August 13, 2024 • 16 mins
In this episode, Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb, discusses how his company revolutionized the hospitality industry by fostering global connections and community. Explore how Airbnb’s innovative approach is transforming travel and bridging cultural divides, bringing people closer together than ever before.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Hope Global Forms, the dialogue where we bring
exclusive conversations with extraordinary leaders directly to you. I'm your
Hope Essence Scant and you can find me on Instagram
at the Essence of Underscore. This podcast is powered by
Hope Global Forms, an initiative of Operation Hope Designs to inspire,
educate and empower You. Visit us at Hope Globalforms dot
(00:24):
org and follow us on social at Hope Global Form.
In today's episode, we have Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb,
on redefining the Rules and his entrepreneurial journey.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
My parents are social workers. I'm from Albany, New York,
outside Albany, and one day my co founder, now Joe, says, Brian,
come to San Francisco. Let's start a company together. And
I remember like at that point, like I was totally
like I had one thousand dollars the bank. So I
pack everything in the back of old Honda Civic. October
(01:00):
two thousand and seven, I drive up to San Francisco
and my roommate Joe says, Brian, we got one problem.
And I said, what's that problem. He said, well, the
landlord just raised the rent twenty five percent, and we said, well,
what are you going to do? And we always thought
that every problem there was, creativity could work your way
out of that problem. And it turns out that that weekend,
(01:21):
an international design conference was coming to San Francisco. All
the hotels that the conference was recommending were sold out.
And then we had an idea. We said, well, what
if we just turned our house into a bed and
breakfast for this conference. So it's like a really simple idea.
We could host some extra designers, make some extra money.
But I told you, I said, we have one problem,
and he said, what's that problem. I said, we don't
(01:42):
have any beds. I just moved to San Francisco. So
Joe says, well, don't worry, we have three airbeds. We
pulled the three airbeds out of the closet, we inflated them,
and we called the airbed and Breakfast dot com.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Oh my god, there.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Air mattresses the whole and b hosts have now earned
one hundred and eighty billion dollars. But it started with
three airbeds in our living room.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Wow, air mattress, Airbnb.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
That's right, that's so cool.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
And it's been one hundred billion dollars.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Over one hundred and eighty billion hosts have earned. Yeah, like,
so for every like about fifteen hundred dollars spent in
the world, one dollars spent on Airbnb. And so obviously.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
We yeah, right back up again.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Yeah, so for every like one five hundred dollars spent
in the world, one of those dollars is spent on Airbnb.
So it's about the size of the economy of Croatia
if you were just compared to a country.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
That's unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
And the amazing thing aboutship.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Well, and and I think like you and I have
talked about this because you have a goal to you know,
spread entrepreneurship around the United States and a million black
businesses and around the world. And I think that you know, Airbnb, Like,
think about my story. I became an entrepreneur starting a
tech company, but before as a tech entrepreneur, I was
a host, you know, because I took the biggest asset
(03:08):
everyone has in their life is their home. And we said, well,
what if within ten to twenty minutes you could take
your asset and immediately start making money. So we created
the system of trust because the first time we came
up this idea. I remember, somebody said Brian. I said, yeah,
he goes, I hope that's not the only idea you're
working on. He said why? He said, because strangers will
(03:28):
never trust one another to let them in their homes.
So we said, well, what if they weren't strangers? And
they said, what do you mean? I said, well, what
if we both had profiles? What if we can message
each other? What if all payments handled through the platform,
And what if after the stay, you and I reviewed
each other? And what if we provided even more protections,
like if your home gets damaged, we'll cover up to
three million dollars of damage protection, and like we have
(03:49):
AI screen and technology to prevent parties. And we just
did all these different things. And it turns out that
when you design a system of trust, suddenly you enable
commerce and you make something easy for people. Then suddenly
you have millions of entrepreneurs. And so we have over
four almost five million host If you put your home
(04:09):
in Airbnb, half the people put their home in every
you get a booking within three days, Within three days,
you start making money four or five hundred dollars immediately.
