Steve Jobs put on product extravaganzas. Every CEO should.
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. “This," Steve Jobs said, “is the most important moment in my entire life." It was minutes before the Apple event in 1984 that would change everything for the company. At the end of Jobs’s presentation that day, the nervous young entrepreneur in a bow tie walked across the stage to a table with a mysterious bag on top of it.
Inside was a computer. As the soaring theme from “Chariots of Fire" boomed, the computer flickered to life and began talking. Hello.
I’m Macintosh. It sure is great to get out of that bag. Since that moment, the product launches that Jobs made cool have become standard across Silicon Valley.
Apple, Microsoft, Google, Nvidia, Meta—they all host flashy events to unveil the release of their newest, sleekest technology. Now imagine all that hype, drama and glitz to reveal the latest…Taco Bell chalupa. Would you watch it? Brian Chesky probably would.
The chief executive of Airbnb, Chesky is one of tech’s most influential leaders these days, and he’s become an evangelist for the value of annual product releases. In fact, he thinks they are so powerful that he made product launches the organizing principle of his company. I recently asked Chesky to explain the benefits of product releases—and his eyes lit up with excitement.
You would have thought I told him that Buckingham Palace wanted to list rooms on Airbnb. “I’m very, very passionate about this," Chesky said. These releases are not just PR stunts.
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