After graduating from RISD, Gebbia moved to San Francisco to work as a designer forChronicle Books.[11][12] He also founded Ecolect, a green-design website.[13][14] In 2007,Brian Chesky, his classmate at RISD, moved in with him, and they both quit their jobs to start a company together. Gebbia came up with the idea of renting out airbeds in their apartment. They marketed the beds by creating a website called "AirBed & Breakfast.”[15][16][17][18][19] In March 2009, the name of the company was shortened to Airbnb.com, and the site's content had expanded from air beds and shared spaces to properties including entire homes, apartments, and private rooms.[20]
In May 2017, Gebbia launched Neighborhood, amodular designed office furniture business. The furniture was created forBernhardt Design, a furniture company that has worked with emerging designers.[21] Gebbia supported the newly formed Eames Institute, aimed at broadening the influence ofRay and Charles Eames through exhibitions from the Eames Collection.[22]
On December 10, 2020, Airbnb became a public company via aninitial public offering, raising $3.5 billion.[23] In January 2022, Gebbia acquired a minority ownership stake in theSan Antonio Spurs, joining billionaireMichael Dell and San Francisco-based global investment firmSixth Street Partners as fellow investors.[24] In July 2022, Gebbia stepped down from his full-time operating role at Airbnb, while remaining on the board of directors in an advisory role.[25] In September 2022, Gebbia was appointed byTesla, Inc. to its board of directors.[26][27] Samara, formerly aresearch and development unit of Airbnb established in 2016, became an independent accessory dwelling unit (ADU) startup in 2022. Gebbia announced the launch of its first product in November 2022, a net-zero tiny house called Backyard.[28]
In 2020, Gebbia was an executive producer on thedocumentary filmUniverse, which follows jazz trumpeterWallace Roney, a protégé ofMiles Davis, as he convenes an orchestra to perform a rediscovered orchestraljazz suite byWayne Shorter—written in 1966 for Miles Davis but never before performed. The film premiered weeks after Roney died from complications ofCOVID-19, making it one of the first films portraying the effects of theCOVID-19 pandemic.[31] Gebbia also executive produced a documentary titledWe Dare to Dream, in partnership withXTR, following the 29-athleteRefugee Olympic Team at the Olympics before, during and after the2020 Summer Olympics.[32][33]
In 2025, Gebbia joined theDepartment of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as head of its National Design Studio (NDS). The studio's job is to improve the design of government websites.[34][35] Gebbia said government websites, especially on mobile, are "horribly out of date" and he wants to create an "Apple Store-like experience."[36][35]
Concern that Gebbia's work for DOGE undermined U.S. democracy resulted in calls to boycottAirbnb.[37] In a Jan 19, 2025 post onX, Gebbia wrote that Trump "is not afascist determined to destroy democracy" and that "I ... love the whole DOGE initiative."[38]
Gebbia stepped down from the board of Airbnb.org, the company’s nonprofit arm that provides temporary housing for refugees and people displaced by disasters, in 2025, amid public controversy over anti-immigration comments he made in an interview. The resignation was announced in early April 2025 following backlash related to Gebbia’s recent outspoken criticism of certain refugee and migration policies and his visible political affiliations, which some felt were at odds with the humanitarian mission of Airbnb.org.[39] Gebbia was also criticised on X where a clip of the comment went viral and users quickly pointed out that his wife is an immigrant from Brazil.
Gebbia is among the youngest members to joinThe Giving Pledge committing to give more than half his wealth to philanthropic causes.[51] Gebbia has made donations to service-led companies and projects, including Thorn andEducate Girls.[52] A former scholarship recipient, in 2014, Gebbia donated $300,000 to his alma mater, RISD, to create an endowed fund that will make the school accessible for students in need of financial assistance.[53][54] In 2017, Gebbia broughtYeonmi Park, a North Korean refugee as his guest to theMet Gala to bring attention to the issue of global-refugee security. Park was featured on the front page of the style section ofThe New York Times following the event.[55]
In 2019, Gebbia donated to theKevin Durant Charity Foundation which was used to redevelop basketball and tennis courts at playgrounds inHayes Valley, San Francisco.[56] In 2020, he and his team launched Airbnb.org, a non-profit that enables hosts on Airbnb to house people in times of crisis.[57][58] In December 2020, during theCOVID-19 pandemic, Gebbia made a $25 million donation to benefit two San Francisco charities working to endhomelessness in the San Francisco Bay Area: Rising Up—Larkin Street Youth Services and All Home.[59][60] In 2021, Gebbia was included on the list of America's 50 Biggest Charity Donors byThe Chronicle of Philanthropy.[61] In May 2022, while Gebbia was the graduation speaker at his alma mater, Brookwood High School, he pledged 22 shares of Airbnb stock to each of the 890 graduates, a gift worth a total of $2.1 million.[62]
In February 2023, Gebbia made a $25 million gift toThe Ocean Cleanup, the organization's largest private donation to date. The gift expands climate health and ocean sustainability operations across oceans, rivers, recycling, and research. Funds particularly support deployment of the organization's System 03 cleaning technology in theGreat Pacific Garbage Patch.[63] In February 2023, Gebbia committed to donating $25 million toMalala Fund over a period of five years.[64][65]
^McFall, Marni Rose (February 20, 2025)."Airbnb faces boycott calls".Newsweek.Archived from the original on February 25, 2025. RetrievedFebruary 24, 2025.
Stone, Brad (2017).The Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb, and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Valley Are Changing the World (1st ed.). New York: Little, Brown and Company.ISBN978-0-316-38839-9.OCLC953598607.
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