Background
Joe Gebbia was born in Atlanta, Georgia.
Joe Gebbia was born in Atlanta, Georgia.
He graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island, where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Graphic Design and Industrial Design.
In 2009, Gebbia was listed in BusinessWeek’s Top 20 Best Young Technical Entrepreneurs. In 2010, he was named in Incorporated. Magazine’s Thirty under Thirty, and 2013, he was named in Fortune Magazine’s Forty-under-Forty.
While studying in the Northeast, Gebbia complimented his creative pursuits and studies at RISD with business coursework at Brown University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After graduating from RISD, Gebbia got a job at Chronicle Books in San Francisco, while Chesky moved to Los Los Angeles
Gebbia convinced Chesky to move to San Francisco in 2007 to start a business together. When they both quit their jobs, their landlord raised their rent and so they were in need of money.
Knowing the Industrial Design Society of America conference was coming to San Francisco and many hotels were booked. Gebbia believed they could rent out airbeds in their apartment to conference goers.
They marketed this idea by creating a website called "AirBed & Breakfast." This was the foundation of Airbnb.
After unsuccessfully trying to get the funding for the new company, the team designed cereal boxes, “Obama O’s” and “Cap’n McCains,” based on the 2008 presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain and sold them at the conventions. He gave them their first round of seed funding in 2009. He serves on the Board of Trustees of his alma mater, the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).
In 2014, he donated United States$300,000 to RISD to establish a United States$50,000 term scholarship and an endowed fund.
He resides in San Francisco, California.