And you know, just in Georgia, here in Georgia, hosts
last year earned five hundred million dollars. Wow, fifty six
percent of the host Atlanta or women. So it's a
very diverse audience and I think it's an ultimate equalizer.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Five hundred million dollars in Georgia people Georgia just last year.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Just last year in Georgia. Hey, then we got a
couple out there. I know. We've been working very closely
with your team. And one of the big things that
one of the big tool sets you have is financial literacy.
And I think one of the pieces of financial literacy
is understanding the assets that you have. And again I
think helping people understand that you're already paying for this
(04:56):
asset if youre already live in a home, or there's
an asset available if you want to basically get a
second home, and understanding the really basics of cash flow,
what airbembe can generate, what your basic cost are. It
is one of the most amazing types of economic opportunities.
The averagose United States makes fourteen thousand dollars a year.
Most of this is supplemental income, and here in Atlanta,
(05:18):
I think half the hosts are small business owners. About
one in ten or teachers one and ten or artist,
So you've got an incredibly diverse group. And I think
like one of the things you and I share is
if you want to change the world, you should do
two things. Well you should do more than two things,
but two things that we believe. The first thing is
allow everyone to be an entrepreneur, because when everyone's an entrepreneur,
(05:40):
then they start to own their own destiny. They can
lift themselves up. And if we can give the tools
for people to be entrepreneurs. The problem is, entrepreneur sounds
like a big, scary thing, but it turns out that
everything in the world that was big started small. It
started with a single step within three days. So if
we can make a small step, you can grow. Thing
I've always believed is if you want to change the world,
(06:02):
you should bring people together. You should bring people together,
especially people that look, sound and come from different backgrounds.
And if you bring those two people together, then they're
going to realize the other is not so other people
are fundamentally the same. And the thing I've learned over
over Airbobe's used been used more than one and a
half billion times, so more than one Airbnb has been
(06:24):
used more than one and a half billion times in
two hundred and twenty countries and regions. That means that,
you know, that's most countries in the world other than Iran,
North Korea, Sassudan, Crimea, Belarus, Russia, but other than it
was in Belarus Russia until obviously last year. So what
is that lesson people? I am shocked myself at how
(06:47):
well this idea works. And we came up with the
idea fifteen sixteen years ago, and you were to tell
me that like a billion and a half people would
live together. What I've learned most people are funnily good,
and we are, at some deeper level ninety nine point
nine percent the same. And it sometimes takes you to travel,
It takes you to walk in someone else's shoes to
realize that that person, those types of people that I
(07:10):
thought were totally different than me, they're not that different
after all. And that travel in living together in community
can be the ultimate education. And if we can educate
enough people about one another, allow them to own their destiny.
You know, five million hosts today could be tens of
millions a host. You know, we're adding tens of thousands
of black hosts. The United States every year, and I
(07:32):
believe that's just the beginning, because these are seeds that
will turn into I think, a really big garden.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Real talk, because they can be very intoxicating. Being one
of the wealthiest, most powerful people in commerce in the world,
it can go to your head. It hasn't gone to yours.
Do you think that all these experiences have actually made
you a better person?
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Somebody once said, you tend to be the average of
the people surround yourself with, and you also are the
accumulation of all of your experiences. I never, I like
to joke, I never really got into this to make
a lot of money because if I did, I wouldn't
have been inflating air mattresses. So it did not seem
like a good way to make money. And you know,
I'm a designer by training, so like my whole thing
(08:19):
was I wanted to just design something and solve someone's problem.
But I grew up not traveling very much.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
You know.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
I remember, like once a year my parents are social worker,
so once a year we go on an airplane because
my mom like would go to a conference, and like
they would pay for a conference, so it would turn
it into the family vacation. And the first vacation I
ever went to was Saint Louis because that's where the
conference was, and that was the first time I was
an airplane. And every year we moved to a different place.
And I remember that travel was like the ultimate education,
(08:48):
because I don't remember every day I went on a
school bus, but I remember every single place I traveled to.
