Airbnb
co-founder Joe Gebbia is stepping down from his full-time
operating role at the company to pursue new ventures, including “a complementary
product to Airbnb.”
“The primary
reason for this transition is that this is the only company I’ve ever helped
build, and my brain is bursting with more ideas to bring to the world. My first
new venture is a startup called parenthood, at which I’ll be taking on the role
of Dad,” Gebbia says in an email sent to employees.
“The others
involve a complementary product to Airbnb, documentary filmmaking and various
philanthropic initiatives. I’m looking forward to sharing more about these with
you soon.”
Gebbia, Brian
Chesky and Nate Blecharczyk founded Airbnb in their apartment in San Francisco
in 2008.
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While stepping
back from day-to-day operations, Gebbia says he will continue to provide input
to Chesky and Blecharczyk, attend stakeholder committee meetings and serve on
the board of director of Airbnb and its foundation, Airbnb.org.
“I’ve
been lucky to call Joe one of my best friends since our first year together at
RISD (Rhode Island School of Design). Together with Nate, the three of us have
built an unbreakable bond that helped us through our early days at
Y-Combinator, navigate the depths of the pandemic, and create a global
community of hosts and guests. What I’m most thankful for is that the three of
us - Joe, Nate and I - are still together, still meeting every Sunday. We built
a dream together. And now, even after all of these years, we still continue to
dream,” Chesky says.
And
says Blecharczyk, “One of the special things about the way Brian, Joe and I
work together is that we come at a problem from different angles and find
different solutions. We have learned that our different perspectives,
especially when integrated into one holistic solution, can be very powerful.
The three of us have had a lot of fun building Airbnb together, and I look
forward to continuing to work closely with Joe, as a board member, shareholder,
co-founder, and friend, to build a bigger and better Airbnb.”
Airbnb
has grown into one of the world’s largest travel companies, with
revenue of $1.5
billion in the first quarter of this year
, up 80% over the first quarter of
2019 before the pandemic and before it listed on the
public markets at the
end of 2020
.