The Ticker
Airbnb — the ‘Cockroach of Startups’ — Finally Goes Public
In 2008, few believed the startup could convince people to open their homes to strangers. In 2020, they’re counting on it to rescue the travel industry.
Welcome to The Ticker, a series that examines everything you need to know about companies going public.
More than 12 years since its founding and less than nine months after the first U.S. lockdown order, Airbnb is slated to go public. It represents a remarkable show of resilience for a company in the travel and hospitality sectors, which were both battered by the coronavirus.
Airbnb’s performance during the pandemic may help persuade the market that much upside lies ahead. CEO Brian Chesky moved early this year to cut costs, adapt the business to a virtual world, and raise $2 billion in debt and equity to keep the lights on. The maneuvering worked and helped Airbnb rebound from an initial slump. That will no doubt reinforce the perception that Airbnb, founded during the Great Recession, is the uncrushable “cockroach of startups,” as Y Combinator founder Paul Graham once dubbed it.
Airbnb is not the same business it was in 2019. The pandemic transformed it, and that’s a good…
