Who could have imagined that an air mattress and some Pop-Tarts would disrupt an entire industry? In 2007, two roommates looking to make some money decided to rent out the extra space in their apartment to some designers coming to town for a four-day conference—and stumbled into a billion-dollar business in the process.
That company, of course, is Airbnb.
Brian Chesky, cofounder and CEO, has spent the past 17 years disrupting the lodging and temporary rental space. But it wasn’t always easy to learn how to be a leader, he said at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference back in 2013.
“The problem is that there’s no appreciation for learning how to be a CEO,” Chesky said. “Your employees have needs, and you need to deliver.”
That’s why he assembled what he called a “CEO council,” something that he recommends to all founders who are actively running their own company. This consists of a group of five or so people who can advise founders on different matters as they get up to speed on what it takes to run a company.
Back in 2013, Chesky described learning to be a leader as a continuous process, and advised CEOs to always be growing faster than the company is. Chesky, of course, found his footing as chief executive. But a decade ago, he advised young leaders to be shameless when asking for help—you can’t be afraid and feel as though you are bothering someone.
“Once you get to a certain level of success, you have the ability to meet and talk to anybody, so you should be shamelessly resourceful,” he said.
Chesky’s learnings have catapulted his company to success, cementing its status on the Fortune 500 for the first time in 2023 at No. 450 with $8.4 billion in revenue, and jumping 54 spots on the 2024 list to No. 396.
And he didn’t do it alone.
“There’s an old saying that you are the average of the five people you surround yourself with. If you put yourself in positions where you can be around extraordinary people, you tend to adapt.”