The Talk That Started It

At a YC event in 2024, Brian Chesky told a room of founders that the conventional wisdom about scaling a company had nearly wrecked Airbnb. As the company grew, everyone told him to hire good people and give them room to run their divisions. He did. The results were disastrous.

So he studied how Steve Jobs actually ran Apple and rebuilt his approach around it. It worked: PG notes Airbnb's free cash flow margin is now among the best in Silicon Valley.

The striking part was the room's reaction. Founder after founder said they'd been given the same advice, followed it, and had it damage their companies. The most successful people in the room had quietly concluded the standard playbook was wrong.