Ricordate il mio post Fare Startup E’ Difficile, No Peggio? Ci scherziamo spesso, con Nicola, per Blomming. AirBnB è una delle startup più divertenti del mondo: permette di concedere in affitto i nostri spazi inutilizzati – tipicamente una stanza da proporre come B&B, ma anche un posto-letto sul divano o un’intera casa. Per chi lo usa rappresenta così una fantastica alternativa non tanto per viaggiare a basso costo (le soluzioni disponibili sono anche di alto livello) ma per visitare case private, conoscere realtà e persone particolari e live like a local. In perfetto stile “2.0″ è basato su recommendation, feedback, commenti e profili degli utenti. Io ho trovato una sistemazione a New York con l’equivalente Roomorama e mi sono trovato benissimo.

Ora hanno raccolto finanziamenti per un totale di 7,8 milioni di dollari. Ma leggete un po’ la loro storia:

Airbnb approaches many investors in 2008. Most say “the market is too small.” Some are concerned 2 of the 3 founders are designers, thus creating a founding team DNA different from the success patterns they are looking for.

Running out of money, Airbnb starts selling collectible cereal, and makes $30,000 in the process. (See the Startup School talk for more about this)

With their website low in traffic, their kitchen is without food. Airbnb starts living off their collectible cereal. This is a low point.

At a dinner with the founders of Justin.tv in November, 2008, Airbnb is convinced to apply for Y-Combinator, and gets accepted. PG says he is skeptical of the idea, but likes the founders because they “won’t die,” and are “very imaginative.” Airbnb finally raises $20,000.

By Demo Day in April, 2009, Airbnb becomes “ramen profitable,” and finally stops eating the leftover collectible cereal in their kitchen. Sequoia Capital takes notice. Sequoia leads a Seed Round of $600,000, led by Greg McAdoo. Keith Rabois, Kevin Hartz, and Jawed Karim of Youniversity Ventures participate.

700,000 nights booked later, Airbnb announces a Series A Round of $7,200,000 led by Sequoia Capital and Greylock Partners to expand from 8,000 cities to every city known to humankind. Reid Hoffman leads the round for Greylock Partners. New angels include Ron Conway, Jeremy Stoppelman, and Elad Gil.

Tostina eh :)