I can tell you every trip I've been to, every
place I've been, but I can't tell you all the
times I went to school. And so travel became like
an education for me. But then when I started the company.
Starting a company, somebody once said, is like jumping off
a cliff and assembling the airplane in the way down,
(09:11):
and you got to like just learn and learn. And
I think the number one trait you need, or one
of the number one traits, is curiosity. I think that's
the same trait. It comes from travel, And so am
I a better person. I'm a more complete person because
I have seen so much more of the world. I've
seen so much more of people. You know, I grew
up leaving the world was the way it was, and
(09:32):
that you have to fit into that world and you
have to, you know, fitting in is a really important
thing growing up and that you can't really change that
much about the world and it is the way it is,
and people over there they're like that, and these people
are like this. I mean, it's kind of funny. People
without passports tend to be the people with the strongest
opinions of other people. That's crazy. And so it turns
(09:55):
out that we just need to come in contact with
more people, more ideas. When I look at the people
on this stage, it's been an incredibly diverse group, and
like that is one of the superpowers that we all have,
is that we shamelessly take the best ideas from everyone
in the best ideas when so.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
In some ways you're still a social worker. I mean,
your mom and dad were social workers, and in some
ways you're just the world social worker.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
I think that there's something about the model that, like, yeah,
brings people together and ultimately people want to be listened to.
Everyone's got a story and this is just a context
for conversation around kitchen tables all over the world. And
I think there's a lot of challenges that are happening
in the world. There's a few that I'll point out.
It seems like this country is more divided than it's
(10:47):
ever been, certainly more divided than I remember when I
was growing up. And that's surprising because we're all on
the internet, we're all on social media, and you think
the more we would have brought people together online, the
more we would have had some common grind. But I,
you know, I think that there's something about bringing people
(11:07):
together online that sometimes people repel each other. People don't
change their minds in YouTube comment sections. Your Instagram followers
aren't coming to your funeral. You know, these things are
not happening. But what we can do is that we
can help bring enough people together in the physical world
that we can ultimately remind people that they're not so different.
(11:28):
The other thing that's happening is people are more lonely
than they've ever been. This is the loneliest time in
human history. Yes, I yes, Like the Surgeon General in
the United States this year put out an advisory warning,
you know, and they used to put advisory warning on
like cigarettes. Yes, the new cigarettes. This loneliness, and they're
showing that, like, you know, a huge percent of people,
(11:53):
as many as half of the people in America are lonely.
The loneliest people in America are teenagers. Teenagers and that
a large all this time on their mobiles, their device,
and the lonelier they are, the higher the rates of
depression and mental health issues. And so what is the
(12:14):
solution to this, Well, we're not proposing we're going to
solve this, but I think what we need to do
is I think what people are missing as community, and
I mean real community in the physical world. They're missing
connection with one another, they're missing having real experiences in
the physical world, and they're missing a sense of hope
that they can change their destiny, that they can do
(12:37):
more than just do social media activism, that they can
actually get into their community, build their own life and
contribute to their community and meet one another. And so
what I want to do in this next chapter of
Airbnb is to go much bigger than just monetizing your home.
We'll talk about, you know, in the future, maybe I'll
come back and tell you more about what those plans are.
(12:59):
But I want to really innovate on our system of trust.
I want to take the strange out of stranger. I
want billion, hundreds of millions of people to really feel
like when they come to Airbnb, they have this secure
trusted community that we the company know all about you.
We understand your hopes, your dreams, what you want out
of your life, and that what we ultimately do, like
(13:21):
any good host, is we just match you and connect
you to other people. Maybe need a home, maybe you
want to have an experience, you need a service. There's
a bunch of things that we can do and that
we can create tens of millions of entrepreneurs, and by
bringing enough people together in the physical world, we can
make this world feel a little bit smaller. And that's
(13:42):
ultimately what I'd like to contribute.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Are going beyond housing, absolutely beyond a rental experience.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
I think there's life experiences and I think ultimately, you know,
like education is going to be a big part of it,
because travel is one of the ultimate like one of
the best ways to learn is by travel, span your mind.
