In 2005 Brian and Joe graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design.Joe had been actively looking for cofounders and became friends with Brian. He told him at graduation "One day we're gonna start a company together."Fast forward 2 years. Joe is living in SF and convinces Brian to come live with him. Brian packs his bags and drives across the country.When he arrives, there's a small problem. He didn't ask how much rent would be ($1150) and didn't have the money.As they were thinking about different ways to make rent, they came up with the idea of renting out their living room.There was a design conference coming up at SXSW and the hotels were booked solid. They didn't have enough beds though but Joe had some airbeds from a camping trip.They put up posts saying that designers who were looking for a place to stay could stay with them for 80 bucks. They'd sleep on an airbed and get breakfast (airbedandbreakfast). They got 3 customers and accidentally validated Airbnb which is now valued at around $60B. (Kagan Validation)After their original success, they actually left the idea to work on a few others. Airbnb didn't seem that promising. (Having strangers sleeping on an airbed during conferences can't be a good idea right?) Eventually, when their other ideas failed, they kinda begrudgingly returned to Airbnb to see if they could make it work.Takeaways:- You can (and should) validate your ideas quickly.- Ideas that seem stupid can actually be great. Ideas that seem obviously great are often stupid.- In order to start something big you don't have to start big. In fact, it's better to start small and let it escalate into something big.If you're interested in the story of Airbnb and the lessons you can apply to your own company, check out the following essay series here.Go build the future.RJ see hubwealthy.com/wealthy
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