Product Growth Podcast How Airbnb Went From $0 to $85B Valuation with Mona Gandhi, Early on Airbnb’s Growth Team
Jan 4, 2025
Mona Gandhi, a founding member of Airbnb's growth team and founder of Upraise, discusses her pivotal role in transforming Airbnb from a startup into a global powerhouse valued at $85B. She explains how the company redefined product management to prioritize user engagement and market adaptation. Mona reveals the challenges of scaling, including a public relations crisis and the importance of localization for different cultures. Her journey from software engineer to a key product manager offers valuable insights for aspiring PMs.
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Focus on Adoption
- Product Managers should focus on adoption by working backward from the user's perspective, exemplified by creating a PR FAQ.
- Formalize a go-to-market strategy, and relentlessly measure and iterate after launch to drive adoption.
Problem Solving Approach
- PMs in India are sometimes overly focused on creative solutions instead of finding impactful problems, influenced by an education system that rewards lengthy answers to given questions.
- Product management requires identifying the right questions and providing succinct answers.
Balancing Supply and Demand
- Early Airbnb growth focused on balancing supply and demand, crucial for a marketplace where the experience is offline but discovery is online.
- They prioritized host acquisition and experimented with tools like "What's My Home Worth?" calculator, referrals, and Facebook sign-in for trust.