Joe Gebbia Height, Age, Wife, Children, Family, Biography

Some Lesser Known Facts About Joe Gebbia

• His ancestors came from Mezzojuso, a small village on a hillside in Sicily.

• He once worked with the mayor and council to find old records and birth certificates. They traced their family history back to the 1700s.

• He then organised a party for the villagers, and his family was given honorary citizenship.

• His father was very emotional, standing in the same place where his grandfather had left in 1900.

• As a child, Gebbia loved design, music, and sports, and he often credits his parents for supporting him.

• During his school days, he worked as a ball boy for the Atlanta Hawks basketball team.

• In grade school, he was called the ‘art guy’ because he sold his classmates drawings of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which was his first small business.

• At Brookwood High School in Snellville, Georgia, he took classes in ceramics, photography, and jewellery making.

• He studied figure drawing and painting at the Atlanta College of Art on weekends.

• In high school, he learnt college-level art and became a finalist in the Georgia Governor’s Honours Program, where a professor encouraged him to attend the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).

• The following summer, he took courses at RISD’s campus.

• At RISD, one of Gebbia’s first classes was 3D foundations, where students had to make small 12-inch models of famous artists’ or designers’ works. However, Gebbia wanted to make life-size chairs that could be used.

  

  Joe Gebbia at his graduation ceremony at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD)

• His professor told him to stick to something realistic, but Gebbia went ahead and built 16 full-sized chairs as his final project.

• Later, he said that his experience showed him how to go beyond the limits of what people think is possible.

• During this time, he was inspired by designers Charles and Ray Eames and switched from studying painting to industrial design.

• One of his first business ideas was CritBuns, soft foam cushions for art students to sit on during long critique sessions (called ‘crits’). The design was chosen for his class of 800 students.

• After two years of working on the product, CritBuns was featured in I.D. magazine and sold by many retailers.

• While at RISD, he also took business classes at Brown University and MIT.

• After graduating from RISD, Gebbia moved to San Francisco and worked as a designer at Chronicle Books. He was the only industrial designer in a company of 200 graphic designers.

• He then started Ecolect, a website focused on green design.

• In 2007, his RISD classmate Brian Chesky became his roommate. Both quit their jobs to start a company. That same week, their rent was raised by 20%, which they could not afford.

• After that, they came to know that a big design conference was coming to San Francisco, and all hotels were full.

• Gebbia suggested renting out airbeds in their apartment. They created a website called ‘AirBed & Breakfast’ and promoted it through design blogs. They got three guests, earned money, and were able to pay rent.

• In 2008, their roommate, Nathan Blecharczyk, a Harvard graduate and engineer, joined as the third cofounder. He said that he was motivated by rising rents and wanted to provide an alternative.

  

  An old picture of Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, and Nate Blecharczyk

• After that, Gebbia and Chesky created custom cereal boxes called Obama O’s and Cap’n McCain’s during the 2008 U.S. election to raise money.

• A small Berkeley manufacturer made 1,000 boxes in exchange for a share of profits. They filled the boxes with ordinary Cheerios and Chex. The boxes sold for $40 each and gained media coverage from CNN and Good Morning America.

• Singer Katy Perry auctioned a signed box. This promotion earned them $30,000, especially during the Democratic National Convention.

• Paul Graham, a computer scientist and writer, was impressed by the idea. Paul invited the founders to join Y Combinator in January 2009. Y Combinator provided them with $20,000 in funding in exchange for a 6% stake in the company.

• Gebbia worked on helping the early hosts make their listings look attractive.

• In New York City, Airbnb was not growing well at first.

• Gebbia and Chesky then stayed with about two dozen hosts and noticed that many listings had poor-quality photos.

• After that, they used Gebbia’s design skills and rented a good camera and took high-resolution photos of the spaces.

• They also started offering free professional photography through a network of 2,000 freelancers. This improved the listings, and the revenue of Airbnb in New York doubled.

• After that, the Airbnb Photography Program was created.

• In March 2009, the company’s name was shortened to Airbnb.com and the platform expanded beyond airbeds. They shared spaces to entire homes, apartments and private rooms.

• In 2014, he donated $300,000 to the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) to support students who need financial aid. He was once a scholarship student himself.

• In 2017, he took Yeonmi Park, a North Korean refugee, as his guest to the Met Gala to highlight refugee issues. Park was later featured in The New York Times.
  

  Joe Gebbia with Yeonmi Park, a North Korean refugee, as his guest to the Met Gala (2017)

• In May 2017, Gebbia launched Neighbourhood, a modular office furniture line, which was designed for Bernhardt Design, a company that works with new designers.

• His collection was then debuted at the ICFF furniture fair during New York City’s design week.

• The furniture was featured in various publications such as Designboom, Quartz, Dezeen, and Interior Design.

• After that, Gebbia started supporting the Eames Institute for Infinite Curiosity, where he promoted the works of designers Ray and Charles Eames through exhibitions and projects.

