Management information system

Briefly describe the background of the chosen company, organization or industry;

In 2007 two San Francisco roommates realized that they wouldn’t be able to afford rent on their apartment. There happened to be a large design conference coming to town and hotels were all booked up. That’s when Joe Gebbia suggested to Brian Chesky that they put in a mattress and offer their space including wifi and breakfast to these “young designers.” That first trial produced 3 clients and the two thought that they had a bankable idea. After many rejection letters and several rewrites to their original concept, the team thought that they finally had their idea polished. Just in time for the 2008 Democratic Convention in Denver Gebbia, Chesky and their newest partner Nathan Blecharyczyk rolled out their latest version. Unfortunately, they weren’t making the money that they had expected. They used a very unique marketing strategy to get the word out about their product. Selling $40 boxes of cereal with  cartoons of the candidates and a link to more information about their “pad crashing site for travelers”(techcrunch.com). This led to them finally getting the name recognition and seed money funding that would allow them to take their idea to the next level.

Today Airbnb is a well known company, valued at around $18 Billion as of April (cnbc.com) and has plans to go public in 2020.

Define the business problem you want to solve?