Kevork Djansezian/GettyAirbnb CEO Brian CheskyMarc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape and investment firm Andreessen Horowitz, has helped many startups in his portfolio become giant companies.
One of those companies is $10 billion Airbnb, which was still a bumbling startup when Andreessen led its Series B round.
In a 14,000-word New Yorker profile of Andreessen, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky explained one time when Andreessen really made an impact on his business.
Shortly after Andreessen invested in the short-term apartment rental startup, the company found itself in the middle of a "PR nightmare."
One of its renters' homes in San Francisco had been trashed by a tenant, and the company was under fire.
"We had just expanded from being ten people living in a three-bedroom apartment and we had no idea how to be a billion-dollar company," Chesky told The New Yorker's Tad Friend.
"Marc came to our office at midnight and read the letter I'd written to our community about the Airbnb Guarantee, and the two changes he made changed the company forever. I'd said we guarantee five thousand dollars for property damage, and he added a zero, which seemed crazy ... And he told me to add my personal e-mail address. He gave us permission to be bold."