From near-failure to global giant: Airbnb's co-founder on how it all almost never happened

Behind the Business with Michelle Toh · Jun 18, 2026 · 1h 8m

We are back! Our first guest of the new season is Airbnb co-founder & Chief Strategy Officer Nathan Blecharczyk.

Airbnb now spans almost every country in the world. But there was a point early on where the team agreed: if things didn’t improve in 13 weeks, they’d quit. In our first episode of Season 2, co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk takes us inside the making of Airbnb — from “ramen profitability” and investor rejection to global expansion, crisis management and what comes next.

In this conversation, we dive into:

00:00: Introduction

03:51: Teaching himself to code at age 12 and becoming an…