888 Brannan Street, San Francisco

San Fran Man!

There are a number of interesting aspects of aging.  One I have experienced is spending time with the offspring of childhood friends.  Recently I had an adventure that not only proved I have aged out of the traditional workforce, it solidified the fact that my fossilized existence is eminent.

My dearest friend since the 6^th grade in McAllen, Texas, yes over 50 years ago, has two terrific, highly educated sons.  Both graduated from her husband’s Alma mater, Harvard, one stayed in the Midwest and one went West to seek his fame and fortune.  The San Fran man is employed at Airbnb, 888 Brannan in the Mission District.

I invited myself to meet him for the first time and have a tour of the Mother Ship representing world travelers and couch surfers.  David’s prompt text replied with a cheery invitation for Friday at 10:30 am.

It was a chilly Aloha Friday in April with a slight mist in the air and the beat of the City pounding in my heels, four inch heels to be exact.  One must dress in the City, all the time knowing my feet would be crying by noon. As my Mother would say, “It doesn’t matter how you feel as long as you look great!”

Another perk of aging is you realize you no longer have a great deal of time on this Earth, so you better ask for what you want and make sure you get it!  No more waiting for things to happen! I picked up my speed despite pending foot deformity.

Since I travel a bit and have allegrophobia, I left very early as not to be late for the meeting that I had personally requested.  My fear of being late might be due to the OCD characteristics my children believe I suffer with yet I don’t see what is wrong with being on time, or even a half an hour early! One has to make sure there is time to worry if you locked the front door.

Since I had started out so early, I was able to find the nearest Trader Joe’s, which we sorely lack on the Big Island, and purchase my wine and food for the trip.  Notice wine is first, always first.  Good wine on the rock isn’t easy to come by, yet I will write a blog posting about the shop called “Grapes” in Hilo.  Randy is terrific and gets a wonderfully crisp Chenin Blanc from South Africa for us by the case. He reassures me I am not the only wine aficionado on the Island!

Back to Airbnb.

There were lines of  food trucks with space reserved in front of the building with signs warning of high fines and towing privileges should an offender from across the pond dare to park in their space and heaven forbid, in the wrong direction.  Mistakenly, I assumed they were feeding the frenzied flock in the building I entered.  I was dead wrong.  I had a lot to learn about the new fangled way mega-conglomerates run in the 21st century.

 David’s brother Philip had visited us the previous month on the rock and we had a jolly time hiking,

Phil hiking Kilauea Volcano

drinking wine and talking about his incredible knowledge of Japan and their traditional tea ceremonies. I was looking forward to observing the differences in the young brothers. Kids today, I mean really, who would have thought, tea ceremonies? David, the younger son working for high-tech bed and breakfasts and a background including study in Korea and his elder brother with an incredible education in Japanese language and tradition.  Both from the Mid West. Truly fascinating these well-traveled multilingual Millennials.

David met me at the third-floor elevator with his Mother’s smile and a warm greeting. An engaging pattern emerged immediately with his knowledge of the building, its former use and remodel, the history of the business and how his gear fits into the enormous wheel of this  enterprise. He reminded me of a young chap that escorted our eldest through Reed College seventeen years ago, walking backwards the entire way so he could assure the peeps of the potential freshman a complete understanding of college life at his interesting University. Or perhaps he thought at our advanced age we were hard of hearing and had mastered the art of lip reading! David did not walk backwards, and he was comfortable introducing me to his colleagues, eye contact while conversing, having a coffee with me and generally treating me as if he did not agree with my impending fossilization.

Refreshing.

Workspace?

