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Fortune
Fortune
Prarthana Prakash

Airbnb's CEO says a $40 cereal box changed the course of the multi-billion-dollar company

A picture of Brian Chesky (Credit: Eugene Gologursky—Fast Company/Getty Images)

Airbnb has redefined travel for people on vacation, taking short weekend trips, or looking for new adventures in their own cities. But it didn’t start that way. 

Early on, cofounder and CEO Brian Chesky was rejected numerous times by investors when he tried to pitch his business, he said in an interview at Stanford Graduate School of Business in February. He said investors struggled to see why people would want to sleep in strangers’ homes. 

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