IP Reference Checks
Since its IPO in December 2020, Airbnb stock is down ~5% yet revenue and FCF has doubled. Last year, operating margins were comfortably over 20%. The platform is highly profitable but revenue growth has slowed ~12% YoY last quarter, growing slower than competitors.
This research aims to understand how Chesky organizes and runs Airbnb. We explore how decisions are made and the process of launching new products such as Experiences and Services. We’ve spent over five hours in private and published interviews with the following former colleagues of Brian Chesky:
This report is part of a new subscription tier at IP. Contact sales for access. No onward distribution is permitted
We have an internal research team focused on sourcing executives that worked closely with or reported to the Target CEO. Our team will vet each executive to understand the CEOs character and competence. We aim for a selection of executives with different perspectives on the Target CEO. Our internal team of investment research analysts conduct 5-10 hours of research per reference check and summarize our findings relating to the individual, company culture, and how it may link to the investment thesis. We also have a team of forensic investigators scouring court filings and other public documents historically to build a picture of the target CEO. The report and all interviews, filings, sources are made available supporting the work.
We're focused on quality over quantity. We aim for ~15 checks per year to focus us on sourcing the most relevant executives to help us understand the Target CEO. We only publish reference checks if we can source the right executives and believe the work is incremental to long-term shareholders.
It costs anywhere between $15-40k to produce each report including the executive interviews, forensic investigation costs, and analyst time.
We focus on understanding leaders that we may wish to invest in. We also prioritise leaders or executives that are new, unknown, or polarising.
We aim to have a rolling coverage list of ~30 companies at all times; our sourcing team is constantly searching for executives from these companies and we publish the reference check when we feel we have enough sources and information to give us an incremental perspective.
IP References are not available on our core library subscription tier.
There are three tiers of pricing for IP References:
IP References is not available widely on our core interview library subscription tier because the research focuses on individuals and companies where confidentiality and limited distribution is critical to sourcing high-quality executives willing to share candid perspectives.