The Customer Who Almost Killed Slack, Stripe, and Airbnb (opens in new tab)

The Customer Who Comes With a Checkbook and a Sledgehammer Sometime in 2010, Airbnb was hemorrhaging money and growing slower than Brian Chesky had promised investors. The company had roughly $200 in revenue per week at one point. Into this vacuum walked a potential corporate client, the kind that could write a check large enough to solve all the immediate problems. The pitch was essentially: customize your platform for our needs, move toward corporate housing, and we’ll make you viable. Ches...