You have real experiences. They're incredibly vivid. So again you're.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Sarah Friar, next door need to be just like talking
to it.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Yeah, definitely, yeah, definitely, Yeah. We're definitely both in the
community business, and I just think, yeah, I think we're
just getting started, but I think that what we need
to do. I mean, I mean, if I were just
end with this thought. Whatever problems we have in the world,
we have the technology to solve. The problem isn't a
lack of technology, and this is the worst technology will
ever be in our lifetime. But what we need is cooperation,
(14:32):
and we need a grand vision that we all can
work towards. And that vision is going to require cooperation.
It's going to be very hard to cooperate for fighting.
And at some point we probably need to listen to
one another. And I don't know how these arguments that
are happening in society get resolved except for at some
point people listening and working together and realizing that we'll
(14:57):
all have more if we work together than if we fight.
And I and again, that's what I think this world
is going to need. And almost all problems are global,
global warming, global nuclear armament, Like you know, the problems
are global, global poverty. These are global problems. The world
is getting more interconnected, and so I think that there's
(15:19):
a huge opportunity and I think the next generation they
just need hope, and that hope needs to come from
a vision, and that vision needs to come from the
sense that you are you were born in this world,
but you can leave behind a better one and you
can change things. And here are the tools. And the
tools you have are better than any tools any human
(15:39):
has ever had in human history. And you're as smart
as all the people that were born before you. So
you're smart as all the people before you, and you
have better tools in them than what's stopping you from
making anything you want in this world. I think it's
a mindset, it's a sense of cooperation, and I think
we can build something so much greater than what we
have today.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Thank you, thanks for listening to Hope Global Forms the dialogue.
We hope today's episode has inspired you. Keep the conversation
going by visiting Hope Globalforms dot org and follow us
on social at Hope Global Forum. You can find me
Esen Scan on Instagram at the Essence of Underscore. Join
(16:22):
us next time for more insights from leaders who are
shaping a better world
Welcome to Hope Global Forms, the dialogue where we bring
exclusive conversations with extraordinary leaders directly to you. I'm your
Hope Essence Scant and you can find me on Instagram
at the Essence of Underscore. This podcast is powered by
Hope Global Forms, an initiative of Operation Hope Designs to inspire,
educate and empower You. Visit us at Hope Globalforms dot
(00:24):
org and follow us on social at Hope Global Form.
In today's episode, we have Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb,
on redefining the Rules and his entrepreneurial journey.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
My parents are social workers. I'm from Albany, New York,
outside Albany, and one day my co founder, now Joe, says, Brian,
come to San Francisco. Let's start a company together. And
I remember like at that point, like I was totally
like I had one thousand dollars the bank. So I
pack everything in the back of old Honda Civic. October
(01:00):
two thousand and seven, I drive up to San Francisco
and my roommate Joe says, Brian, we got one problem.
And I said, what's that problem. He said, well, the
landlord just raised the rent twenty five percent, and we said, well,
what are you going to do? And we always thought
that every problem there was, creativity could work your way
out of that problem. And it turns out that that weekend,
(01:21):
an international design conference was coming to San Francisco. All
the hotels that the conference was recommending were sold out.
And then we had an idea. We said, well, what
if we just turned our house into a bed and
breakfast for this conference. So it's like a really simple idea.
We could host some extra designers, make some extra money.
But I told you, I said, we have one problem,
and he said, what's that problem. I said, we don't
(01:42):
have any beds. I just moved to San Francisco. So
Joe says, well, don't worry, we have three airbeds. We
pulled the three airbeds out of the closet, we inflated them,
and we called the airbed and Breakfast dot com.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Oh my god, there.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Air mattresses the whole and b hosts have now earned
one hundred and eighty billion dollars. But it started with
three airbeds in our living room.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Wow, air mattress, Airbnb.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
That's right, that's so cool.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
And it's been one hundred billion dollars.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Over one hundred and eighty billion hosts have earned. Yeah, like,
so for every like about fifteen hundred dollars spent in
the world, one dollars spent on Airbnb. And so obviously.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
We yeah, right back up again.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Yeah, so for every like one five hundred dollars spent
in the world, one of those dollars is spent on Airbnb.
