Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky today penned an open letter outlining his vision for the company’s next 100 years and announced American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault is joining the board of directors.
“A 21-st century company should eventually become a 22nd-century company,” he writes. “By having an infinite time horizon, a company can be more audacious, take more responsibility for what they make and create lasting change.”
Chenault’s appointment, making him the first independent director to join Airbnb’s board, is one step the company is making in 2018 toward this future vision.
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“Airbnb is built on trust. As the CEO of American Express, Ken has built one of the most successful trust-based companies in the world,” Chesky says.
The company’s second major initiative for its next chapter revolves around empowering “a host-led world with some substantial improvements to our service that sets us up for an infinite time horizon.”
Airbnb will announce its next move at an event on February 22, and Chesky says the company will release its first annual stakeholder report in March.
“Serving stakeholders means being honest about where we need to improve because we know we are far from perfect,” he says. “In the same way that a company’s annual report facilitates the evaluation of its financial performance for shareholders, what we measure and talk about must indicate progress towards our effort to become a 21st-century company.”
The letter comes amid heightening speculation on the home-share giant’s next move, with reports suggesting Airbnb’s long-awaited IPO is imminent.
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In his note, Chensky adds: "Airbnb is still young, and the cement hasn’t hardened. We are now big enough where anything is possible, but not so big that change would be nearly insurmountable.
"We can still be radical, and it couldn’t come at a more perfect time in the world. People are increasingly living in digital bubbles, trust in institutions is at a record low and companies realize they have a greater responsibility to society."
The company claims that over the course of the decade since launch, travelers have checked into an Airbnb-secured property almost 300 million times.
Read Chesky's full letter here.