9 Lessons I Learned from Brian Chesky about Creativity, Community, and Hyper-Scaling Startups

In 2008, two young designers found themselves in a situation that was both desperate and oddly ordinary. They couldn't pay their San Francisco rent.

That predicament—shared by thousands of people in expensive cities—could have ended with a credit card, a call to their parents, or a Craigslist sublet.

Instead, Brian Chesky and his roommate put three air mattresses on the floor of their apartment and decided to rent them out to strangers. They called it Airbed and Breakfast.

What makes this mo...