So it's about the size of the economy of Croatia
if you were just compared to a country.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
That's unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
And the amazing thing aboutship.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Well, and and I think like you and I have
talked about this because you have a goal to you know,
spread entrepreneurship around the United States and a million black
businesses and around the world. And I think that you know, Airbnb, Like,
think about my story. I became an entrepreneur starting a
tech company, but before as a tech entrepreneur, I was
a host, you know, because I took the biggest asset
(03:08):
everyone has in their life is their home. And we said, well,
what if within ten to twenty minutes you could take
your asset and immediately start making money. So we created
the system of trust because the first time we came
up this idea. I remember, somebody said Brian. I said, yeah,
he goes, I hope that's not the only idea you're
working on. He said why? He said, because strangers will
(03:28):
never trust one another to let them in their homes.
So we said, well, what if they weren't strangers? And
they said, what do you mean? I said, well, what
if we both had profiles? What if we can message
each other? What if all payments handled through the platform,
And what if after the stay, you and I reviewed
each other? And what if we provided even more protections,
like if your home gets damaged, we'll cover up to
three million dollars of damage protection, and like we have
(03:49):
AI screen and technology to prevent parties. And we just
did all these different things. And it turns out that
when you design a system of trust, suddenly you enable
commerce and you make something easy for people. Then suddenly
you have millions of entrepreneurs. And so we have over
four almost five million host If you put your home
(04:09):
in Airbnb, half the people put their home in every
you get a booking within three days, Within three days,
you start making money four or five hundred dollars immediately.
And you know, just in Georgia, here in Georgia, hosts
last year earned five hundred million dollars. Wow, fifty six
percent of the host Atlanta or women. So it's a
very diverse audience and I think it's an ultimate equalizer.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Five hundred million dollars in Georgia people Georgia just last year.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Just last year in Georgia. Hey, then we got a
couple out there. I know. We've been working very closely
with your team. And one of the big things that
one of the big tool sets you have is financial literacy.
And I think one of the pieces of financial literacy
is understanding the assets that you have. And again I
think helping people understand that you're already paying for this
(04:56):
asset if youre already live in a home, or there's
an asset available if you want to basically get a
second home, and understanding the really basics of cash flow,
what airbembe can generate, what your basic cost are. It
is one of the most amazing types of economic opportunities.
The averagose United States makes fourteen thousand dollars a year.
Most of this is supplemental income, and here in Atlanta,
(05:18):
I think half the hosts are small business owners. About
one in ten or teachers one and ten or artist,
So you've got an incredibly diverse group. And I think
like one of the things you and I share is
if you want to change the world, you should do
two things. Well you should do more than two things,
but two things that we believe. The first thing is
allow everyone to be an entrepreneur, because when everyone's an entrepreneur,
(05:40):
then they start to own their own destiny. They can
lift themselves up. And if we can give the tools
for people to be entrepreneurs. The problem is, entrepreneur sounds
like a big, scary thing, but it turns out that
everything in the world that was big started small. It
started with a single step within three days. So if
we can make a small step, you can grow. Thing
I've always believed is if you want to change the world,
(06:02):
you should bring people together. You should bring people together,
especially people that look, sound and come from different backgrounds.
