Some of the comments here on HN about this are quite amusing, especially since many of the people who poo-poo Ashton's involvement in tech have no issues with a normal VC investment in a company. How is Ashton any more annoying than the concept of some random dude thinking he knows whether or not your idea will fly, simply because he was entrusted with tens (if not hundreds, or even thousands!) of millions dollars' worth of capital from pensions, wealthy people, and others? He's just another guy with money, no different from any of the rest -- except he has massive visibility, and his public image means he is less likely to pull some of the inane shit I've seen many "respected" Valley investors pull on my friends (which, by the way, never gets called out, as they are the ones who are the "sources" leaking things to scoop-hungry newspapers and blogs).
I know the drama kids didn't sit with the computer club kids at the high school lunch table, but really... guys, stop being a bunch of haters.
Because having Twitter followers and some cash doesn't make you a tech expert, and the media loves to portray him as both that and a social media guru.
Furthermore, there's a big difference between making an investment and "joining the team."
I totally agree with you, and while I am not a fan of anything Ashton has ever acted in or done with that career -- I can say I think he is doing a fantastic job with his investment choices.
Now, that appears to largely be attributed to the people he has been able to surround himself with.
With that said, I don't think any of us would be any different. If you have them money - and you get introduced to people who are very tech savvy, and you have a fairly intense interest in where tech is heading - which it would appear he does -- then this is an obvious and intelligent path one would take.
Further, the more that he is surrounded by these other savvy tech investors, speaks with and joins teams like AirBnB - the more I would imagine he would learn and think up additional things.
So, I have respect for what he is doing in this area.
Also, I would like to point out someone who is thought of as a tech expert and social media guru (by many, not me) - Kevin Rose.
Here is a guy who, in my mind, is milking hi tech media status. Even his fucking incubator for his pet projects is called MILK for god sakes.
The guy is portrayed as someone who should be setting trends - yet I have yet to see an original idea (And if you think Digg was original, then you have not been online long enough - it was a better skin on /. and a less sophisticated user-base thus giving it wider appeal)
So, I say good on Ashton for pursuing something other than acting.
Maybe Kevin should pursue something other than tech.
I think angel investing is cool precisely because it is a bad investment. Ashton Kutcher could give all of his money to a responsible financial planner but why not gamble some on the next big thing? AirBNB seems like a good choice for him to bet on, and they'll benefit from his notoriety.
From what I've seen Ashton Kutcher tends to invest in companies that make tech that he really wants use. I don't think profit is really the number one thing on his mind - he already has money. And since it was revealed that he was involved in the Skype deal I bet his portfolio isn't hurting anyway.
'New media expert' is a pretty lame title, but he definitely has something to add. He is an internationally recognized celebrity, and Airbnb is a company crossing the chasm and trying to pull in the laggards.
Convincing people to use Airbnb is going to take more than ranking high in Google and having the proper precautions in place. Ashton brings insight to the rest of the world.
If anything, I'd say he's an 'old media expert'. Or, maybe a branding and publicity expert.
Your post is spot-on, especially on the comments here being amusing! This is so obviously a huge win that could change the game for AirBNB. Any kind of popular service can be made or broken by a cool, famous person using it or not using it. The most popular draw on Twitter is celebrities!
I think it's because he has no expertise on technology, can give you zero advice, will actually probably give you the wrong advice, cannot help you with your scaling or implementation issues, cannot refer you to the right technical people when you need it. The one thing that silicon valley has that none of us in the rest of the world have is a vibrant network of like minded, able and willing to help people. It's perfectly ok to invest, but I guess that doesn't make you part of the silicon valley. Plus it's the old nerds/jocks war.
It's a serious and common mistake to think that the majority of the challenges faced by a startup are technical, especially in a consumer facing startup. More than half the battle is getting people to know about your product, and AK knows marketing and promotion well.
This, this, this. Ashton Kutcher is, in all likelihood, a much better representative of one of the demographics Airbnb would like to access (wealthy hipsters) than any VC would be. The whole game is understanding your audience.
He's a professional entertainer and producer - someone very skilled at connecting with the customers Airbnb want, half of whom probably grew up watching Punk'd - with ungodly reach on Twitter.
That's rarer, and harder to buy, than deep technical skill. That you can buy with cash and equity.
Exactly - 6 million Twitter followers and nearly 10 million Facebook fans make for a powerful strategic investor. In a crowded market flush with capital this kind of exposure is far more valuable than another funding round from a highly technical VC.
Ashton has been a very helpful angel for us and he uses so many tech products that he actually gives great advice.
Him not being part of the valley is a plus! Every VC knows the same exact execs at Facebook, Twitter, Groupon, etc, so you get little benefit from having multiple Sand Hill Road VCs on your team. Ashton can connect you to a whole different world of people and influencers who could really help your company.
I've been meaning to write about the absolutely horrible experience I had using AirBnB in San Francisco recently. It was a nightmare.
The place was filthy (the pictures online were taken on their best day ever), the people were unfriendly, the room was small and dank- with no way to even lock the door. It was really, really bad.
I suppose it would be worth a gamble if you have the means to change plans on a dime and pay for a last minute hotel- whatever the price. That's what I had to do. But then, those aren't the people AirBnB is catering to, right?
Using AirBnB for the first time -- currently staying at a great apartment in Manhattan. My girlfriend and I are both quite happy! Both of us, and the apartment owner, are first-time AirBnB'ers. It _can_ work, I believe, but you've got to vet things carefully.
We had to work around an understandable but (I think) misguided AirBnB restriction that makes it hard to get phone numbers in to messages -- it's so important to be able to talk to someone to understand who you're dealing with!
From what I've seen, with most of them you either get your own bedroom or the entire house/apartment. It's really no different from a typical vacation rental, except the owner is possibly crashing at a friend's house or a motel during your stay.
