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Joe Gebbia

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Joe Gebbia
Gebbia in 2024
1st Chief Design Officer of the United States
Incumbent
Assumed office
August 21, 2025
PresidentDonald Trump
Preceded byPosition established
Personal details
BornJoseph Gebbia Jr.
(1981-08-21) August 21, 1981 (age 44)
Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
SpouseIsabelle Boemeke
Children1
EducationRhode Island School of Design (BFA)
OccupationDesigner
Entrepreneur
Known forCo-founder of Airbnb
Websitejoegebbia.com
Gebbia at the 2012 TNW Conference in Amsterdam

Joseph Gebbia Jr. (/'gebia/; born August 21, 1981) is an American designer and entrepreneur, and a co-founder of Airbnb. In 2025, he joined the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Gebbia was appointed by President Donald Trump as the first Chief Design Officer to lead the National Design Studio.[1][2]

Gebbia is also on the board of directors of Airbnb, but has not been involved in the operations of the company since 2022.[3][4] In 2022, Gebbia joined the board of Tesla Inc. and bought a minority stake in the San Antonio Spurs basketball team.[5] He also co-founded Samara, an accessory dwelling unit startup.

Early life

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Gebbia was born August 21, 1981, in Atlanta, Georgia,[6][7] the son of Eileen and Joe Gebbia, independent health food sales representatives.[8][9] Gebbia is of Italian and Irish ancestry. He grew up in Lawrenceville, Georgia and has one sister, Kimberly.[9] Gebbia attended Brookwood High School in Snellville, Georgia.

In 2005, Gebbia graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Graphic Design and Industrial Design.[10] Gebbia took supplementary business-related classes at Brown University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) while attending RISD.[11]

Gebbia in 2017

Career

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After graduating from RISD, Gebbia moved to San Francisco to work as a designer for Chronicle Books.[11][12] He also founded Ecolect, a green-design website.[13][14] In 2007, Brian Chesky, his classmate at RISD, moved in with him, and they both quit their jobs to start a company together. Gebbia came up with the idea of renting out airbeds in their apartment. They marketed the beds by creating a website called "AirBed & Breakfast.”[15][16][17][18][19] In March 2009, the name of the company was shortened to Airbnb.com, and the site's content had expanded from air beds and shared spaces to properties including entire homes, apartments, and private rooms.[20]

In May 2017, Gebbia launched Neighborhood, a modular designed office furniture business. The furniture was created for Bernhardt Design, a furniture company that has worked with emerging designers.[21] Gebbia supported the newly formed Eames Institute, aimed at broadening the influence of Ray and Charles Eames through exhibitions from the Eames Collection.[22]

On December 10, 2020, Airbnb became a public company via an initial public offering, raising $3.5 billion.[23] In January 2022, Gebbia acquired a minority ownership stake in the San Antonio Spurs, joining billionaire Michael Dell and San Francisco-based global investment firm Sixth Street Partners as fellow investors.[24] In July 2022, Gebbia stepped down from his full-time operating role at Airbnb, while remaining on the board of directors in an advisory role.[25] In September 2022, Gebbia was appointed by Tesla, Inc. to its board of directors.[26][27] Samara, formerly a research and development unit of Airbnb established in 2016, became an independent accessory dwelling unit (ADU) startup in 2022. Gebbia announced the launch of its first product in November 2022, a net-zero tiny house called Backyard.[28]

Investments

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Gebbia has invested in:

Documentary work

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In 2020, Gebbia was an executive producer on the documentary film Universe, which follows jazz trumpeter Wallace Roney, a protégé of Miles Davis, as he convenes an orchestra to perform a rediscovered orchestral jazz suite by Wayne Shorter—written in 1966 for Miles Davis but never before performed. The film premiered weeks after Roney died from complications of COVID-19, making it one of the first films portraying the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.[31] Gebbia also executive produced a documentary titled We Dare to Dream, in partnership with XTR, following the 29-athlete Refugee Olympic Team at the Olympics before, during and after the 2020 Summer Olympics.[32][33]

