LEADERSHIP
Designing for human connection Chesky brought a designer’ s mindset to Airbnb from the start. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, he approached business through the lens of experience and human connection. While many technology leaders focused primarily on scale and efficiency, Chesky focused on how people felt when using Airbnb. From the platform’ s design to the quality of host interactions, he pushed the company to think beyond transactions and to focus on creating a sense of belonging. That philosophy became one of Airbnb’ s defining principles and a key differentiator in a crowded travel market. Chesky’ s leadership style has remained unusually hands-on as the company scaled. He regularly reviews product concepts and customer experiences, and lives out of Airbnb listings himself to understand the platform exactly as guests and hosts do. Even after Airbnb passed 50 million users, he continued sitting in on entry-level customer support calls, believing a fresh set of eyes could catch flaws that data alone would miss. Scale, in his view, should never come at the expense of quality.
NAME: BRIAN CHESKY JOB TITLE: CO-FOUNDER AND CEO COMPANY: AIRBNB
Brian Chesky Co-founded Airbnb in 2008 alongside Joe Gebbia and Nathan Blecharczyk. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, he serves as CEO, having built the platform around design, community and belonging.