Justin Kan & Brian Chesky: The Rejections That Built Twitch and Airbnb | E2344

Both Twitch and Airbnb survived years of near-death rejection before pivots that built billion-dollar outcomes, a patience today's AI-fast startup cycle rarely allows.

• Justin.tv's pivot: Only 3% of Justin.tv's traffic was gaming in 2010, but co-founder Emmett's instinct to focus there led to Twitch, which Amazon bought for $970 million in 2014.
• Google's rejection: Google negotiated to buy Justin.tv, interviewed the whole team, then rejected them as 'not good enough'—prompting the brainstorm that produced the gaming pivot.

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