And if you bring those two people together, then they're
going to realize the other is not so other people
are fundamentally the same. And the thing I've learned over
over Airbobe's used been used more than one and a
half billion times, so more than one Airbnb has been
(06:24):
used more than one and a half billion times in
two hundred and twenty countries and regions. That means that,
you know, that's most countries in the world other than Iran,
North Korea, Sassudan, Crimea, Belarus, Russia, but other than it
was in Belarus Russia until obviously last year. So what
is that lesson people? I am shocked myself at how
(06:47):
well this idea works. And we came up with the
idea fifteen sixteen years ago, and you were to tell
me that like a billion and a half people would
live together. What I've learned most people are funnily good,
and we are, at some deeper level ninety nine point
nine percent the same. And it sometimes takes you to travel,
It takes you to walk in someone else's shoes to
realize that that person, those types of people that I
(07:10):
thought were totally different than me, they're not that different
after all. And that travel in living together in community
can be the ultimate education. And if we can educate
enough people about one another, allow them to own their destiny.
You know, five million hosts today could be tens of
millions a host. You know, we're adding tens of thousands
of black hosts. The United States every year, and I
(07:32):
believe that's just the beginning, because these are seeds that
will turn into I think, a really big garden.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Real talk, because they can be very intoxicating. Being one
of the wealthiest, most powerful people in commerce in the world,
it can go to your head. It hasn't gone to yours.
Do you think that all these experiences have actually made
you a better person?
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Somebody once said, you tend to be the average of
the people surround yourself with, and you also are the
accumulation of all of your experiences. I never, I like
to joke, I never really got into this to make
a lot of money because if I did, I wouldn't
have been inflating air mattresses. So it did not seem
like a good way to make money. And you know,
I'm a designer by training, so like my whole thing
(08:19):
was I wanted to just design something and solve someone's problem.
But I grew up not traveling very much.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
You know.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
I remember, like once a year my parents are social worker,
so once a year we go on an airplane because
my mom like would go to a conference, and like
they would pay for a conference, so it would turn
it into the family vacation. And the first vacation I
ever went to was Saint Louis because that's where the
conference was, and that was the first time I was
an airplane. And every year we moved to a different place.
And I remember that travel was like the ultimate education,
(08:48):
because I don't remember every day I went on a
school bus, but I remember every single place I traveled to.
I can tell you every trip I've been to, every
place I've been, but I can't tell you all the
times I went to school. And so travel became like
an education for me. But then when I started the company.
Starting a company, somebody once said, is like jumping off
a cliff and assembling the airplane in the way down,
(09:11):
and you got to like just learn and learn. And
I think the number one trait you need, or one
of the number one traits, is curiosity. I think that's
the same trait. It comes from travel, And so am
I a better person. I'm a more complete person because
I have seen so much more of the world. I've
seen so much more of people. You know, I grew
up leaving the world was the way it was, and
(09:32):
that you have to fit into that world and you
have to, you know, fitting in is a really important
thing growing up and that you can't really change that
much about the world and it is the way it is,
and people over there they're like that, and these people
are like this. I mean, it's kind of funny. People
without passports tend to be the people with the strongest
opinions of other people. That's crazy. And so it turns
(09:55):
out that we just need to come in contact with
more people, more ideas. When I look at the people
on this stage, it's been an incredibly diverse group, and
like that is one of the superpowers that we all have,
is that we shamelessly take the best ideas from everyone
in the best ideas when so.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
In some ways you're still a social worker. I mean,
your mom and dad were social workers, and in some
ways you're just the world social worker.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
I think that there's something about the model that, like, yeah,
brings people together and ultimately people want to be listened to.
Everyone's got a story and this is just a context
for conversation around kitchen tables all over the world. And
I think there's a lot of challenges that are happening
in the world. There's a few that I'll point out.
It seems like this country is more divided than it's
(10:47):
ever been, certainly more divided than I remember when I
was growing up. And that's surprising because we're all on
the internet, we're all on social media, and you think
the more we would have brought people together online, the
more we would have had some common grind. But I,
you know, I think that there's something about bringing people
(11:07):
together online that sometimes people repel each other. People don't
change their minds in YouTube comment sections. Your Instagram followers
aren't coming to your funeral. You know, these things are
not happening. But what we can do is that we
can help bring enough people together in the physical world
that we can ultimately remind people that they're not so different.
