“If your company is ever used as the subject of the “X for Y” analogy, that’s success. AirBnB used to be the eBay for vacation rental. Now other companies are the Airbnb of things.”
– far33d, Hacker News
With Airbnb about to enter the billion-dollar startup club, we’ve seen an influx of “X is Airbnb of Y” headlines. While the “X for Y” trope is extremely common in the notoriously… → Read More
While the idea of ‘online to offline’ for purchasing is proving to be powerful in the local commerce world, the trend of linking the physical world to the web is producing a number of startups that are innovating beyond just purchasing from local merchants or finding a product nearby. Many of the most interesting startups that have emerged over the past year or so are making our lives in the real… → Read More
Just like Airbnb operates a marketplace for spaces for travelers and whatnot to stay, Kodesk aims to do much of the same for spaces for freelancers and whatnot to work.
Essentially trying to build a peer-to-peer desk sharing community, Kodesk lets office space owners provide spaces to individuals in need of a temporary place to get some work done. → Read More
It was just a little over a month ago that I wrote “We’re In The Middle Of A Terrible Blubble!” – a post about the difference between the Internet bubble of 2000 and the “blubble” (as I call it) that we’re in today. The short version of the post is this: venture capitalists like to declare valuation bubbles to fight rising valuations, and the press eats it up because it’s dramatic.
in 1999 the… → Read More
Airbnb just raised $100 million at a $1 billion valuation, and it’s using some of that cash (and/or stock) to acquire a German ‘equivalent’ dubbed Accoleo. This move signals Airbnb’s willingness to expand worldwide – the startup will establish its first European office in Hamburg, Germany.
Coincidentally, one of its main rivals in Europe, venture-backed 9flats – started by Qype founder Stephan… → Read More
According to several sources Airbnb is in the process of closing a whopper of a funding round: $100 million or more at a $1 billion-plus valuation. The round is being lead by Andreessen Horowitz, and includes participation from DST, say our sources.
That’s a big increase from the company’s last funding round of $7.2 million, which included Sequoia Capital, Greylock, SV Angel, Ashton Kutcher and… → Read More
Today at our TechCrunch Disrupt conference in New York, Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky had some news to share on stage when talking to our own Erick Schonfeld. Apparently, Airbnb will be launching a new option, sublets, in the next few days.
Chesky didn’t dive into many details, but people will now be able to lease out their apartments for longer periods of time on the site (around 30 days). → Read More
Today at our TechCrunch Disrupt conference in New York, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky took the stage with our own Erick Schonfeld to talk about the disruption they’re offering up in their markets. Notably, both have products that are so disruptive that they have legal challenges from not just other companies, but governments (on the city and state level).
“I think I’ve got… → Read More
At Disrupt NYC, we’re all about startups. We’ve culled two dozen of the hottest startups from over 500 applicants to launch at the event (which starts May 23, get tickets here). We are also bringing startups well on their way to disrupting existing markets onstage to share their experiences.
Two sessions I am particularly excited about will bring the founders of Airbnb, Uber, and Quora to… → Read More
There are dozens of reasons why Airbnb is awesome. Take its truly disruptive model, for instance. Or if that doesn’t do it for you, how about the fact that you can use it to rent entire countries? But if there’s one weakness with the service, it’s that using it for the first time can be a bit unnerving. Who am I staying with? How do I know that their apartment isn’t really a dump? Reviews and… → Read More
Many years ago, after graduating college, I came home before moving to NYC, wondering how I would scrounge together the money for the first month’s rent and security deposit so my friends and I could all live together in the Big Apple. I had one month to get the cash, and instead of going out for traditional, hourly-wage work, I decided to go through all of my old stuff and throw it on eBay. In… → Read More
As a concept, Airbnb is awesome. Why spend a ton of money renting a hotel, when you can rent a furnished apartment from someone who isn’t using it when you’ll be in town? Or maybe you just want to rent a couch? Or a boat? But maybe that’s all thinking a little small. Why not say, rent an entire village? Or a city? Or even a country? Well now you can.
Perhaps you’d like to rent the mountain… → Read More
Up until now, if you’ve heard of Hipmunk, it has been as the “easy flight search service”. But today they’re adding another layer to their business. It’s an obvious one, but a big one: hotel search.
Like their flight search options, if you jump to the hotel search side, you’re presented with simple fields to fill out: “where”, “in”, and “out” — for where you’re going, when you’re going, and… → Read More
We’re quite big fans of Airbnb, the “community marketplace for space” here at TechCrunch, and we’re far from the only ones.
This morning, the young company announced that it has hit a fairly big milestone: one million nights have been booked through the service since its launch (including a couple by TechCrunch staff, I might add). Airbnb also says it has registered month-over-month growth of 65%… → Read More
I don’t know how many times I’ve been visiting a city, looking for a place to work, and have just ended up in a Starbucks. I hate working in Starbucks. But I know they have WiFi, so I go there anyway. Time and time again. But what if a service existed that showed you other options for getting work done when you’re on the go? That’s exactly what LiquidSpace is going to be.
The service, which… → Read More
I’ve caught on to this SlideShare presentation fairly late, so there’s a chance you’ve already seen it (it’s garnered nearly 50,000 views so far), but it’s definitely worth sharing here. The presentation was made by Nick De Mey from Board of Innovation, which does a phenomenal job analyzing and visualizing business models in a wide range of industries.
For an example, check their recent look at … → Read More
This past December, I used Airbnb for the first time. After two years worth of buzz reading about the startup on TechCrunch and other places, I was interested, but skeptical. Turns out, it is just as awesome as it sounds. You can get a room, in various places around the world, in great neighborhoods, for bargain prices. And apparently I wasn’t alone in using the service in 2010. They saw nearly… → Read More
Yesterday, I noted that we were giving away two free tickets to LeWeb ’10. But I was quick to point out that while the free tickets, normally priced at around 2,000 euros, are a great deal, you would still have to pay for your own travel to Paris and lodging for the conference, which takes place on December 8 and 9. Well guess what? You can cross lodging off of that list.
Airbnb has graciously… → Read More
AirBnB, a startup that provides a marketplace to connect travelers with people who have some room for accommodation to spare in cities, has seen considerable success (and drawn a little controversy as well) with its model. Today, we’ve come across a nifty startup called GetAround that has taken AirBnB’s model and applied it to car rentals.
The startup, which provides a social car sharing service… → Read More
Gotta respect startup founders who know how to really eat their own dogfood: Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky last week moved out of the 3 bedroom apartment that was the driving force behind the establishment of the company back in 2007 (and still serves as its main office), and will be ‘living on Airbnb’ until at least the end of the year.
Chesky will be using Airbnb, which is a… → Read More
Like a love child of eBay and CouchSurfing.com or craigslist, AirBnB lets anyone that owns space fit for accommodating travelers – be it a couch in a small apartment or the master bedroom of a 19th-century castle – post that space as a listing on its website and connect potential renters to its respective owners.
Once called Airbed and Breakfast in full, AirBnB aims to provide a secure online… → Read More
AirBed and Breakfast, an online portal for renting space on a stranger’s airbed or couch, has re-launched its website to AirBnB, an eBay-like marketplace for all accommodations. Now a Y-Combinator start-up (the startup is currently in the winter session of the incubator), AirBnB, which launched as AirBed and Breakfast last August, found that users wanted to use the site for more than just renting… → Read More
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