Work for DOGE

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In 2025, Gebbia joined the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as head of its National Design Studio (NDS). The studio's job is to improve the design of government websites.[34][35] Gebbia said government websites, especially on mobile, are "horribly out of date" and he wants to create an "Apple Store-like experience."[36][35]

Concern that Gebbia's work for DOGE undermined U.S. democracy resulted in calls to boycott Airbnb.[37] In a Jan 19, 2025 post on X, Gebbia wrote that Trump "is not a fascist determined to destroy democracy" and that "I ... love the whole DOGE initiative."[38]

Gebbia told the Katie Miller Podcast he had a "pretty unpleasant" experience when he first joined DOGE." The hate mail text messages that I got were disheartening to say the least," he said.[39]

Personal life

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Gebbia lives in Austin, Texas.[40][41] He is married to Brazilian model and influencer Isabelle Boemeke with whom he has a son. [42]

Board memberships

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Gebbia is on the board of directors of Airbnb; Samara, an accessory dwelling unit startup and Tesla Inc.[43][44][45][46]

Politics

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Gebbia used to be a Democrat. In 2025, Gebbia donated $1M to the gubernatorial campaign of Greg Abbott.[47][48] He has said that his politics have shifted towards the Republican Party over time.[48] In the 2024 United States presidential election, he voted for Donald Trump.[48] In 2025, Gebbia praised President Donald Trump's nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to United States Secretary of Health and Human Services.[48] Gebbia gave at least 2 million dollars to Andrew Cuomo's PAC for the 2025 New York City mayoral election.[49][50]

Philanthropy

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Gebbia is among the youngest members to join The Giving Pledge committing to give more than half his wealth to philanthropic causes.[51] Gebbia has made donations to service-led companies and projects, including Thorn and Educate Girls.[52] A former scholarship recipient, in 2014, Gebbia donated $300,000 to his alma mater, RISD, to create an endowed fund that will make the school accessible for students in need of financial assistance.[53][54] In 2017, Gebbia brought Yeonmi Park, a North Korean refugee as his guest to the Met Gala to bring attention to the issue of global-refugee security. Park was featured on the front page of the style section of The New York Times following the event.[55]

In 2019, Gebbia donated to the Kevin Durant Charity Foundation which was used to redevelop basketball and tennis courts at playgrounds in Hayes Valley, San Francisco.[56] In 2020, he and his team launched Airbnb.org, a non-profit that enables hosts on Airbnb to house people in times of crisis.[57][58] In December 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Gebbia made a $25 million donation to benefit two San Francisco charities working to end homelessness in the San Francisco Bay Area: Rising Up—Larkin Street Youth Services and All Home.[59][60] In 2021, Gebbia was included on the list of America's 50 Biggest Charity Donors by The Chronicle of Philanthropy.[61] In May 2022, while Gebbia was the graduation speaker at his alma mater, Brookwood High School, he pledged 22 shares of Airbnb stock to each of the 890 graduates, a gift worth a total of $2.1 million.[62]

In February 2023, Gebbia made a $25 million gift to The Ocean Cleanup, the organization's largest private donation to date. The gift expands climate health and ocean sustainability operations across oceans, rivers, recycling, and research. Funds particularly support deployment of the organization's System 03 cleaning technology in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.[63] In February 2023, Gebbia committed to donating $25 million to Malala Fund over a period of five years.[64][65]

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Gebbia was portrayed by Brian Maya in the Disney+ comedy-drama series, The Best Heart Attack of My Life.[66]