• In 2019, he donated to the Kevin Durant Charity Foundation to rebuild basketball and tennis courts in Hayes Valley, San Francisco.

• In December 2020, during COVID-19, he donated $25 million to San Francisco charities to fight against homelessness.

• On 10 December 2020, Airbnb sold its shares and raised $3.5 billion, becoming a public company.

• That same year, he launched Airbnb.org, a nonprofit organisation that provides housing support during emergencies.

• In 2020, Gebbia worked as an executive producer for the documentary film Universe, which shows jazz trumpet player Wallace Roney leading an orchestra.

• The film was released a few weeks after Roney died from COVID-19 and became one of the first films about the pandemic’s effects.

• After that, Gebbia worked as an executive producer for the documentary film We Dare to Dream, with XTR. This film followed the 29-member Refugee Olympic Team, and showed their journey before, during, and after the 2020 Summer Olympics.

  

  The poster of the documentary film We Dare to Dream

• In January 2022, Gebbia bought a minority stake in the San Antonio Spurs basketball team. He joined billionaire Michael Dell and the investment firm Sixth Street Partners as fellow investors.

• In May 2022, during the graduation ceremony at Brookwood High School, he distributed 22 shares of Airbnb stock to each of the 890 graduates. The total value of the shares was $2.1 million.
  

  Joe Gebbia during the graduation ceremony at Brookwood High School (2022)

• In July 2022, Gebbia left his full-time role at Airbnb but continued working as a board member and adviser.

• In September 2022, Gebbia was appointed to the board of Tesla.

• That same year, Samara, once a research project at Airbnb, became an independent company, which started building backyard homes.

• In November 2022, Gebbia revealed Samara’s first product, a net-zero tiny house called Backyard.

• Gebbia has invested in Stark Bank (a business-focused financial technology bank), Vimcal (a calendar mobile app), and a minority stake in the San Antonio Spurs basketball team.

• In February 2023, he donated $25 million to The Ocean Cleanup, a nonprofit environmental engineering organisation based in the Netherlands, to expand ocean cleaning projects, recycling research, and implement System 03 technology in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

• During the same month, he pledged $25 million over five years to the Malala Fund to support girls’ education. ^[1]Getty Images

  

  Joe Gebbia posing with Malala

• In the 2024 U.S. election, he voted for Donald Trump.

• In 2025, he donated $1 million to the campaign of Texas Governor Greg Abbott.

• During the same time, Gebbia supported Trump’s nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

• On 19 January 2025, Gebbia posted on X (Twitter) that Donald Trump was not a fascist trying to destroy democracy, and he strongly supports the DOGE initiative.

• In February 2025, he joined the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Some people criticised that his work at DOGE was not good for democracy, leading to calls for a boycott of Airbnb.

• On 21 August 2025, American President Donald Trump signed an order to start ‘America by Design,’ a national plan to improve government websites.

• A new office, called the National Design Studio (NDS), was established within the White House. A new role, the Chief Design Officer (CDO), was also introduced.

• Joe Gebbia was appointed as the first Chief Design Officer of the U.S.

• After his appointment, Gebbia said that most government websites were outdated, especially on mobile devices, and he wanted them to work like using an Apple Store app.

• As CDO, his responsibilities included operating with design experts and firms, hiring designers and specialists from private companies, and working with government agencies to improve their websites.

• Reportedly, each federal agency leader had to work with the CDO.

• He is a part of the Style Council of Mr. Porter.

• He was once a Democrat, but later leaned Republican.

• As a member of The Giving Pledge, he promised to give away more than half of his wealth to charity.

• He often donates to service-based groups like Thorn and Educate Girls.

• He likes travelling to distant places, practising Jiujitsu, and skiing in his free time.
  

  Joe Gebbia posing in Jiujitsu uniform with his trainer

• He has been featured on the covers of many noted magazines and tabloids.
  

  Joe Gebbia on the cover of a magazine

• He is an animal lover and has a pet dog named Belo. He often shares pictures of his pet on social media.
  

  Joe Gebbia with his pet dog

• Joe Gebbia likes playing basketball, travelling to distant places, and reading books in his free time.

• He has a collection of mid-century modern chairs. Many of the pieces are by Charles and Ray Eames, as well as by the Dutch designer Gerrit Rietveld. He likes the Opal webcam.
  

  Joe Gebbia’s living room in his Texas home with some of his midcentury chairs

• Once, during a media conversation, he talked about his favourite room in his house. He said that he began each day by exercising in his gym, which was once a garage. He said,
  

  It used to be a garage, so I just added a skylight and I open the door wide for natural light. It’s equipped with the basics: a bench, cables, free weights, kettlebells, a leg press and an elliptical machine. My goal is three hours of cardio a week at a target heart rate of 125bpm, plus four days of strength training.”

  

  Joe Gebbia at home in Austin