Identify a successful small business that started in an incu

Identify a successful small business that started in an incubator and provide a half page information about that business.

Solution

Airbnb (Air bed and breakfast) is an American organisation which started its success story way back in August 2008. This company has the reputation of selling cereals in the name of Obama when they were not sure about which business to float in. Their story started in 2007 when the founders Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia couldn’t afford to pay rent. That is when the duo decided to turn the loft into a lodging space with 3 air beds on the floor and a promise of home cooked breakfast in the morning. They wanted to take advantage of hotel room shortage and that is the opportunity from where Airbnd blossomed. It was in the spring of 2009 that Air Bed and Breakfast was renamed to Airbnb. The company was running okay but still something was missing still in Spring 2010. They realised that a picture speaks a lot in order to convince the customers. They converted themselves into professional photographers and went door to door and take professional photographs of listings in New York and these listings started receiving 2x-3x the bookings. It was in the winter of 2010 that Airbnb found an incubator, Y Combinator who is undoubtedly the most famous and successful incubator and one of its kind who boasts of companies like Airbnb, Reddit and Dropbox as slumni who have been funded and supported by it.

In the year 2011 the company had seen 800 percent growth in the nights booked with listings in 89 different countries. In Spring 2011 the company hits 1 million nights booked and then the rest is history. The company has never looked back since then and stands as one of the most successful small businesses that started in an incubator.