Airbnb (YC W09) cofounder Brian Chesky interviewed by Ryan Seacrest on the Today Show

by Y Combinator3/29/2013

The 30-year-old is the founder of Airbnb, a website that lets you turn your home into a pseudo-hotel, renting it out to business or vacation travelers on a budget looking to find a couch, room, or even a whole house to stay in.

The idea, which may sound crazy to some, has taken off since Chesky started the company five years ago: 300,000 people have rented out their homes on the site, and 4 million travelers have used it to find a place to stay in locations around the world.

He is seen as one of the driving forces in the new and rapidly expanding “sharing economy,” in which more and more businesses are popping up based on the idea that people can share their resources. There are now a litany of startups based on this notion, from ride-sharing to office-sharing, and even pet-sharing.

“The stuff that matters in life is no longer stuff,” he told TODAY. “It’s other people. It’s relationships. It’s experience.”

Watch the interview at the Today Show website

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  • Y Combinator

    Y Combinator created a new model for funding early stage startups. Twice a year we invest a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200). The startups move to Silicon