Paypal was dominant then. Stripe was PayPal with simpler onboarding.
Airbnb is a favorite textbook example of VCs being wrong. They were rejected early on because people were thinking it's risky to rent out your house to strangers, and well, motels exist. But I think that's always been a blind spot with VCs - they just don't understand what it's like to be broke. Airbnb pivoted quite a bit from what made them big; they used to have top tier hosts and hospitality for much cheaper, now they're just alternative motels with no free breakfast.
Airbnb is a favorite textbook example of VCs being wrong. They were rejected early on because people were thinking it's risky to rent out your house to strangers, and well, motels exist. But I think that's always been a blind spot with VCs - they just don't understand what it's like to be broke. Airbnb pivoted quite a bit from what made them big; they used to have top tier hosts and hospitality for much cheaper, now they're just alternative motels with no free breakfast.