Aires. The platform evolves from lodging to belonging.
BRIAN
(at the launch event)
Hotels give you a room. Airbnb gives you a home. But what if we could give you something even more? What if we could give you a city through the eyes of someone who loves it? That is Experiences. Not tourist traps. Real connections with real people doing real things. We are not just changing where people stay. We are changing how people travel.
INT. AIRBNB HEADQUARTERS - CONFERENCE ROOM - NIGHT (2019)
BRIAN and NATHAN review the IPO timeline. Airbnb is valued at $31 billion. The plan is to go public in 2020. Everything is on track.
NATHAN
The financials look strong. Revenue is $4.8 billion. We're profitable for the first time. The IPO roadshow is planned for March 2020.
BRIAN
This is the moment we've been building toward for twelve years. From air mattresses to an IPO. From three guests in our living room to seven million listings in 200 countries. We did it.
They do not know that COVID-19 is about to destroy everything.
INT. BRIAN'S HOME - SAN FRANCISCO - NIGHT (MARCH 2020)
BRIAN sits at his kitchen table. The same kind of kitchen table where Airbnb was born. COVID-19 has shut down global travel. Bookings have dropped 80% in eight weeks. The IPO is canceled. Airbnb is bleeding cash. The company that was about to go public is now fighting for survival.
March 2020. COVID-19. The existential crisis.
BRIAN
(on a video call with the leadership team)
We've lost nearly everything in eight weeks. Bookings are down 80%. Revenue is collapsing. We have to cut costs or we die. And that means — that means letting go of 1,900 of our people. Twenty-five percent of the company.
Silence on the call. Brian's voice breaks.
BRIAN
(continuing, barely holding it together)
These are not headcount reductions. These are people I hired. People who believed in this company. People who moved their families for this company. And I have to look them in the eye and tell them it's over. This is the worst day of my professional life.
THREE
THE COMEBACK
INT. BRIAN'S HOME OFFICE - SAN FRANCISCO - DAY (MAY 2020)
Two months after the crisis. BRIAN writes an open letter to the 1,900 employees he is laying off. It is widely considered the most compassionate layoff letter in corporate history.
BRIAN
(V.O., reading the letter)
To those of you leaving: I am truly sorry. I know this is incredibly hard. You are talented people who will do great things. We are providing 14 weeks of severance, a year of health insurance, and we have built an alumni talent directory so that other companies can hire you. You are not being let go because you did anything wrong. You are being let go because the world changed overnight. And I will carry the weight of this decision for the rest of my life.
The letter goes viral. Companies across Silicon Valley begin hiring from Airbnb's alumni directory. It is the most painful thing Brian has ever done. And it saves the company.
INT. AIRBNB HEADQUARTERS - SAN FRANCISCO - DAY (SUMMER 2020)
A smaller, leaner Airbnb. Travel patterns are shifting. People are not flying to cities anymore. They are driving to rural areas. Cabins. Treehouses. Farms. BRIAN sees the shift before anyone else.
BRIAN
People are not going to stop traveling. They are going to travel differently. They do not want hotels in cities. They want cabins in the woods. They want to work remotely from a farmhouse in Vermont. They want space. Nature. Escape. And we have seven million listings — many of them are exactly that. While hotels are empty, our cabins and rural properties are fully booked. This is the pivot. We lean into unique stays. We lean into remote work. We lean into the places that hotels cannot reach.
Airbnb's rural and unique property bookings surge. The company becomes profitable again within months.
INT. NASDAQ BELL CEREMONY - VIRTUAL - DAY (DECEMBER 10, 2020)
BRIAN, JOE, and NATHAN sit in separate locations, connected by video. Airbnb goes public. The stock opens at $146 — more than double its IPO price. The company is valued at $100 billion. Nine months earlier, it was nearly dead.
December 10, 2020. Airbnb IPO. $100 billion.
BRIAN
(on video, voice cracking)
Thirteen years ago, Joe and I couldn't afford rent. We blew up three air mattresses and charged strangers $80 to sleep on our floor. Today, Airbnb is a public company worth $100 billion. We were rejected by every VC in Silicon Valley. We sold cereal to survive. We nearly died during COVID. And here we are. This is for every founder who was told their idea was crazy. It probably is crazy. Do it anyway.
JOE
(on video, emotional)
Brian. We did it. We actually did it.
BRIAN
We did it, Joe. Air mattresses to $100 billion. Not bad for two RISD kids.
INT. AIRBNB HEADQUARTERS - DAY (2023)
BRIAN announces that Airbnb is now a permanently remote-first company. Employees can live and work from anywhere in the world. It is the logical conclusion of the Airbnb thesis — you can belong anywhere.
BRIAN
(to the company, via video)
We built a company that lets people live in any home in the world. It would be hypocritical to require our own employees to live in one city. Starting today, you can live and work from anywhere. Your salary does not change based on where you live. Because talent is everywhere. And Airbnb should be too.
INT. BRIAN'S APARTMENT - SAN FRANCISCO - NIGHT (PRESENT DAY)
The same Rausch Street apartment where it all began. Brian has kept it. He sits in the living room, looking at the spot where the air mattresses once were. Three deflated air mattresses sit in the corner — framed, behind glass. Museum pieces from a revolution.
BRIAN
(V.O.)
I keep the air mattresses in the apartment where we started. Not as a trophy. As a reminder. A reminder that the biggest ideas start small. That every billion-dollar company was once a crazy idea that nobody believed in. That three air mattresses on a living room floor can become seven million listings in 220 countries. That two design school kids who couldn't afford rent can change how the entire world travels. If you are sitting in your apartment right now, broke, rejected, and running out of options — good. That is exactly where you should be. Because the best companies are not born in boardrooms. They are born in desperation. And desperation, properly channeled, is the most powerful force in entrepreneurship.
The camera holds on the framed air mattresses. The glow of San Francisco outside the window. Somewhere in the world, a traveler opens the door to a stranger's home and is welcomed like a friend.
FADE OUT.
Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, and Nathan Blecharczyk founded Airbnb in 2008 after renting air mattresses in their San Francisco apartment to conference attendees. They were rejected by every major venture capital firm and sold themed cereal boxes to fund the company. Y Combinator accepted them in January 2009 with a $20,000 investment. Airbnb grew to over 7 million listings in 220 countries and regions. During COVID-19, bookings dropped 80% and the company laid off 25% of its workforce. Airbnb went public on December 10, 2020, opening at a valuation of over $100 billion — nine months after nearly going bankrupt. As of 2024, Airbnb hosts have collectively earned over $250 billion. Brian Chesky remains CEO. The original cereal boxes now sell for thousands of dollars as collector's items.