Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky Was Actively Working on Going Public When Bookings Dried Up
Skift Take
Airbnb's Chesky undoubtably still has that S-1 document in a laptop somewhere. With the pandemic lowering Airbnb's valuation by billions, that document will need a total rewrite. And with all that's going on in the world, it's difficult to even contemplate an eventual public listing right now.
In early March, Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky was working on the company's S-1 document, which was intended to be used in its much-anticipated stock market announcement, when the coronavirus pandemic struck and "complete madness" ensued.
These were among the revelations Chesky made to journalist Bob Safian during a Masters of Scale podcast Monday about what it was like behind the scenes at Airbnb during the beginning of the outbreak.
"We were preparing to go public," Chesky said, referring to March 3 or 4 when Safian visited the company's San Francisco headquarters weeks prior to the podcast. "I was working on our S-1 document, and I was also working on a launch" before the crisis upended those plans.
Chesky added that "a really big launch" had been slated for June 4, but the Airbnb CEO offered no details about it.
Airbnb had stated in 2019 that it intended to go public in 2020. It didn't really need the
