This post was originally published on this site
AS THE CHIEF PRODUCT OFFICER of Airbnb, the home-sharing platform valued at $31 billion and climbing, Joe Gebbia, 35, shapes the company’s visual aesthetic and gauges growth opportunities beyond the core travel-rental business. It’s a few steps up from the early days, in 2008, when he and his co-founders, Brian Chesky and Nathan Blecharczyk, were building on the original idea of renting out air mattresses on living room floors. Since last summer, Gebbia, a Rhode Island School of Design graduate, has been channeling many of his efforts through Samara, a division he launched to serve as Airbnb’s design innovation…