Airbnb might be worth almost $80 billion, but CEO Brian Chesky wants it to act like a startup — especially now that we’re firmly in the AI era.
On an episode of The Verge’s “Decoder” podcast that aired on Monday, Chesky said that embracing “founder mode,” a term that he helped popularize, is key to acting like a nimble startup.
“In the age of AI, my argument is you need to be founder oriented/founder mode, because you’re going to need to be able to move like a startup to be able to adapt,” he said. “I think these big, professionally managed companies aren’t organized to be able to do that, so they don’t bode well for this new world.”
AI is likely the third big technological wave, Chesky said, after the personal computer and the internet. Embracing founder mode is key to hopping on the wave and remaining open to change, he said.
“All of us have to be moving as fast as we can,” he said. “That has to do with culture. That’s why, to me, so many roads lead back to the conversation we have with org charts and founder mode, because you don’t want to miss the next wave.”
Chesky talked about founder mode on the same podcast last year, saying people misunderstand the term. It’s not about “swagger,” he said, but instead about being focused on the details. The whole ethos is “that great leadership is presence, not absence,” Chesky said last year.
The details — and larger vision — of Airbnb have changed recently, and Chesky said in the interview that it’s partly to adapt to the new AI world. The company launched Airbnb Services, where people can book things like private chefs, photographers, and personal trainers.
As AI digitizes the world, Chesky said the launch is partly an attempt to fill the “void” that’s being left, and that AI won’t replace “jobs that are people-to-people oriented.”
Axel Springer, Insider Inc.’s parent company, is an investor in Airbnb.
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