Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky on what founder mode really means

Decoder with Nilay Patel

Today, I’m talking with Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, who is only the second person to be on Decoder three times — the other is Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Brian made a lot of waves earlier this year when he started talking about something called “founder mode,” or at least, when well-known investor Paul Graham wrote a blog post about Brian’s approach to running Airbnb that gave it that name.

Founder mode has since become a little bit of a meme, and I was excited to have Brian back on to talk about it, and what specifically he thinks it means. Talking to Brian is a ride, but I think I held my own, and I think you’ll really like this one.

Links:

• Founder Mode | Paul Graham
• Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky is taking it back to basics (2023) | Decoder
• Why the future of work is the future of travel, with Airbnb’s Brian Chesky (2021) | Decoder
• Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky: ‘I Never Called it Founder Mode’ | Skift
• Why Silicon Valley is abuzz over ‘Founder Mode’ | NYT
• After Apple, Jony Ive Is Building an Empire of His Own | NYT
• Airbnb can now help you find somebody to manage your listing | The Verge
• Airbnb creates new chief business officer role | Reuters
• Why Jeff Bezos Says Your Goal Is to Make 3 Good Decisions per Day | Inc
• Taking the Mystery out of Scaling a Company | Ben Horowtiz

Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/24043611

Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Our producers are Kate Cox and Nick Statt. Our editor is Callie Wright. Our supervising producer is Liam James.

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.

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