Nathan Blecharczyk

Nathan Blecharczyk (; born 1983) is the co-founder and chief strategy officer (CSO) of Airbnb, and chairman of Airbnb China. Blecharczyk is the 203rd richest person in the world according to Forbes, with a net worth of $9.4 billion, mostly due to his ownership of 62 million shares of Airbnb.

Early life and education Blecharczyk was born in 1983, the son of Sheila ( Underwood) and Paul Steven Blecharczyk, who is Polish American. His ancestors came to the United States around the time of World War I. He grew up in an upper-middle-class family in Boston, Massachusetts. He attended Boston Latin Academy, graduating in 2001. During high school, he made money by creating a software business. His web-hosting business provided services to spammers and was once listed on The Spamhaus Project "Registry of Known Spam Operators (ROKSO)" which lists the top spamming services.

He continued writing programs while attending Harvard University in pursuit of a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science, and made enough money to pay his tuition before abandoning his web-hosting business to focus on his studies in 2002. He was also on the business staff of The Harvard Crimson during his time at Harvard College.

Career Blecharczyk began his career as an engineer at OPNET in 2005. He was a lead developer at Batiq in 2007. Blecharczyk moved into an apartment with Joe Gebbia after seeing an ad on Craigslist. In 2008, Blecharczyk partnered with Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia to found Airbnb, and was the company's first chief technology officer and coded the company's original website using Ruby on Rails. In the early years of the company, Airbnb overcame attempts to ban the service in New York City and San Francisco and eventually agreed to pay hotel taxes.

Blecharczyk oversaw Airbnb's 2015 expansion into Cuba.

In early 2017, Blecharczyk transitioned to chief strategy officer at Airbnb.

In summer 2019, after Sean M. Joyce, then a senior Airbnb official, raised concerns after Chinese government officials asked Airbnb for enhanced data sharing in China Blecharczyk responded that the company was not there to "promote American values."

Personal life Blecharczyk resides in San Francisco, California. They have two children; Blecharczyk has been a supporter of parental leave for fathers.

Philanthropy Blecharczyk joined Warren Buffett and Bill Gates' 'The Giving Pledge', a select group of billionaires who have committed to give the majority of their wealth away.

In 2019, he donated $1 million to his alma mater, Boston Latin Academy.