Imagine a service that connects would-be B&B operators with the budget-conscious travelers who love them. Airbed & Breakfast is one of those ideas that many geeks have probably thought of, and as with most things, someone has finally taken the initiative to build… on a shoe-string, no less!
Airbed & Breakfast is a peer-to-peer service where you can secure accommodations posted by individuals willing to open their homes, for a fee, to travelers. They currently boast accommodations in 125 cities in 25 countries. Airbed & Breakfast actually allow each party to evaluate one another prior to any commitment, and it also provides a forum for the financial transaction to take place between the parties. The person advertising their space gets 100% of their asking price, and the guest pays a 6-15% service fee upon checkout. Simple!
Airbed & Breakfast was launched by a trio of SF entrepreneurs, Brian Cheskey, Joe Gebbia and coder Nathan Blecharcyk in mid-2008 after beginning their efforts back in later 2007.
They seem to be getting quite a bit of traction with DNC/RNC convention attendees heading to Denver and St. Paul this summer. WSJ also covered them yesterday regarding "The Business of Politics". You can follow their Tweets here
Phew! The cat is now out of the bag… the start-up I work for has had camera crews, producers, sound guys (and plenty of lawyers!) lurking around our operation since last May taping a show that began airing this week on the MOJO HD network. The first episode just aired Thursday night and everyone is rather excited to see where it goes. Here’s the recent press release.
Overall, I believe that they captured a pretty accurate glimpse of what a rapid-growth start-up looks like on the inside. Close attention was paid to our recent $13 million funding round, the deployment of a Fortune 50 customer, as well as a great many other (mis)adventures. If you’ve ever worked for a start up, the show gives a pretty decent glimpse of the ups and downs of that environment.
As a kick-off, several of the folks who are featured spent some time last week at the Microsoft Campuses in Redmond as well as Santa Clara for pre-screenings of the show, with a follow-on Q&A. The screening seemed to elicit laughter at the right moments and I think it will do well on MOJO HD considering it’s target audience. In any event, we had lot’s of fun making it and hopefully the world will receive it with open arms.
If you don’t have an HD TV or if you don’t get MOJO HD on your local HD Cable provider, you can watch the first episode here…
http://www.mojohd.com/video/?sid=22
Continue reading ‘“Startup Junkies” airs…’