[riggins]

Your $30MM ($300MM) is before taxes, before expenses

yes I'm aware of that. In my OP I was going to also say

"at $300M with a 20% net income margin (which would be one of the higher net income margins but not unheard of) AirBnB would be producing $60M of profit." but I figured most people would be able to infer that.

Anyway, think about it this way. TPG is leading the deal right? TPG is one of the top 5 PE firms in the country. While it's possible TPG is making crazy investments, I think the best base case assumption is the TPG is not making crazy investments. I mean these are seriously smart guys with a good track record.

So if we start from the position that TPG is sane, then we ask ourselves, how are sane people getting to a $10B valuation. And I think I gave the outline of how sane people might be looking at it and arriving at a $10B valuation.

Plus I'm old enough to remember when people thought it was crazy that Amazon was valued at more than Barnes & Noble.

[hkphooey]

Amazon has physical warehouses and a supply chain. Hyatt has property and employees all over the world.

Airbnb has a website. The entry barrier to competition is very low. They are not unique at all.