Airbnb’s first pitch deck
Airbnb’s first pitch deck has been circulating of late, and while it’s a great lesson in how to put together a deck and launch not only a company, but a viable business (Lessons From Airbnb’s Investor Pitch Deck), remember – seven investors passed on it. Quelle dommage and for the record, we first heard about the company not long after it launched, when an early adopter frequent-traveler British friend put it on our radar. We thought it was a no-brainer (only couchsurfing had been around before that, which might have been their closest competitor, but that company had no revenue model. There’s a non-starter for you).
“We may be nearing the end of a cycle where growth is valued more than profitability,” Bill Gurley said on Twitter. “It could be at an inflection point.”
What happens when the bills come due and the waiter comes around with the check? As always happens.
Airbnb is the apotheosis of the sharing economy: simple, elegant, asset light. And they’ve been taking their fair share of revenues generated since Day 1.
There’s a world of difference between hipsters and cooligans.
Winter is coming, according to Gurley (Bill Gurley to Unicorns: Winter Is Coming. You Ready?) and some of the more squirrely unicorns who’ve been playing fast and loose with the bottom line and to companies who hope to survive the meltdown and move forward, the halcyon days are about to come to an end. WHEN THE TIDE GOES OUT – HAVE YOUR SWIMWEAR ON, warns Adam Quinton. Nothing like sobering times to separate the wheat from the dross. And the true unicorns from those who turned out to be little more than party animals. Onward and forward.