Article · 12 min read

How Design Thinking Transformed Airbnb from Failing Startup to Billion Dollar Business

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This is the famous story of Airbnb flying to New York and photographing listings door to door, the most literal example of doing things that do not scale to fix a dead marketplace. Revenue doubled that week after eight flat months, which is the proof that hand work on supply changes the whole market. Read it when you need the courage to go do unscalable things yourself.

• Founders personally fixed listings instead of writing guidelines
• One week of manual work doubled revenue after months of flat
• The unscalable fix taught them what to build for everyone else