Definitely an edge case, but I believe it is because of cases like this that AirBnB holds your payment until 24 hours after you've checked in. You were refunded, right?
Yes- the refund policies vary. This place had a liberal refund policy, so I got everything but the first night back. So, to be fair- not a big loss.
It all turned out OK in the end for me, but I can't say I'm a big fan after the experience. I'm sure that there are plenty of great experiences others have had to counter balance my poor one, tho.
We found a place in Budapest for a stag do, via AirBNB, and it was great. Big, clean, well located, cheap, and the landlord was cool. So experiences definitely do vary. I'd certainly go back to AirBNB after this experience.
My gf and I just found an amazing place in SF for only 60 bucks a night, right on golden gate park. It was 10x better than anything we could have gotten for even $200 a night at a hotel. Don't write off the site because of one bad experience.
I've used AirBnB twice, in DC (private room) and Paris (studio flat), with absolutely stellar results.
Any industry that's about to be disrupted has similar "horror-stories" (obviously that's also true for industries that then doesn't go on to be disrupted) and the plural of anecdote isn't data.
I think you guys are being unnecessarily hard on Kutcher. It is a flawed assumption that being a celebrity (sportsman, musician) means you have no additional value.
There are medical doctors than when on to play football (the real one); Nigeria has a Cornell Physics PhD candidate that does rap. etc.
Why do you guys (critics) believe you can add better value to AirBnB than Aston.
I believe celebrities need to do a little bit extra to show they are more than what is seen on TV.
I lost respect for Ashton after the thing a few days ago where he released the "Aplusk twitter app" with the tag line "...my latest creation..." and it's just another app rebranded. Seems he's just selling his name now.
I've heard good things about the Kutch from people I respect.
This blog post is really bad poorly wrought though. I wonder how many different pens and motives went in to crafting this monument to celebrity PR garbage.
I think it's weird how there hasn't been more press coverage of celebrities getting into business and tech. Ashton Kutcher, 50 Cent, Chamillionaire, and other actors and musicians could be a pretty big inspiration to a lot of the teenagers out there.
I saw and brought attention to his OTC "pump-and-dump". It turned out that he was an active investor in and advisor to the company (I think it was Gunnar Optiks) and it seemed to be mostly an honest mistake.
He was trying to encourage people to buy stock in the company, but it did not appear that he was attempting to pump and dump the stock, and it did not appear that he was aware of the potentially illegal nature of what he was doing.
Basically he was treating it just like he'd tweet and tell everyone about some new artist that signed to his label.
I wonder what kind of value Ashton could provide through simply tweeting about AirBnB once a week to his audience - whether or not he had one half decent thing to contribute tech wise. That seems like a real big benefit for AirBnB if he chose to do it, because his influence and reach is so huge, and there is no marketing cost for him to do so.
The list goes on and on. I'm willing to bet Kutcher would rather stay at a beautiful private mansion than a tourist-filled resort or hotel. Who else is going to spend $5000/night to stay at places like this other than the super rich?
I think its just a matter of time. Airbnb is working on establishing itself as a major player in the travel industry, and they're not quite at the luxury villa stage yet. I imagine it takes a lot to win over the demographic who can afford these places, but you gotta start somewhere, right?
Even if there were reviews, it's impossible to discern astroturfing from legit information. National and international hotel chains do not have this problem.
As a wealthy individual, my rights would seem more protected with a luxury hotel than a short-term house rental.
Does airbnb indemnify property owners from lawsuits by renters of their homes? If Ashton, slips in a beautiful private mansion's wet marble floor and shatters his hip, who is liable? The mansion owner? Airbnb?
In the hotel situation, the hotel is a business and has insurance to protect from such catastrophes.
I didn't see the contents of the comment you replied to before it was deleted. But anyway, I just wanted to note that there are plenty of hotel chains that rent out luxury villas in that quality and price range, although maybe not quite that size. As a random example I just checked out Banyan Tree's Koh Samui villas: http://www.banyantree.com/en/samui/villas/. The higher-end villas listed there would run over $3500 per night a few weeks from now, in June, which is nowhere near the Thai tourist season.
This has been downvoted several times after the original comment was deleted, for no apparent reason. For those of you who are downvoting for the sake of downvoting, the comment I responded to went something like this:
"it's funny that Kutcher would invest in a service he would probably never, ever use"
It was clear that the commenter was not aware of the quality and luxury Airbnb has to offer, which is probably why the comment was deleted after I responded.
Hey -- I was the original commenter -- sorry you were downvoted. Your response made it clear that I was unaware of the posh side of Airbnb -- and on second thought I didn't want to be seen as putting negative energy out there, so I deleted my comment. Next time I'll just do an "edit: I stand corrected!" so the thread still has context. Sorry!
Airbnb has done a great job already of promoting themselves (e.g., rent a country/village promotions) so I tend to think they know what they're doing. Kutcher could put his pad up there, get some of his famous friends to offer their places?
That said I'm sure he's a really nice guy and all; but why would startups need celebrities? Having actors endorse your products in ads is one thing; having them hang around in the office is another... Isn't that a little distracting?
the press release (read: blog post) was nauseating in its saccharine bullshit, but hners aren't the target audience... it was written for the legions of ak fans who know ak but not airbnb.
I'm calling it now: within a year there'll be a romantic comedy movie out called Airbnb (or equiv), starring Ashton, and involving, well, you can guess. Not only will it make for a great gimmick to hang that kind of movie around, but it would be massive "free" advertising for the company's service.
This and his Twitter following are the obvious, most likely wins for Airbnb.
I know the drama kids didn't sit with the computer club kids at the high school lunch table, but really... guys, stop being a bunch of haters.