- HUNTRS by Hanna Larsson
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- 🥣 He sold cereal and unlocked Airbnb
🥣 He sold cereal and unlocked Airbnb
Action always beats a perfect plan.
Hanna Larsson
October 11, 2025
Picture of Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, and Nate Blecharczyk, borrowed from Startup Design Journal
In 2008 the Airbnb founders were broke.
So they did something weird.
They made presidential cereal:
Obama Os and Capn McCains.
They sold about a thousand boxes at forty dollars each. It kept the lights on and got the press talking.
We hand folded 1,000 boxes of cereal… It was like origami in my apartment.
Brian Chesky
That stunt did more.
It opened the door to Y Combinator.
Paul Graham saw the grit and said yes. He later wrote that their stubbornness mattered more than a perfect plan.
Brian Chesky has told the story many times.
They shipped boxes to reporters.
The Obama cereal sold out in three days.
The attention created real meetings.
Again, we see an example of one bold move that changed a startups trajectory entirely.
What this teaches us
1 - Literally no one knows what the hell they are doing when they start something new.
Don’t let it stop you. Try and experiment until you find what works.
2 - Action beats a perfect plan.
Ship something people talk about.
3 - Create distribution.
It doesn’t matter how great your offer is, if you don’t have distribution.
4 - Persistence compounds.
Keep moving until luck finds you.
Most people quit too soon.
5 - Build your own momentum.
Follow up fast.
Turn attention into meetings, intros, and sales.
Talk soon,
Hanna