Nathan Blecharczyk

Last updated

Nathan Blecharczyk
2022 - Centre Stage SM7 8493 (52474319677) (cropped).jpg
Blecharczyk in 2022
Born1983 (age 40–41)
Nationality (legal) American
Education Harvard University (BS)
Occupation Chief strategy officer of Airbnb
Known forCo-founder and chief strategy officer of Airbnb
SpouseElizabeth Morey Blecharczyk
Children2

Nathan Blecharczyk (born 1983) is the co-founder and chief strategy officer of Airbnb, and chairman of Airbnb China. [1] Blecharczyk was also the company's first chief technology officer. [2] Blecharczyk is the 203rd richest person in the world according to Forbes , with a net worth of $9.4 billion, [3] mostly due to his ownership of 62 million shares of Airbnb. [4]

Contents

Early life and education

Blecharczyk was born in 1983, the son of Sheila (née Underwood) and Paul Steven Blecharczyk, who is Polish-American. His ancestors came to the United States around the time of World War I. [5] [6] He grew up in an upper-middle-class family in Boston, Massachusetts. He attended Boston Latin Academy, graduating in 2001. [7] During high school, he made money by creating a software business. [8] His web-hosting business provided services to spammers and was once listed on the The Spamhaus Project "Registry of Known Spam Operators (ROKSO)" which lists the top spamming services. [9]

He continued writing programs while attending Harvard University in pursuit of a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science, and made enough money to pay his tuition before abandoning his web-hosting business to focus on his studies in 2002. [10] He was also on the business staff of The Harvard Crimson during his time at Harvard College. [11]

Career

Blecharczyk began his career as an engineer at OPNET in 2005. He was a lead developer at Batiq in 2007. Blecharczyk moved into an apartment with Brian Chesky after seeing an ad on Craigslist. [12] In 2008, Blecharczyk partnered with Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia to found Airbnb, and was the company's first chief technology officer and coded the company's original website using Ruby on Rails. [10] Later that year, after failing to raise funding, the founders bought mass quantities of cereal, designed packaging branded as '"Obama O's" and "Cap'n McCain's" cereal to sell at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado. Originally intended as a marketing ploy, the company sold enough cereal to raise $30,000, and attracted the attention of Paul Graham, who invited the founders to the January 2009 winter training session of his startup incubator, Y Combinator, which provided them with training and $20,000 in funding in exchange for a 6% interest in the company. [13] In the early years of the company, Airbnb overcame attempts to ban the service in New York City and San Francisco and eventually agreed to pay hotel taxes. [14]

Blecharczyk oversaw Airbnb's 2015 expansion into Cuba.

In early 2017, Blecharczyk transitioned to chief strategy officer at Airbnb. [2] Blecharczyk was announced as the chairman of Airbnb China, also known as Aibiying, in October 2017. [1]

In summer 2019, after Sean M. Joyce, then a senior Airbnb official, raised concerns after Chinese government officials asked Airbnb for enhanced data sharing in China Blecharczyk responded that the company was not there to "promote American values." [15]

Personal life

Blecharczyk resides in San Francisco, California. [14] He is married to Elizabeth Morey Blecharczyk, a neonatologist. [16] [17] They have two children; Blecharczyk has been a supporter of parental leave for fathers. [18]

Philanthropy

Blecharczyk joined Warren Buffett and Bill Gates' 'The Giving Pledge', a select group of billionaires who have committed to give the majority of their wealth away. [19]

In 2019, he donated $1 million to his alma mater, Boston Latin Academy. [7] [20]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Morris Hunt</span> American painter (1824–1879)

William Morris Hunt was an American painter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royall Tyler</span> American judge

Royall Tyler was an American jurist, teacher and playwright. He was born in Boston, graduated from Harvard University in 1776, and then served in the Massachusetts militia during the American Revolution. He was admitted to the bar in 1780, became a lawyer, and fathered eleven children. In 1801, he was appointed a Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court. He wrote a play, The Contrast, which was produced in 1787 in New York City, shortly after George Washington's inauguration. It is considered the first American comedy. Washington attended the production, which was well-received, and Tyler became a literary celebrity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ron Conway</span> American businessman

Ronald Crawford Conway is an American venture capitalist and philanthropist. He has been described as one of Silicon Valley's "super angels".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jorge Paulo Lemann</span> Swiss-Brazilian banker and businessman

Jorge Paulo Lemann is a Brazilian billionaire investment banker and businessman with dual Brazilian and Swiss citizenship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boston Latin Academy</span> Public coeducational exam school in Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Boston Latin Academy (BLA) is a public exam school founded in 1878 in Boston, Massachusetts providing students in grades 7th through 12th a classical preparatory education.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seth Klarman</span> American billionaire investor

Seth Andrew Klarman is an American billionaire investor, hedge fund manager, and author. He is a proponent of value investing. He is the chief executive and portfolio manager of the Baupost Group, a Boston-based private investment partnership he founded in 1982.

Jonathan S. Bush is an American technology entrepreneur, best known as the cofounder and former chief executive officer of athenahealth, a Watertown, Massachusetts-based healthcare technology company founded in 1997. On June 6, 2018, Bush resigned from his position as CEO of athenahealth during an activist campaign by Elliott Management.