References

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  1. ^ "Trump signs executive order creating role of chief design officer". Reuters. August 21, 2025. Retrieved September 21, 2025.
  2. ^ "New Trump design chief aims to improve thousands of US government websites". Reuters. August 23, 2025. Retrieved September 21, 2025.
  3. ^ "Hosts are fleeing Airbnb in protest over cofounder's DOGE work". The San Francisco Standard. February 20, 2025.
  4. ^ "Airbnb Co-Founder Joe Gebbia to Exit Company But Remain on the Board". Skift. July 21, 2022.
  5. ^ a b "Joe Gebbia". Forbes. Archived from the original on December 4, 2020. Retrieved December 18, 2020.
  6. ^ "Forbes' 29th Annual World's Billionaires Issue". Forbes. March 2, 2015. Archived from the original on September 11, 2015. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
  7. ^ "Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia". CNBC. October 6, 2014. Archived from the original on December 14, 2020. Retrieved September 9, 2017.
  8. ^ "Mother's Day 2016: 6 Tech Entrepreneurs Share What They Learned From Mom". ABC News. May 8, 2016.
  9. ^ a b Ferriss, Tim (March 10, 2018). "The Tim Ferriss Show Transcripts: Joe Gebbia (#301)". Tim Ferriss. Archived from the original on July 8, 2024. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  10. ^ "Rhode Island School of Design Introduces New Brand Identity" (Press release). Rhode Island School of Design. September 28, 2022. Archived from the original on August 25, 2023. Retrieved October 7, 2023.
  11. ^ a b "About". Joe Gebbia.
  12. ^ Schreffler, Laura (July 24, 2013). "What's On My Desk: Airbnb Co-Founder Joe Gebbia". Haute Living. Archived from the original on January 1, 2022. Retrieved January 1, 2022.
  13. ^ Joe Gebbia: Executing Your Idea Starts With a Small Single Step. 99U. December 3, 2013 – via YouTube.
  14. ^ Thomas, Owen (June 28, 2012). "How A Caltech Ph.D. Turned Airbnb Into A Billion-Dollar Travel Magazine". Business Insider. Archived from the original on January 1, 2022. Retrieved January 1, 2022.
  15. ^ Friedman, Thomas L. (July 20, 2013). "Welcome to the 'Sharing Economy'". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 6, 2021. Retrieved October 7, 2023.
  16. ^ Greylock Capital Management (February 28, 2014). "The Entrepreneur Questionnaire Brian Chesky, Co-Founder and CEO of Airbnb". Medium. Archived from the original on October 17, 2013.
  17. ^ Helm, Burt (December 2014). "Airbnb Is Inc.'s 2014 Company of the Year". Inc. Archived from the original on March 9, 2021. Retrieved October 7, 2023.
  18. ^ CARR, AUSTIN (November 7, 2011). "Starred: The Email That Launched Airbnb". Fast Company. Archived from the original on February 1, 2020. Retrieved October 7, 2023.
  19. ^ squirrelbait (October 10, 2007). "AirBed & Breakfast for Connecting '07". Core77.
  20. ^ "Where Did Airbnb Get Its Name?". The Boston Globe. October 31, 2015.
  21. ^ MILLER, MEG (May 22, 2017). "Airbnb Cofounder Joe Gebbia's Next Project? Furniture Design". Fast Company.
  22. ^ WILSON, MARK (March 31, 2022). "What Airbnb's Joe Gebbia owes to Charles and Ray Eames". Fast Company.
  23. ^ Allyn, Bobby; Schneider, Avie (December 10, 2020). "Airbnb Now A $100 Billion Company After Stock Market Debut Sees Stock Price Double". NPR. Archived from the original on March 4, 2021. Retrieved January 1, 2022.
  24. ^ Charania, Shams (January 17, 2022). "Spurs add Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia as minority ownership stakeholder". The Athletic. Archived from the original on March 21, 2025. Retrieved June 13, 2025.
  25. ^ Wiggers, Kyle (July 21, 2022). "Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia steps back from leadership role". TechCrunch.
