Airbnb Co-Founder & CEO, Brian Chesky, grew up playing hockey and asking Santa for poorly designed toys so he could redesign them. A self-described “peculiar” kid obsessed with art, no one pegged him as a future CEO. He studied industrial design at RISD where he also met his future business partner. After soaring global success, Airbnb, having suffered dramatic losses due to coronavirus, is getting back to its creative values and making meaningful contributions in the modern crisis of connection.

Designer, entrepreneur, and Airbnb co-founder, Joe Gebbia, was known as the “art guy” in grade school when he started his first business selling illustrations of Ninja Turtles. Then, while pursuing dual design degrees, he founded his first legit startup with RISD’s basketball team, The Balls. Now as the leader of innovation and ideation at Airbnb he’s focussed on exploring new attitudes of sharing and trust. Oh, and don’t tell him he can’t do something. He will go to extremes to prove you wrong. Isn’t that so, Professor Jones?