Transcript excerpt of Brian Chesky describing the importance of his relationship with cofounders Joe and Nate. Chesky emphasizes mutual respect, complementary skills, deliberate maintenance of the partnership (weekly meetings), and a guiding rule: preserving the relationship is more important than winning an argument. The piece illustrates how sustained, humble teamwork contributed to their success.
Chapters
But I don't think of my luck as that. We came up with this idea at this time. I think of the luck I have is having met my co founders, Joe and Nate. That is what makes me so lucky. You're kind of like the average, the people you surround yourself with. And I remember when I met, I knew Joe from risd. But Joe and Nate are really special. Each of them had businesses in high school. I think that it's really important that when you pick partners, there are people that you can be friends with. There are people you can imagine spending more time than your spouse, because you're going to probably spend more time with your co founder than your partner, actually. And they're people that are so good, they almost intimidate you. They challenge you. But they're also complementary. One time, like a decade ago, we each did like some kind of personality test. It wasn't like an enneagram. It was like one of those kinds of things. And there's like, you know, the personality tests are on like a wheel, right? And they kind of put you on a wheel. And it turned out that when they plotted our three personalities, they formed a perfect equilateral triangle. It was like. And it made so much sense that it's about this sense of mutual respect. People that are so good, they almost intimidate you, but they're so complementary. And there was such a deep respect. And we had a rule. The rule was that winning an argument was never more important than preserving the relationship. And the reason that's important is because if you start a company, you're gonna have to debate like 100,000 things. At least 10,000, right? You're probably debating like three things a day. And so it's like 1,000 things a year. 10 years is 10,000 things. So no one argument can be the thing. There has to be this larger sense that we're a ban. And I think you gotta really work hard at the relationship, almost like exercising. If you don't keep exercising, you get out of shape. And so we worked really, really hard. And one of the things we did in 2009 is we said every single Sunday we're gonna meet, no matter how busy we get. Now, it's like sometimes Sunday becomes Thursday, but we basically meet every single week. And to this day, we still do those calls. And I think a lot of human connection requires constant contact, constant connection, a deep sense of respect, a sense that I'm only here because of them, a sense of humility and gratitude, and a sense that I'm never going to try to win, because if I win alone, I'm not going very far.
