At the time, the global economy was cratering, unemployment was skyrocketing, and Graham’s advice was more sobering than usual. At one point he warned Airbnb and the other fifteen startups in the program that investors were spooked, so they should all make sure they had a graph in their presentations with a single line racing up and to the right, demonstrating increasing profits. The Airbnb founders, who hardly had any revenue, let alone growing profits, mocked up that hypothetical chart and taped it onto the bathroom mirror at Rausch Street.
