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Airbnb’s Chesky Takes Far Lower Salary Than Most Tech CEOs at IPO

Photo: Art by Mike Sullivan

Airbnb has distinguished itself on a number of grounds, including the innovative nature of its business model and its ability to turn a profit, at least for a period of time. But it also stands out for how little money its CEO earns, at least in terms of his salary.

The travel firm’s initial public offering filing revealed that CEO Brian Chesky’s salary has been just $110,000 up until this month, a fraction of the base salaries for CEOs at most other tech companies that have gone public this year. The only CEOs to earn less were already enormously wealthy from previous startups: Affirm CEO Max Levchin, a Paypal co-founder, and Asana CEO Dustin Moskovitz, a Facebook co-founder. Both earned nominal salaries: $10,000 for Levchin and $1 for Moskovitz.

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