Have you heard the story of how Airbnb funded their startup with cereal boxes.
So I heard this oh-so-smart story of how AirBnB emerged from the cusp of doom in Guy Raz’ book – ‘How I built this’
After their failed attempt at getting people to book through Air Bed and Breakfast (as it was then called), they took upon one last chance that their maxed out credit cards afforded.
It was the 2008 Obama-McCain Election
They had this really crazy idea…
Design and sell limited edition cereal boxes and call them Obama O’s & Captain McCain.
They contacted a print shop and had 1,000 custom boxes printed.
They, then, bought a ton of Cheerios and Captain Crunch. And, finally, they put the boxes together with a hot glue gun in their apartment and slapped a $40 price tag on them.
As luck would have it, they got featured on national television and in 24-hours sold 1,000 cereal boxes and with it… pocketed $30,000 in profit.
Profit that helped them pay off the 20K credit card debt they had accumulated
The hustle and agency they showed in times of crises is so mind-blowing.
Trust your crazy ideas
Check out the for the images of the cereal boxes here
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