Kati Schmidt

Airbnb is one of the hottest unicorns of Silicon Valley having democratized travel and profoundly disrupted the hospitality industry. As an early former employee of Airbnb, Kati worked on launching and scaling Airbnb in Europe, starting Airbnb’s public policy efforts globally and launching Airbnb Experiences. She has seen hyper growth and worked on various entrepreneurial projects within the company that informed operational playbooks. Kati left the company after 6.5 years to pursue her own venture, Piña Colada, to create meaningful connections between groups of six like-minded singles over great food.

Kati’s entrepreneurial takeaways are valuable for aspiring entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and managers of accelerator programs and corporations who want to foster innovative and entrepreneurial thinking. Kati addresses strategies of building and scaling a global community marketplace business with the right teams and mindsets, disrupting an entire industry while collaborating with incumbents and governments and embracing a values-driven work culture that empowers intrapreneurs in a growingly corporate environment.

Kati is passionate about the transatlantic relationship and immigration rights. Having won a Green Card in the Diversity Lottery, Kati immigrated to SF in early 2015 and was selected as a Young Leader of the renowned Atlantikbrücke organization. Using the lessons learned at Airbnb, where she started the first employee resource group for immigrant employees and allies, Kati will provide guidance on how creating a home for immigrant employees, their families, and communities can turn your company’s intention for increased diversity and inclusion into successful and easy-to-implement action. The formation of this resource group quickly grew to become one of the largest and most active groups, responding to the various iterations of the Travel Ban and other policies while reinforcing the company’s motto of “Belong Here” and external mission of “Belong Anywhere”.

Airbnb is the poster child of the Sharing Economy, also known as peer economy or collaborative economy. Airbnb has democratized travel and profoundly disrupted the hospitality industry. The community marketplace has become extremely popular amongst millennials, a demographic that values access over ownership. As an early former employee of Airbnb, Kati worked in operational and public policy roles taking the lead on frameworks that allow new Sharing Economy companies to grow and disrupt existing industries while ensuring a positive impact for local communities and cities.

As an early ambassador of the Sharing Economy, Kati’s takeaways are valuable for founders of Sharing Economy startups and peer-to-peer community marketplaces, their strategic corporate partners and government agencies that want to develop frameworks that ensure accessibility for all citizens and support the coexistence of incumbents and innovative startups in the same industry.