JOE GEBBIA

For an international business such as ours, you can't localise without a local. That was a hard lesson for us. We had to be closer, physically present, which is when we put teams on the ground.

Airbnb is about the nexus of the online and offline to create the perfect customer experience.

After World War II, communities and the trust they fostered began to erode in the United States. We moved away from dense city centers to fenced in suburban lots separated by broad highways.

I've experienced firsthand the disconnect between furniture, their environments, and the way people work.

Sympathy relies on a common experience. If you're clumsy, you might have sympathy for others who tend to bump into things. Empathy, on the other hand, is the ability to understand another person's feelings even if you've never experienced them yourself.

By helping New Yorkers turn their greatest expense - their home - into an asset, Airbnb is a vehicle that artists, entrepreneurs, and innovators can use to earn extra money to pursue their passion.

How do you convince somebody to host a stranger for the weekend? That's not a trivial thing. It's not something I think you can throw technology at, marketing at, or sales at. We threw design at it because that's all we knew, and in doing so, I feel like we brought a human touch to it, which is so needed.

Any time there is a new idea, it can take some time for policy to catch up to it.

A world-changing vision often necessitates a profound simplicity in the user experience.

What we're doing with Airbnb feels like the nexus of everything that is right. We're helping people be more resourceful with the space they already have, and we're connecting people around the world.

I'll never forget my first Art Basel.

Of course Airbnb made mistakes the first year! Some came from our own preconceptions. When we started, we designed our interface for ourselves, Internet-savvy twentysomethings. We never considered the role of good eyesight in our interface - font size, vernacular; it all matters.

We're a community-driven brand, but at the same time, we want every host in every home to recognize that they're all individuals, and to use Airbnb as an expression of their individuality.

Design is an expression of one's most deeply rooted internal values.

The hotel industry is a very modern invention - it only really started to become branded in the 1950s.

As our company has grown, how we configure and design our offices has been a crucial part of how we foster connection and collaboration throughout our teams.

We believe that the best solutions come from solving your own problem. If you have a real problem, there's likely someone else who can relate. That's how Airbnb was born.

The sharing economy is out of the bag - and it's not going to go back in.

Airbnb is about travel.

I think Pixar's done an amazing job integrating art and science. They really get this idea that art and engineering work side by side.

Digital communication is completely different from in-person, face-to-face conversations. One will give you surface insights, and the other really gives you depth.

Everything we do, every decision we make, is to ensure the best possible Airbnb experience for our community and grow the love.

Design has always been a driving force in my life: it's the lens through which I experience the world.

We started Airbnb because, like many across the U.S. and in New York, we were struggling to pay our rent and decided to open up our living room to fellow artists coming to town for a design conference. Sharing our apartment allowed us to stay in our home and start our company.

Airbnb has proven that hospitality, generosity, and the simple act of trust between strangers can go a long way.