Skift Take
It's hard to be reflective when so many levers are being pulled to prepare for one of the most anticipated IPOs in recent years, but Nathan Blecharczyk shares his thoughts, from the company's scrappy beginnings to wrestling with the burdens of success to Wall Street's watchful eye.
Through the frenzy, sleep deprivation, and anxiety of prepping to take his company public on Thursday, Airbnb's Nathan "Nate" Blecharczyk, the guy dubbed the "engineer" among the trio of founders, is fixating on one number, above all others, to keep himself grounded now and into the future.
That's 825 million.
It's not one that many have read about among the reams of numbers in connection with this historic IPO, the largest ever in travel. It's the number of guest arrivals booked through the Airbnb platform since the company was formed 13 years ago. "To me, 825 million isn't just a number," t
