Airbnb Top 40 Finalist: Winning Essay

I applied to the Live Anywhere on Airbnb program to fulfill my dream to travel around the world for a year. Out of 300k+ applicants I made it to the final round. Results: I lost.

The hardest thing about the rejection wasn’t the opportunity loss, but the relationship loss with Airbnb. Sounds strange, but you’ll understand from the essay below that this company has played a role in my life and career in a big way.

Ironically, I work everyday to help others build their dreams. We celebrate the wins as people get jobs, but we also work through the rejection. When job seekers in our community get rejected they point to the loss of relationship they had built with the team and hiring manager during the interview, not the opportunity loss.

More and more people in our community are coming out to talk about the rejection, and to celebrate the wins they achieved along the way. I’m going to follow suit. Rejection is inherent in the journey to building dreams.

My Winning Essay for Live Anywhere for a Year on Airbnb

Welcome Home: In 2013, I looked in awe at the words on the Airbnb homepage and called a meeting with my growth team. We were working on language to speak to the heart of our users and product simultaneously, and Airbnb had set the bar. The words especially resonated with me because I never identified with my home. I grew up dreaming of a world that was a better fit, and discovered that I feel at-home in environments that introduce diverse perspectives and ways of living. Airbnb validated my belief that the world is my home.

I want to live anywhere on Airbnb because I want to serve my home, the greater global community. On April 1, 2020 I woke up unemployed along with 30 million Americans. I climbed to the top of Bernal Heights, looked out at San Francisco and knew that I had solutions to help hundreds, thousands (millions?) rebuild their careers. I launched LessonsUp September 2020 to help underrepresented people achieve equity in the workforce, and set off into the world, starting with an Airbnb in Mexico City.

Traveling and building during the pandemic, Airbnb was a community where I felt safe and empowered. We have big problems to solve globally (climate change, looking at you), and to do so we need to unite across our differences. Airbnb is at the forefront of this work, breaking down barriers, creating community, and building trust among diverse populations. Ten years ago you wouldn’t dream of foreigners opening their homes to each other, and now it happens everyday. What else is possible as we share simple, human experiences?

This is what I want to explore, and how I want to inform the future of Airbnb. I started a matrix to think critically about Airbnb as a product, a community, and my experience as a user. As a product, Airbnb has inspired me throughout my career in tech to create mutually empowered communities. As a user, it facilitates the diversity of experiences I need to grow as a person and leader. Each new world I’ve immersed in since the pandemic, Mexico City, the Yucatan, and Belize, drives new vision and perspective. Largely because of it, I’ve achieved 20% MoM growth for 7 consecutive months, helped hundreds of people advance their career, and developed a roadmap to empower millions.

A fellow traveler I befriended in Belize sent me the link to the Live Anywhere program. I’m in awe, but not surprised, that Airbnb is working to improve product in a way that equally empowers their users. I’m thrilled to contribute to a product that unites people across the world, am deeply grateful for the opportunity it gives me to extend my runway as a founder, and allow me to live in our vast and diverse world where I’m most productive and able to serve. I look forward to learning more about how I can help.