Airbnb'sCFO Andrew Swain has quietly vanished from the company roster as first reported in TechCrunch. Emails to Swain instead get bounced back with the suggestion of emailing the company's global tax director instead. Airbnb later confirmed that Swain is no longer part of the company. Although at the moment still listed as working at Airbnb on LinkedIn, TechCrunch reports that Swain resigned after being asked to leave the company. Presumably it wasn't entirely amicable or else it wouldn't have occurred without any fanfare or fond farewells.
Swain joined Airbnb back in 2012, and arguably was an important contributor to the massive growth the company has seen since then. According to TechCrunch's sources though, "he wasn’t the right fit for the startup moving forward."
That's a wonderfully ambiguous phrase, but it does inevitably lead to the question, where is Airbnb moving that Swain isn't a good fit? The answer may lie in Airbnb's decision to start compromising with regulators in cities by adding a tax to its services. The 14 percent tax in San Francisco may have something to do with whatever shift in company strategy led to Swain's departure. Or it could be an entirely personal thing and not related to the company as a whole at all.
Swain oversaw more than $650 million in funding for Airbnb during his tenure there. The company is now valued at $10 billion, so its unlikely it was a straight performance issue that led to his departure. No word on a replacement has come out yet, another sign it was a very quick, and possibly unexpected change in personnel for Airbnb.