  26. ^ Nishant, Niket; Sriram, Akash (September 28, 2022). "Tesla adds billionaire Airbnb co-founder Gebbia to board". Reuters. Archived from the original on September 29, 2022. Retrieved September 29, 2022.
  27. ^ Korosec, Kirsten (September 28, 2022). "Tesla appoints Airbnb co-founder to board". TechCrunch.
  28. ^ Putzier, Konrad (November 14, 2022). "Airbnb Co-Founder's New Business Is Building Small Homes in Backyards". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on November 15, 2022. Retrieved November 15, 2022.
  29. ^ "About us". Stark Bank. Archived from the original on February 5, 2023. Retrieved October 7, 2023.
  30. ^ Mehta, Ivan (November 15, 2022). "Vimcal wants be the most nifty calendar app on the block". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on July 29, 2023. Retrieved October 7, 2023.
  31. ^ Young, Neil (June 18, 2020). "'Universe': Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on January 1, 2022. Retrieved January 1, 2022.
  32. ^ Seitz, Loree (August 4, 2021). "Oscar Nominee Waad Al-Kateab to Direct Documentary on Refugee Olympic Team". The Wrap.
  33. ^ Morfoot, Addie (June 13, 2023). "Airbnb Co-Founder Joe Gebbia Enters the Doc Arena With Olympic Refugee Film, 'We Dare to Dream'". Variety. Archived from the original on July 8, 2023. Retrieved July 8, 2023.
  34. ^ "IMPROVING OUR NATION THROUGH BETTER DESIGN". White House. Retrieved August 21, 2025.
  35. ^ a b "Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Improves our Nation Through Better Design". White House. Retrieved August 23, 2025.
  36. ^ "Scoop: Trump's new "Apple Store"". Axios. Retrieved August 23, 2025.
  37. ^ McFall, Marni Rose (February 20, 2025). "Airbnb faces boycott calls". Newsweek. Archived from the original on February 25, 2025. Retrieved February 24, 2025.
  38. ^ Gebbia, Joe [@jgebbia] (January 19, 2025). "... He is not a fascist determined to destroy democracy. He deeply cares about our nation. ... He deeply cares about government efficiency and spending. (I also care about the next generation, and love the whole DOGE initiative.) ..." (Tweet). Archived from the original on February 18, 2025. Retrieved March 1, 2025 – via Twitter.
  39. ^ Kwan Wei Kevin Tan (September 1, 2025) "Joe Gebbia says the backlash he got from working at DOGE was depressing." Forbes. (Retrieved September 3, 2025.)
  40. ^ "Inside Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia's $10 million Texas home" – via Instagram.
  41. ^ Evans, Christina Ohly (May 19, 2022). "The Airbnb co-founder on his favourite things". Financial Times.
  42. ^ "She's a Model. She's Also a Nuclear Power Influencer. What?". The New York Times.
  43. ^ "Mr Porter's Style Council Hosts a Cozy Soirée in Honor of its Newest Member". Vogue. September 24, 2021. Archived from the original on January 1, 2022. Retrieved January 1, 2022.
  44. ^ Hook, Douglas (August 24, 2021). "Airbnb has announced that they will provide 20,000 Afghan refugees free temporary housing globally". The Republican. Archived from the original on November 9, 2021. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  45. ^ Wolverton, Troy (April 17, 2020). "Airbnb is facing an unprecedented threat from the coronavirus. Here are the veteran execs on Airbnb's board of directors who will be critical to CEO Brian Chesky's success or failure". Business Insider. Archived from the original on July 27, 2020. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
  46. ^ "Leadership". Rhode Island School of Design. Archived from the original on July 23, 2020. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
