

How I used Airbnb to fund a hit iPhone app - benjlang
http://thenextweb.com/entrepreneur/2012/01/23/how-i-used-airbnb-to-fund-a-hit-iphone-app-and-you-can-too/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheNextWeb+%28The+Next+Web+All+Stories%29

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jgrahamc
"Let’s say a $100-per-night room is booked for a conservative 20 nights out of
the month. That’s $2,000 of income every time you flip the calendar! At that
rate, you can fully fund a basic $10,000 app in five months. "

Only if you don't tell the IRS, or New York City, or New York State about your
extra income.

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benjlang
Do people usually report AirBNB income to the IRS?

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mbesto
You basically have to.[1] I just recently got a notice from AirBnB where I had
to verify my info for a 1099 issuance. If I recall correctly, it's fairly hard
to ignore this (systematically speaking).

[1]<http://www.airbnb.com/help/question/122>

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Maarten_pi
And don't forget about the costs of furnishing, laundry bills, cleaner bills,
and so on ;)

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bigbird
If you've already got a nice pad in NYC or SF, is it really that likely you
can't come up with $10k? At most that's only a few months rent...

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untog
It's quite likely. I live in NYC, and pay $1000 a month rent. So "a few
months" = 10 months = most of a year.

While I have over $10k in savings, I don't have so much money than I can just
throw $10k of it into risk. I don't think I'm that uncommon.

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bigbird
I get what you're saying, but the guy in the article is talking about renting
an "extra bedroom in a nice neighborhood". Look at that guy's place -- he's
got a duplex penthouse in what appears to be fairly nice shape with at least 2
bedrooms. Most likely substantially more than $1000/mo.

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nanijoe
Is it not just easier to learn Objective-C / Cocoa touch, than have strangers
filing in and out of your spare bedroom for 5 months?

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jgrahamc
It is possible that the OP is not capable of doing that and thus needs to hire
someone to do it for him.

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akg
Very cool. I've used AirBnB as a means to travel and live abroad for an
extended period of time while working on my startup. I've connected with
developers in countries like Germany (lots of iOS developers here) and am
building something together with one of them now. It's a fascinatingly global
market place.

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bond
"How I used Airbnb to fund a hit iPhone app"

Is it possible to know how many downloads or how much revenue this "hit" app
is getting right now? Anyone care to share some numbers?

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gavingmiller
While I'm unaware of a way to determine stats on downloads or revenue... you
can use App Annie (<http://www.appannie.com/cloth/>) to get a reasonable idea
of how the app is doing.

From App Annie: They've been featured roughly ~110 times on the app store in
various more prominent areas. And their ranks look semi-decent.

My 2 cents: He's at least made his money back and probably a little extra on
top.

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manmal
Is 10.000$ really a problem to raise if you call an apartment your own which
sells a room for 125$ a day?