Airbnb was founded by two graduates of the Rhode Island School of Design, Joe Gebbia, and Brian Chesky, in 2007 when they were both 27 years old.  Broke, they literally rented three air beds in their San Francisco flat living room, during a design convention. The air beds filled nightly,  and the two friends knew they had an idea that just might not deflate.  They brought into their magic another friend and Gebbia’s former flatmate, Nathan Blecharczyk, 29, a computer science graduate and ‘brilliant programmer’, to develop the website. In summer 2008 they found the perfect platform to create a buzz for their business. Barack Obama’s appearance in Denver, speaking at the Democratic National Convention, had impacted the hotels.  No room left at the Inns. Gebbia, Chesky, and Blecharczyk finished the website in time to launch it two weeks before the conference. Within a week, they had 800 listings.  Taking advantage of election fever, and as a cottage industry, they bought bulk quantities of cereal and designed packaging branded as ‘Obama’s O’s’and ‘Cap’n McCain’ cereal.  They sold 800 ‘limited-edition’ boxes at $40 each and made more than $30,000.  There are large cut out cereal boxes on the third floor commemorating their sweet, carb-rich light-bulb moment.

Brilliant!

They had just begun. Venture capitalist dollars began flooding the company and in May 2011 the actor Ashton Kutcher invested in the company and the rest is history.

The concept behind Airbnb has a fancy name, Collaborative Consumption.  CC is considered a cultural and economic force driven by the crash of 2008 and a backlash to 20th-century hyper-consumption.  What’s mine is yours, a wired-to-share world and trust mechanics in a connected age are the buzz words of Generation Y.  Bless this money machine, not only for the board and shareholders of Airbnb but for the hundreds of thousands of people that rent their rooms to support their needs and desires. I’ve got a yurt on the rock, any takers?

Yet…before Airbnb….

In the 70’s and 80’s I was doing house exchanges.  Yes, even before the internet.  Yes, there is a time before the internet and I remember it quite well, thank you.  We used the telephone, you know, the one attached to the wall or it lay on your nightstand and was called a Princess.  We used a fax machine too.

A cumbersome book arrived in the mailbox after you subscribed to the service and lo and behold, the photo you had taken of your house along with a list of amenities was on page 225.  Exotic places like the Canary Islands and Mustique were represented, allowing your imagination to run wild and have you looking up the whereabouts of Tenerife in the Atlas or on the world globe in the living room.  We exchanged in Scotland, Ireland, France and the UK. There are glorious family memories  of a livestock farm in the North of France. Living in a small city,  I wanted my children to experience the joys of nature.  The middle child was wealthy by the end of the exchange having made a deal of his lifetime; a French franc per dead housefly.  We were broke and the flies still swarmed.

So… Airbnb

Lola would have loved these!

Not only do the jeans-clad, dog trotting, roller skating, hoverboarding, Venti Iced Skinny Hazelnut Macchiato, Sugar-Free Syrup, Extra Shot, Light Ice, No Whip team members have access to a stunning dining room, there is a ramen bar along with the potential of three squares a day.  I’m ready to move into the lounge space on the third floor! Why, these folks shouldn’t waste time renting an overpriced, rent controlled apartment in the City by the Bay.  They should be renting their work-space cubby on the second floor on the Airbnb website. I’m in!

Breakfast, lunch and dinner at the plant.  Not just any plant, quite a grand plant.  The building featuring a five-story atrium began as the Everyready Battery Company warehouse.  Airbnb occupies 170,000 square feet of the 300,000 square foot building in SoMa District with sequestered spaces in neon brights. The creative space concept of high tech companies includes, characteristically, high ceilings, broad windows, concrete floors, brick walls and exposed structural elements such as pipes and beams. The architects even kept the train tracks in the entry floor reception area. Everything old is new again.

Atrium at Airbnb

The feeding and care of employees started at Google.  A marvelous recruitment and retention tool, the dining rooms and menus are planned with skill and great care.   No overdone hamburgers and limp fries chased with a lukewarm cola here! This value added perk could include an authentic pad thai or vegan delight with a tasty ganache for dessert.  Who wouldn’t come in early and stay late?

Watching the happy granola man doing his thing on a grand scale, made me wonder how much granola 2,000 team members, thrilled-to-have-a-job-at-Airbnb, eat in a day.

That’s a lot of raisins.

Granola Man

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