  47. ^ Wermund, Benjamin (July 16, 2025). "Here's the donor behind the mysterious trust that gave Greg Abbott $1M". The Houston Chronicle. Archived from the original on July 16, 2025. Retrieved August 4, 2025.
  48. ^ a b c d Schleifer, Theodore; Nehamas, Nicholas (February 14, 2025). "Billionaire Airbnb Co-Founder Is Said to Take Role in Musk's Government Initiative". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
  49. ^ Frank, Robert (October 30, 2025). "Billionaires are spending big to stop Zohran Mamdani's NYC mayoral bid". CNBC. Retrieved November 5, 2025.
  50. ^ {{Cite web| last = Schneid| first = Rebecca| title = The Billionaires Who Tried—and Failed—to Stop Zohran Mamdani| work = TIME| access-date = 2025-11-05| date = 2025-11-05| url = https://time.com/7331119/zohran-mamdani-billionaires-ackman-bloomber
  51. ^ GALLAGHER, LEIGH (June 1, 2016). "Airbnb Cofounders Join Buffett and Gates' 'Giving Pledge'". Fortune. Archived from the original on June 2, 2016. Retrieved October 7, 2023.
  52. ^ "'Audacious Project' Announces Grants Totaling $406 Million". Candid. April 13, 2018.
  53. ^ "Joe Gebbia". Inside Philanthropy. June 13, 2022. Archived from the original on December 3, 2020. Retrieved October 7, 2023.
  54. ^ "Partnering for Girls, Women, and the Global Goals". Clinton Foundation. September 21, 2016.
  55. ^ Zerbo, Julie (May 4, 2017). "Activism at the Met Gala". The New York Times.
  56. ^ "Kevin Durant, Airbnb Co-Founder Help Fund Basketball, Tennis Courts In San Francisco". CBS News. July 31, 2019. Archived from the original on April 19, 2023. Retrieved October 7, 2023.
  57. ^ Moore, Cortney (December 8, 2020). "Airbnb launches nonprofit to house people in need throughout coronavirus pandemic, emergencies". Fox Business. Archived from the original on March 29, 2025. Retrieved October 7, 2023.
  58. ^ Agustin, Francis (August 24, 2021). "Airbnb says it will temporarily house 20,000 Afghan refugees". Business Insider. Archived from the original on January 1, 2022. Retrieved January 1, 2022.
  59. ^ Cabanatuan, Michael (December 15, 2020). "Airbnb co-founder donates $25 million to S.F., Bay Area homelessness programs". San Francisco Chronicle.
  60. ^ Goldstein, Joelle (February 12, 2021). "He Made Billions Co-Founding Airbnb — Now Joe Gebbia Turns His Attention to the Homeless Crisis". People. Archived from the original on April 19, 2023. Retrieved October 7, 2023.
  61. ^ "Jeff Bezos, MacKenzie Scott, and Michael Bloomberg Top List of America's 50 Biggest Charity Donors". The Chronicle of Philanthropy. February 9, 2021.
  62. ^ "Airbnb co-founder gifts $2.1M in shares to graduates of his Gwinnett alma mater". WSB-TV. May 27, 2022. Archived from the original on May 26, 2022. Retrieved May 28, 2022.
  63. ^ GAMBOA, GLENN (February 2, 2023). "Airbnb's Joe Gebbia donates $25 million to The Ocean Cleanup". Associated Press. Archived from the original on February 2, 2023. Retrieved February 22, 2023.
  64. ^ "Airbnb and Samara co-founder Joe Gebbia donates $25 million to Malala Fund" (Press release). Malala Fund. February 23, 2023. Archived from the original on June 6, 2023. Retrieved October 7, 2023.
  65. ^ Hahn, Jason (June 18, 2021). "Airbnb Co-Founder Helps Launch Company's $25M Fund to Support Refugees with $5M Donation". People. Archived from the original on January 1, 2022. Retrieved January 1, 2022.
  66. ^ Mattio, Javier (January 25, 2025). "Casciari y El mejor infarto de mi vida: "Infartarse y enamorarse al mismo tiempo es muy recomendable"". www.lavoz.com.ar (in Spanish). Retrieved July 10, 2025.
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Further reading

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