Airbnb IPO—
Roadshow Film
When COVID struck in 2019, Airbnb's business was decimated. Global travel essentially stopped, and, in eight weeks, Airbnb lost 80% of its revenue. By May of 2020, earnings were forecast to be half of what they were a year prior. This is not, perhaps, the prelude you might expect for the biggest IPO in history.
As Airbnb prepared to go public, we needed to adapt the 500-page S1 documentary into a Roadshow film.
Rather than employees or founders ring the bell as the market opened on IPO day, we made a film featuring our hosts ringing the spirit of the moment,.
As with all Airbnb projects, we needed to make the greatest IPO film of all-time. To make it even more difficult, we needed to film over 50 hosts around the world—even as the pandemic raged and travel bans prevented traditional production.
I was one of Airbnb’s first two writers, and ultimately played the role of “company historian and storyteller” to help translate the financial-heavy S1 into a compelling, docu-style script.
I also directed over 25+ remote interviews worldwide.
Credits
Airbnb Creative Team
Filmmaker & Writer: Michael Smith & Lee Solon
Film Directors: Christian Baker & Parker Grant & Hoj Johemri
Airbnb Creative Team
DP: Tim Kellner
Executive Producer: Yara Khakbaz & Carole McCarty
Photo Lead: Jan Roeykens
Animation: Buck