1. In 2022, Joe Gebbia joined the board of Tesla Inc and bought a minority stake in the San Antonio Spurs basketball team.
35 Facts About Joe Gebbia
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Joe Gebbia grew up in Lawrenceville, Georgia and has one sister, Kimberly.
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Joe Gebbia was known as the "art guy" in grade school when he started his first business selling illustrations of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to his classmates.
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Joe Gebbia attended Brookwood High School in Snellville, Georgia, where he took classes in ceramics, photography, and jewelry metalsmithing.
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Joe Gebbia took classes in figure drawing and painting at the Atlanta College of Art on weekends.
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In one of his first courses at RISD, Joe Gebbia took a 3D foundations class with a semester-long project aiming to produce 12-inch scale works of a famous artist or designer.
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Joe Gebbia decided he wanted to create life-size models so he could use them afterwards, but his professor dismissed the idea and told to stick to the achievable.
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Joe Gebbia set out to prove his professor wrong and produced sixteen full-sized chairs for his final project.
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Joe Gebbia refers to this anecdote as one of several examples that allowed him to transcend beliefs of what was possible.
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Around this time, Joe Gebbia became inspired by the work of Charles and Ray Eames and switched his studies from painting to industrial design.
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Joe Gebbia developed the idea at RISD and the design was selected as the senior gift for his graduating class of 800 students.
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In 2005, Joe Gebbia graduated from RISD with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Graphic Design and Industrial Design.
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Joe Gebbia took supplementary business-related classes at Brown University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology while attending RISD.
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Joe Gebbia said he was inspired to co-found Airbnb due to a landlord increasing the rent on the San Francisco apartment he shared with a roommate, believing that there should be competition to this practice.
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Joe Gebbia offered complimentary professional photography services sourced from a community of over 2,000 freelancers.
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In May 2017, Joe Gebbia launched Neighborhood, a modular designed office furniture business.
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Joe Gebbia supported the newly formed Eames Institute for Infinite Curiosity, aimed at broadening the influence of Ray and Charles Eames through exhibitions from the Eames Collection.
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In January 2022, Joe Gebbia acquired a minority ownership stake in the San Antonio Spurs, joining billionaire Michael Dell and San Francisco-based global investment firm Sixth Street Partners as fellow investors.
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In July 2022, Joe Gebbia stepped down from his full-time operating role at Airbnb, while remaining on the board of directors in an advisory role.
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In September 2022, Joe Gebbia was appointed by Tesla, Inc to its board of directors.
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Joe Gebbia announced the launch of its first product in November 2022, a net-zero tiny house called Backyard.
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Joe Gebbia executive produced a documentary titled We Dare to Dream, in partnership with XTR, following the 29-athlete Refugee Olympic Team at the Olympics before, during and after the 2020 Summer Olympics.
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Joe Gebbia has a rescue dog named after the Airbnb logo, Belo.
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Joe Gebbia attended the 2023 Met Gala with Brazilian fashion model and social media personality Isabelle Boemeke.
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Joe Gebbia is on the board of directors of Airbnb; Samara, an accessory dwelling unit startup and Tesla Inc He is a member of The Style Council of Mr Porter.
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Joe Gebbia has said that his politics have shifted towards the Republican Party over time.
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In 2025, Gebbia praised President Donald Trump's nomination of Robert F Kennedy Jr.
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Joe Gebbia is among the youngest members to join The Giving Pledge committing to give more than half his wealth to philanthropic causes.
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Joe Gebbia has made donations to service-led companies and projects, including Thorn and Educate Girls.
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In 2017, Joe Gebbia brought Yeonmi Park, a North Korean refugee as his guest to the Met Gala to bring attention to the issue of global-refugee security.
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In 2019, Joe Gebbia donated to the Kevin Durant Charity Foundation which was used to redevelop basketball and tennis courts at playgrounds in Hayes Valley, San Francisco.
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In 2021, Joe Gebbia was included on the list of America's 50 Biggest Charity Donors by The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
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In May 2022, while Joe Gebbia was the graduation speaker at his alma mater, Brookwood High School, he pledged 22 shares of Airbnb stock to each of the 890 graduates, a gift worth a total of $2.1 million.
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In February 2023, Joe Gebbia made a $25 million gift to The Ocean Cleanup, the organization's largest private donation to date.
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In February 2023, Joe Gebbia committed to donating $25 million to Malala Fund over a period of five years.