????正如最新一期《財富》雜志報道的那樣，Airbnb公司創始人布萊恩?切斯基在很多方面都獨樹一幟。畢業于羅德島設計學院的他，最初的志向是當一名工業設計師，但后來卻創建起了一家如今估值高達255億美元的公司——甚至比酒店業巨頭萬豪國際集團的市值還高。

????但在硅谷的風險資本家們看來，隨著“新手”CEO在創業公司獨掌大權之風的興起，33歲的切斯基非常有代表性，他正是日益普遍的那種交游廣闊的創業者中的一員。

????“在當下這個時代，交游廣闊的個人可以做到一些曾經只有大型組織才能做到的事情。” 作家尼羅弗爾·莫晨特說道。他正在撰寫一本探討這方面話題的書《唯一性》（Onlyness），預計將于明年春季出版。

????凱鵬華盈高級合伙人朱麗葉·德拜爾尼表示：“現在業界對那些由創始人領導的公司支持力度空前之大，是我平生首遇。”對于個中原因，她總結出的理論是：

????首先，有越來越多的證據證明，由創始人領導的公司可以成為可持續挖掘的、極具價值的“寶藏”，比如亞馬遜、Facebook、谷歌，以及其他一些年歲漸長的初創公司，其曾經青澀年輕的創始人現在依然掌控著公司的大局。

????其次，公司保持私有化的時間比以往更長了，這也是最近發生的一種新現象。隨著規模空前的私募資金涌入各種科技初創公司，估值在10億美元以上的“獨角獸”公司數量越來越多。它們有更長的時間窗口來保持私有化，也使得CEO在上市之前可以有充分的時間來鞏固自己的地位。

????第三，正如莫晨特所建議的那樣，最聰明的那群年輕CEO早已學會如何結交能夠助他們更上一層樓的專業人士。比如，Facebook的馬克·扎克伯格特意從谷歌聘請了桑德伯格擔任COO。切斯基則選擇了另外一種方式，他親自拜訪了許多“創業導師”，包括巴菲特、迪士尼CEO鮑伯·艾格和投資者彼得·泰爾。

????切斯基在接受《財富》視頻采訪時表示，他收到的最重要的建議來自保羅·格雷厄姆。這位初創公司孵化器Y Combinator的締造者、風險投資家告訴切斯基：“擁有100個熱愛你的人，勝過擁有100萬個對你有點好感的人。”切斯基應用這條建議來精雕細琢商業模式和所謂的“逆轉工程”（reverse engineer）以擴大Airbnb的規模，而不是毫無章法地追求增長。正是這種聰明的做法，使該公司的估值達到255億美元，并且穩固了他對公司的掌控權。（財富中文網）

????譯者：劉進龍/汪皓

????審校：任文科

????Airbnb founder Brian Chesky is unique in many ways, as Leigh Gallagher notes in her recent profile of the first-time CEO. He’s a Rhode Island School of Design grad who planned to build a career as an industrial designer, but instead he built a company that’s now valued at $25.5 billion—more than the stock-market value of Marriott MAR 0.76% .

????But if you look at Chesky, 33, through another lens—the lens of Silicon venture capitalists who notice first-time CEOs keeping firm control of their companies—the Airbnb boss is an increasingly common sort of highly connected entrepreneur.

????“We’re living in an era where highly connected individual can do what only large organizations once could,” says author Nilofer Merchant, who is writing a book on this topic, Onlyness, due out next spring.

????Says Juliet de Baubigny, a senior partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers: “I have never seen a moment in time when there is such unprecedented support for the founder-led company.” De Baubigny has a theory—actually, three theories—about why this is so.

????First, there’s ever-growing proof that founder-led companies can become valuable, durable “treasures,” as she calls Amazon AMZN 0.98% , Facebook FB 0.01% , Google GOOG -0.19% and other aging startups that have their once-green and youthful founders still at the helm.

????Second—and what’s new lately—is that companies are staying private longer than they used to. Thanks to unprecedented levels of private money going into tech startups, the list of unicorns—privately held startups with valuations of at least $1 billion—keeps growing. The wider window for private ownership gives more time for a CEO to grow in his or her role before going public

????And third, the smartest young CEOs have learned to connect—as Merchant advises—with experts who enable them to thrive. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg did it one way when he recruited Sheryl Sandberg from Google to be his COO. Chesky did it another, by knocking on the doors of many business-building pros, including Warren Buffett BRK.A -0.07% , Disney DIS 0.96% CEO Bob Iger and investor Peter Thiel.

????The most important advice, Chesky says in this video interview with Gallagher, says came from Paul Graham, the VC who runs startup incubator Y Combinator. Graham told Chesky: “It’s better to have 100 people love you than have a million people that sort of like you.” Chesky applied this advice to hone his business model and “reverse engineer” as he says, to scale Airbnb—rather than haphazardly chase growth. That’s a smart route to a $25.5 billion valuation and a secure place at the helm.