Leaders Playbook: Inside Airbnb 1/28/26
Squawk Pod
CNBC
4.2 • 543 Ratings
🗓️ 28 January 2026
⏱️ 21 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | On this episode of Leader's Playbook, |
| 0:03.8 | It all started with an airbed. |
| 0:08.2 | Inside Airbnb, the home sharing app that has forever changed the way we travel. |
| 0:13.7 | Airbnb today is now known as a noun of verb all over the world. |
| 0:17.8 | Meet the leader who convinced people in hundreds of countries to let total |
| 0:21.9 | strangers sleep in their beds. I just maybe had this core insight that people are basically good. |
| 0:28.9 | They could trust one another. Find out how an industrial design major turned founder and CEO |
| 0:33.7 | runs a multi-billion dollar company. At that moment, I realized that's what a leader is. |
| 0:38.8 | Learn how the company's executives led Airbnb through one of its biggest challenges. |
| 0:43.6 | We lost 80% of our business in eight weeks. People are asking, is this the end of Airbnb? |
| 0:48.8 | Our business has effectively evaporated overnight. Plus, how a major shift in how the CEO approached leadership |
| 0:56.0 | helped save the company. I was told to hire great people and trust them and get out of the |
| 1:00.5 | way. I think that is terrible advice for the vast majority of founders. Leaders playbook, |
| 1:04.9 | Airbnb, starts now. I'm meeting up with Airbnb's co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky at this estate in Beverly Hills, |
| 1:15.6 | a five-star listing he's Airbnb being. |
| 1:18.6 | Chesky was in town to make a big announcement. |
| 1:20.9 | I am so excited. |
| 1:22.5 | Launching Airbnb's super app, allowing users to book more than a place to stay. |
| 1:27.5 | If you want to get makeup done for an event, if you want to hire a caterer, if you want to get a |
| 1:32.8 | massage, you can just go to our app, you can book it. |
| 1:35.4 | You don't need to be on a trip. |
| 1:36.7 | It's one of the biggest changes he's made to the app in 17 years. |
... |
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