Page 73 - Forbes Magazine-October 31, 2018

FORBES BRIAN CHESKY AIRBNB

el agency like Booking might charge. “I wouldn’t say they’re and Priceline for discounted bundles.
a better version. They’re a cheaper version,” says Alec Shtro- Glenn Fogel, the CEO of Booking Holdings, says his goal
mandel, who manages rooms for the Gowanus Inn boutique for the next ten years is to tie all the parts together to make it
hotel in Brooklyn on Airbnb. seamless to book a trip from start to finish. “Yes, this is going
Airbnb may be cheaper than its competitors, but it can’t to be a hard thing to do, but the people who have the highest
chance of achieving it are the people who have the scale and
the experience and have a lot of the foundational blocks al-
IN MANY WAYS THE AMAZON ready,” Fogel says. “That would be us.”
Chesky shares that vision of a seamless trip and sees the
COMPARISON IS A STRETCH. obvious acquisitions—big chain hotels, mainstream tour op-
RETAIL IS A $5.8 TRILLION erators, even transportation companies—but he’s not in-
terested in buying his way to growth. Instead, he refuses to
MARKET IN THE U.S., MUCH compromise on what he insists is Airbnb’s point of differenti-
LARGER THAN TRAVEL, EVEN ation: the feeling of belonging.
“I think the center of gravity for Airbnb should continue
IN ITS BROADEST SENSE. to be offering unique experiences that do not exist anywhere
else on the internet,” Chesky says.
yet offer their breadth. Booking Holdings’ growth has been
marked by lots of strategic acquisitions, and it already owns IF THE DREAM IS THE “AMAZONIFICATION” of Airbnb,
a lot of the pieces that Airbnb is just now starting to build. Chesky is aware that he has a long way to go. He’s poached
Booking has Kayak for flights, OpenTable for reservations, one of Bezos’ top lieutenants, the former head of Prime, to try
Rentalcars.Com for transportation, Agoda for travel in Asia to turn the Amazon analogy into a reality. Greg Greeley spent

UNICORNS AND THEIR ANCESTORS

EXCLUDING AIRBNB’S THREE COFOUNDERS, THERE ARE 14 FORBES 400 MEMBERS WHOSE FORTUNES DERIVE FROM
PRIVATELY HELD TECH COMPANIES. SOME FIRMS ARE UNICORNS, BUT MOST ARE MUCH OLDER. —ALEX KONRAD

JAMES GOODNIGHT $8.9B DAVID STEWARD $3.4B
SAS INSTITUTE (FOUNDED 1976) WORLD WIDE TECHNOLOGY (1990)
Analytics software IT services and solutions

TRAVIS KALANICK $5.9B JOSEPH LIEMANDT $3B
UBER (2009) TRILOGY SOFTWARE (1989)
Ride hailing; food delivery; freight Software services

DAVID SUN $5.4B THOMAS SIEBEL $2.9B BEN CHESTNUT:JAMEL TOPPIN; THAI LEE: JONATHAN KOZOWYK; TOM SIEBEL: TIMOTHY ARCHIBALD; DAVID STEWARD: MONICA SCHIPPER/GETTY IMAGES; PHILLIP RAGON: PAT GREENHOUSE/THE BOSTON GLOBE/GETTY IMAGES;
KINGSTON TECHNOLOGY (1987) C3 IOT (2009)
Memory cards and flash drives AI and Internet of Things software

JOHN TU $5.4B THAI LEE $2.3B TRAVIS KALANICK: C FLANIGAN/GETTY IMAGES; JACK DANGERMOND: ROBERT GALLAGHER; JAMES GOODNIGHT: BY MIQUEL GONZALEZ/LAIF/REDUX; JOE LIEMANDT: NEWSCOM
KINGSTON TECHNOLOGY (1987) SHI INTERNATIONAL (1989)
Memory cards and flash drives IT services and solutions

JOHN SALL $4.4B BEN CHESTNUT $2.1B
SAS INSTITUTE (1976) MAILCHIMP (2001)
Analytics software Small business email and marketing software
JACK DANGERMOND $4.1B DAN KURZIUS $2.1B
ESRI (1969) MAILCHIMP (2001)
Mapping software Small business email and marketing software
JUDY FAULKNER $3.5B PHILLIP RAGON $2.1B
EPIC (1979) INTERSYSTEMS (1978)
Medical-records software Big data and healthcare software

46 | FORBES OCTOBER 31, 2018