Horatio Hathaway was a New England industrialist, politician, and philanthropist and namesake of Berkshire Hathaway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chip Conley</span> American hotelier and writer (born 1960)

Chip Conley is an American hotelier, hospitality entrepreneur, author, and speaker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlie Cheever</span> American businessman

Charlie Cheever is the co-founder of Quora, an online knowledge market. Cheever also founded expo.dev, a web app that works both with iOS and Android by writing in Javascript. Additionally, he works at castle.xyz, developing the mobile application Castle - Make and Play which allows users to play and create interactive scenes, which can range from simple art and drawings to tiny homemade games and music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Airbnb</span> Online platform for rental accommodations

Airbnb, Inc. is an American company operating an online marketplace for short- and long-term homestays and experiences. The company acts as a broker and charges a commission from each booking. The company was founded in 2008 by Brian Chesky, Nathan Blecharczyk, and Joe Gebbia. Airbnb is a shortened version of its original name, AirBedandBreakfast.com. Airbnb is the most well-known company for short-term housing rentals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Chesky</span> American businessman (born 1981)

Brian Joseph Chesky is an American businessman and industrial designer and the co-founder and CEO of Airbnb. Chesky is the 190th richest person in the world according to Forbes, with a net worth of $9.6 billion, mostly due to his ownership of 67 million shares of Airbnb.

This is a timeline of Airbnb, a company that brokers private lodging rentals through its website.

Joseph Gebbia Jr. is an American billionaire designer and a co-founder of Airbnb. Gebbia is the 286th richest person in the world according to Forbes, with a net worth of $8.5 billion, mostly due to his ownership of 53 million shares of Airbnb.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caroline Hyde</span> British journalist

Caroline Hyde is a British journalist specialising in business and technology news. She currently co-anchors "Bloomberg Markets: The Close" show from New York. Prior to that she anchored Bloomberg Technology from San Francisco, and was the Berlin-based chief correspondent for Bloomberg Television, covering European business and technology since 2011 and anchoring the markets and investment show The European Open every morning.

David Cancel is an American entrepreneur, investor, and founder of several software companies. He is the CEO and founder of Drift, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company which creates messaging software for businesses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeffrey Tarrant</span> American investor and film producer (1956–2019)

Jeffrey Glynn Tarrant was an American investor. He was the founder and chairman of MOV37 and Protégé Partners, firms specializing in identifying, seeding and early stage investing in investment funds. He was also a founding partner of film production company Candescent Films. He died from brain cancer in 2019.

Bruce S. Sherman is an American businessman and co-founder of the wealth-management firm Private Capital Management and the chairman and majority owner of the Miami Marlins of Major League Baseball.

Jonathan Mildenhall is chief executive officer of TwentyFirstCenturyBrand, a marketing consultancy firm. While working for Airbnb in 2017, he was ranked 8th on the world's most influential CMOs by Forbes.

References

  1. 1 2 Ting, Deanna (October 20, 2017). "Airbnb Co-Founder Nathan Blecharczyk Named Chairman of Airbnb China". Skift .
  2. 1 2 Stone, Brad; Zaleski, Olivia (January 26, 2017). "Airbnb Enters the Land of Profitability" . Bloomberg News .
  3. ↑ "Nathan Blecharczyk". Forbes .
  4. ↑ "Airbnb, Inc. 2023 Form 14-A Proxy Statement". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. April 19, 2024.
  5. ↑ "Brattleboro Reformer: "Floyd Underwood"". Brattleboro Reformer . August 21, 2003 – via Legacy.com.
  6. ↑ @nathanblec (September 30, 2015). "@JacekBereznicki yes I'm half polish; my ancestors came over around the time of World War I" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  7. 1 2 Cohan, Alexi; Cotter, Sean Phillip (October 21, 2019). "Boston Latin Academy gifted $1 mil from alumnus, Airbnb c0-founder" . Boston Herald .
  8. ↑ Salter, Jessica (September 7, 2012). "Airbnb: The Story Behind the $1.3Bn Room-Letting Website". The Daily Telegraph .
  9. ↑ Tate, Ryan (October 27, 2011). "The Seedy, Spammy Past of Airbnb's Co-Founder". Gawker .
  10. 1 2 Stone, Brad (January 26, 2017). "The $99 Billion Idea" . Bloomberg News .
  11. ↑ "Founders Of Top Startup Companies And The Universities Where They Graduated". University Herald. November 27, 2019.
  12. ↑ Cocozza, Paula (March 4, 2016). "Airbnb co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk: 'A body? It's unusual, but it wasn't as if it was in the front yard'". The Guardian .
  13. ↑ Townsend, Tess (October 19, 2016). "How Airbnb Got Out of The "Trough of Sorrow"". Chicago Tribune .
  14. 1 2 CONRAD, JENNIFER (July 14, 2023). "Airbnb's Nathan Blecharczyk Is Leaning Back Into the Company's Scrappy Roots". Inc.com . Archived from the original on February 8, 2024.
  15. ↑ Volz, Dustin; Grind, Kirsten (November 20, 2020). "Airbnb Executive Resigned Last Year Over Chinese Request for More Data Sharing" . The Wall Street Journal . ISSN   0099-9660.
  16. ↑ "Stanford medicine: "Elizabeth Morey Blecharczyk". Stanford University .
  17. ↑ Goldberg, Eleanor (June 2, 2016). "Airbnb Co-Founders Commit Half Their Fortunes to Charity". HuffPost .
  18. ↑ BLECHARCZYK, NATHAN (June 18, 2017). "Why Fathers Need Parental Leave Too". Fortune .
  19. ↑ GALLAGHER, LEIGH (June 1, 2016). "Airbnb Cofounders Join Buffett and Gates' 'Giving Pledge'". Fortune .
  20. ↑ "Airbnb Co-Founder Donates $1M To Boston Latin Academy". CBS Boston . October 21, 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.