Airbnb, the company that connected web surfing to couch surfing, is in the process of raising $400 million to $500 million, a round that would value the company at around $10 billion, according to a report.
The Wall Street Journal cites "people familiar with the process" who say private equity firm TPG is leading the round. Reps from Airbnb could not be reached for comment.
See also: 8 Tech Companies That May Go Public in 2014
At $10 billion, Airbnb would be worth more than some large hotel companies, including Wyndham Worldwide and Hyatt Hotels.
Founded in 2008 by Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia, Airbnb now has more than 600,000 listings from people who want to rent out their homes, rooms or couches to strangers for money. Airbnb receives a portion of those fees.
The company's growth has come despite various customer service-related disasters. In July 2011, renters trashed an apartment owned by "EJ," a San Francisco-based executive. This week, a New York-based comedian rented out his apartment to a man who used it to advertise an "XXX Freak Fest." After the 2011 incident, Airbnb launched a Trust & Safety Center and issued a $1,000,000 retroactive insurance guarantee to protect hosts from property damage caused by Airbnb guests.
Airbnb was valued at $2.5 billion last July.
Fred also blogs daily at avc.com, and engages with his followers in the comment section. (Bonus: the comments are sometimes as good as the blog post itself.)
Wilson has an MBA Monday series, which educates both investors and entrepreneurs on all aspects of a startup, from return on investment to cap tables. He posts links on Twitter along with additional educational content.
Angel investor turned VC Chris Sacca doesn’t have a blog, but he does retweet relevant investor information (and occasionally some funny content, as well). He was an early adopter and investor in Twitter a few years ago, and more recently, invested in Turntable.fm. He tweeted often about his use of Turntable. Without Chris’ advice, it would have taken me weeks to learns about the company - a lifetime in the world of startups.
As new companies and technologies emerge, investors like Chris have an opportunity to see great companies before the masses. They can point you to what is currently hot in the market. It is beneficial to have this insight when you are looking to invest.
Dan is a reporter who writes about private equity and venture capital for Fortune. Among his daily Twitter posts, you’ll find pre-marketing links related to private equity. He organizes all the most interesting content for the day into one place, and comments on stories evolving throughout the day.
Mark Suster is an entrepreneur who made the leap to venture capital, but blogs for Both Sides of the Table. His posts are very well-thought out, well-written and go into a lot of detail about topics helpful to new investors. He also engages with his community in the comment sections, which provides a lot of additional insight. Since he doesn’t blog daily, I rely on his Twitter feed to alert me to his posts and any additional links he shares.
Brad Feld is a venture capitalist at Foundry Group. Follow Brad on Twitter for insights into current topics in the venture capital world. He has been blogging for a long time, and has a lot of great content on his website. Also, see his great set of posts on term sheets; they were the basis of his recent book Venture Deals, a must-read for every investor and entrepreneur.
Chris is an angel investor who runs Founder Collective, and also a co-founder of Hunch. Although he doesn’t blog as frequently as a lot of the other investors, his content is reliably valuable. He organizes posts into sections, like Raising money, Startup Sales/Marketing, Operations and other great topics. You can spend hours learning about startups and investing on this blog.
When I first started following Rob, he was with Spark Capital, but has since moved to NextView ventures. He occasionally writes about investing and startups on his blog, and tweets about topics that any investor will find useful. I also like to follow Rob because he tweets about Boston and NY startups, a perspective I might not otherwise be focused on.
Chris Sacca recommended Bryce Roberts, saying that “he writes thoughtfully." I have to agree with Chris. I frequently click on Bryce's recommended links and read his blog to gain insight into the industry.
Jeff Bussgang is another entrepreneur turned VC and a partner at Flybridge Capital. His blog is similar in concept to Mark Suster’s: a VC’s perspective with former entrepreneurial experience.
He only blogs 3-4 times per month, so I rely on Twitter to update me with his new content. Jeff is a frequent Twitter user, and posts a lot of additional thoughts on investing. He also has a useful book called Mastering the VC Game that every investor should pick up.
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