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Paul Graham Gave Airbnb One Piece of Advice. It Changed Everything.

By Paul Graham · Startup Growth · 2 min read

Graham drew a chart: it's better to have 100 people that love you than a million that sort of like you. Chesky: that was totally freeing. I was like — how am I going to get a million people? But I can find 100.

Key Points

Graham's advice: 100 people who love you beats a million who sort of like you
Chesky and Gebbia flew to New York, went door to door, lived with hosts, took photos themselves
By April 2009, hundreds of people loved them and it became clear there was a real business

That was totally freeing. I'm like — how the hell am I going to get a million people to do this if I can't even get my mom or my sister? But I can find 100 people.

100 Who Love You

Chesky: Paul Graham drew out this chart. He said — it's better to have 100 people that love you than a million customers that just sort of like you. If you have 100 people that absolutely love your product, they'll tell 100 people, and then they'll tell 100 people. Almost all movements in history have grown this way.

The problem in Silicon Valley is the general wisdom is — I need millions of people to use this, they've got to like it enough to share it. That's totally the wrong way to think about it. Graham said: all you have to do is get 100 people to love you. Don't worry about millions. That was totally freeing.

100 who love you beats a million who sort of like you. That was totally freeing.

Door to Door in New York

Chesky: We decided — do things that don't scale. If all you need is 100 people to love you, do things that don't scale. We literally commuted from Mountain View to New York. Joe and I would go door to door. New York was where most of our community was.

We'd meet with every one of our hosts. We'd live with them. We'd write the first reviews. I'd go there and think — wow, the photos are terrible, this is actually a really nice house. The host couldn't figure out how to get photos onto their computer.

We'd go door to door in New York. Meet every host. Live with them. Write the first reviews.

The Founders Are Also the Photographers

Chesky: I thought — what if you clicked a button and a photographer next day would magically show up? They thought that'd be amazing. So I went home, borrowed a camera from a friend in Brooklyn who was a photographer, knocked on the door and said — hello, I'm the photographer.

They're like — wow, this is a small company. The founders also photograph my home. I used to carry a bank ledger in my backpack. If you needed to get paid, I'd write out a check and hand it to you at your door.

I'm the photographer. They said — wow, the founders also photograph my home.

By April 2009

Chesky: If you just think about building something that even one person loves — it's super easy. Especially if it's a service. Then you go person by person. Once you have 100 people, you focus on figuring out how to scale that. It's a totally different problem to scale something 100 people love.

By April 2009, we had hundreds of people that loved us. People started booking and it became clear there was a real business here.

By April 2009, hundreds of people loved us. It became clear there was a real business.