‘This is when I became CEO in a meaningful way,’ he told me years later. ‘I changed my style. I hope jerk isn’t the first word they use. But 2011 was the year I really had to become a CEO, to become a champion of Airbnb, to get people to want to believe in it, to raise money, and to get us out of a true crisis. We came out of EJ and the Samwers stronger than when we came into it.’
