Question 1

True or false: Brian Chesky was the sole founder of Airbnb, with no co-founders.

Accepted Answer

False. Brian Chesky co-founded Airbnb with Joe Gebbia and Nathan Blecharczyk. Chesky and Gebbia met at the Rhode Island School of Design, and later recruited Blecharczyk.

Question 2

True or false: Chesky’s first Airbnb guests slept on an air mattress in his San Francisco apartment.

Accepted Answer

True. To pay rent in 2007, he and Joe Gebbia rented air mattresses in their living room, giving the company its name.

Question 3

True or false: Brian Chesky was a professional hockey player before co-founding Airbnb.

Accepted Answer

False. He studied industrial design and worked as an industrial designer before starting Airbnb. No hockey career.

Question 4

True or false: Brian Chesky turned down a $1 billion acquisition offer from Google in 2011.

Accepted Answer

True. In 2011, Google offered $1 billion for Airbnb, but CEO Brian Chesky rejected the deal, betting on long-term growth—a choice that led to massive success.

Question 5

True or false: Chesky wrote Airbnb’s original code for the first website himself.

Accepted Answer

False. Chesky is not a programmer; Nathan Blecharczyk, the technical co-founder, built the initial platform while Chesky focused on design.

Question 6

True or false: Brian Chesky co-founded Airbnb in 2008.

Accepted Answer

True. Chesky co-founded Airbnb with Joe Gebbia and Nathan Blecharczyk in August 2008, launching the platform that became a global hospitality service.

Question 7

True or false: Brian Chesky once lived in a different Airbnb listing every month for a year.

Accepted Answer

False. He did travel extensively for work but never committed to a full year of living in different Airbnbs—that’s a common myth.

Question 8

True or false: Brian Chesky graduated from Stanford University.

Accepted Answer

False. Chesky earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Industrial Design from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2004, not Stanford.

Brian Chesky Trivia Questions