(11:28):
The other thing that's happening is people are more lonely
than they've ever been. This is the loneliest time in
human history. Yes, I yes, Like the Surgeon General in
the United States this year put out an advisory warning,
you know, and they used to put advisory warning on
like cigarettes. Yes, the new cigarettes. This loneliness, and they're
showing that, like, you know, a huge percent of people,
(11:53):
as many as half of the people in America are lonely.
The loneliest people in America are teenagers. Teenagers and that
a large all this time on their mobiles, their device,
and the lonelier they are, the higher the rates of
depression and mental health issues. And so what is the
(12:14):
solution to this, Well, we're not proposing we're going to
solve this, but I think what we need to do
is I think what people are missing as community, and
I mean real community in the physical world. They're missing
connection with one another, they're missing having real experiences in
the physical world, and they're missing a sense of hope
that they can change their destiny, that they can do
(12:37):
more than just do social media activism, that they can
actually get into their community, build their own life and
contribute to their community and meet one another. And so
what I want to do in this next chapter of
Airbnb is to go much bigger than just monetizing your home.
We'll talk about, you know, in the future, maybe I'll
come back and tell you more about what those plans are.
(12:59):
But I want to really innovate on our system of trust.
I want to take the strange out of stranger. I
want billion, hundreds of millions of people to really feel
like when they come to Airbnb, they have this secure
trusted community that we the company know all about you.
We understand your hopes, your dreams, what you want out
of your life, and that what we ultimately do, like
(13:21):
any good host, is we just match you and connect
you to other people. Maybe need a home, maybe you
want to have an experience, you need a service. There's
a bunch of things that we can do and that
we can create tens of millions of entrepreneurs, and by
bringing enough people together in the physical world, we can
make this world feel a little bit smaller. And that's
(13:42):
ultimately what I'd like to contribute.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Are going beyond housing, absolutely beyond a rental experience.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
I think there's life experiences and I think ultimately, you know,
like education is going to be a big part of it,
because travel is one of the ultimate like one of
the best ways to learn is by travel, span your mind.
You have real experiences. They're incredibly vivid. So again you're.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Sarah Friar, next door need to be just like talking
to it.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Yeah, definitely, yeah, definitely, Yeah. We're definitely both in the
community business, and I just think, yeah, I think we're
just getting started, but I think that what we need
to do. I mean, I mean, if I were just
end with this thought. Whatever problems we have in the world,
we have the technology to solve. The problem isn't a
lack of technology, and this is the worst technology will
ever be in our lifetime. But what we need is cooperation,
(14:32):
and we need a grand vision that we all can
work towards. And that vision is going to require cooperation.
It's going to be very hard to cooperate for fighting.
And at some point we probably need to listen to
one another. And I don't know how these arguments that
are happening in society get resolved except for at some
point people listening and working together and realizing that we'll
(14:57):
all have more if we work together than if we fight.
And I and again, that's what I think this world
is going to need. And almost all problems are global,
global warming, global nuclear armament, Like you know, the problems
are global, global poverty. These are global problems. The world
is getting more interconnected, and so I think that there's
(15:19):
a huge opportunity and I think the next generation they
just need hope, and that hope needs to come from
a vision, and that vision needs to come from the
sense that you are you were born in this world,
but you can leave behind a better one and you
can change things. And here are the tools. And the
tools you have are better than any tools any human
(15:39):
has ever had in human history. And you're as smart
as all the people that were born before you. So
you're smart as all the people before you, and you
have better tools in them than what's stopping you from
making anything you want in this world. I think it's
a mindset, it's a sense of cooperation, and I think
we can build something so much greater than what we
have today.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Thank you, thanks for listening to Hope Global Forms the dialogue.
We hope today's episode has inspired you. Keep the conversation
going by visiting Hope Globalforms dot org and follow us
on social at Hope Global Forum. You can find me
Esen Scan on Instagram at the Essence of Underscore. Join
(16:22):
us next time for more insights from leaders who are
shaping a better world
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