Brian Chesky

**Brian Chesky** (0:01)
Artists aren't just, and designers aren't just communicators. We can actually be change agents. We can actually build things. We can create things. We can run things. We can be in charge of things.

**Debbie Millman** (0:13)
From the TED Audio Collective, this is Design Matters with Debbie Millman.
On Design Matters, Debbie talks with some of the most creative people in the world about what they do, how they got to be who they are, and what they're thinking about and working on. On this episode, a conversation with Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky about art, design, entrepreneurship, and change.

**Brian Chesky** (0:38)
The world can be our canvas. Our canvas isn't necessarily 18 by 24 inches. It can be the whole world.

**Debbie Millman** (0:49)
Brian Chesky is someone who has reshaped the world through his imagination. As the co-founder and CEO of Airbnb, he helped transform a simple idea, sleeping in a stranger's room on an air mattress, into a global movement grounded in belonging, hospitality, and the hope that people can take care of one another. Trained as an industrial designer at the Rhode Island School of Design, Brian has brought an artist's curiosity to some of the thorniest questions about how we live, how we travel, and how we connect. And in doing so, has changed the possibilities for millions of people around the world. Brian Chesky, welcome to Design Matters.

**Brian Chesky** (1:33)
Well, thank you for having me here.

**Debbie Millman** (1:34)
Brian, is it true that when you were seven years old, you asked Santa Claus to bring you poorly designed toys so you could redesign them?

**Brian Chesky** (1:43)
Yes, absolutely.

**Debbie Millman** (1:45)
What gave you the sense that that was possible, that Santa would actually do that for you?

**Brian Chesky** (1:51)
Well, I remember, just as a kid, I don't know why I would get catalogs of toys or catalogs of sporting goods, items or whatever. And I would just, I'd first draw them and trace them, and then I'd redraw them and I'd change them. And I would then want to like disassemble things. And so when the time came, I think when I was five, I got hockey equipment. When I was six, I think I got like a drawing easel. And then by seven, I was like, all right, like what am I going to design? What am I going to redesign? And I think that was kind of like where I got it. And it was really fun. Like I started, and it was even just things like that were popular. Like I remember like Gameboy and Game Gear came out and video games. Kids loved, like were obsessed with those. I was like redesigning consoles. Nike Airs were like, were just coming out. And so I was really getting into footwear and sneaker design. So it was just like things that were around me. And I just kept imagining like, I don't know. And design kind of came kind of organically, because I thought of it as art, like drawing, like copying something. And so drawing from observation, and I was drawing products and objects, that was not the only thing I was doing. And then pretty soon I was designing, but I didn't know it was called design back then.

**Debbie Millman** (3:01)
Yeah, I didn't either. I actually thought that most design was just done by printers. I didn't know that it was a discipline.

**Brian Chesky** (3:07)
Yeah, like growing up, I don't know if I ever thought of myself as a designer until maybe I went to a school called the Rhode Island School of Design. And then it kind of occurred to me, I guess what I do is design. But even then when I applied, I applied as an artist. And I said I went to art school. I didn't say I went to design school. Even it was called the design school, and it was half art, half design. Actually mostly two-thirds design, probably by student matriculation.
So yeah, it was like something I was so fascinated in growing up. I mean, I remember when I was also seven, I went to St. Louis because the first time was an airplane. Our family did a trip to St. Louis. My mom was a social worker and she had a conference in St. Louis, and my sister, my dad and I went along. And I just had this peculiar thought to want to redesign the city. I just was obsessed with the development of cities and how they were designed and organized. And so only years later did I realize I was not maybe a typical interest.

**Debbie Millman** (4:01)
You grew up in an upstate New York suburb wedged between Schenectady and the Mohawk River. And as you mentioned, your mom was a social worker, so was your dad. And much of their time was consumed with finding shelter and care for the community's neediest people. Back then, how did you understand the kind of work they were doing?