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Tell me about how you started Airbnb-ing.

"I'm from Los Angeles originally, and I had a loft in downtown LA for four years. It was a similar layout but twice as big, and rent was very cheap because of the neighborhood. Instead of having roommates I just started Airbnb-ing the other rooms, and then I ended up building another room in the loft. It was awesome; I was meeting people from all over the world, and my rent was being paid.

"Then I wanted to move to New York, and I moved here and got situated for a bit. Once I was stable, I thought, I want to do the same thing. So I looked on Craigslist to try and find a space, and asked all the landlords, 'Can I build it out? Can I Airbnb it?' I finally came across this space that was this huge, open rectangle, and it needed something to be done. I spoke to the landlord who was this really cool guy, and he was like, 'Yeah, do whatever you want; that sounds awesome, sounds like a good plan.' So I took my savings and put it down and thought, 'Okay, let's hope that this'll work.' I designed the layout and everything, and then we hired a construction company to come in and actually build it all and do it properly. Once it was done, almost immediately we were fully-booked, and the rest is kind of history."

How long did it take you to find the space?

"I was looking for three months or so. It was crazy hard to find a space, and I was on Craigslist every single day just seeing if anything new would come up. I found places that didn't allow Airbnb, but I wanted everything to be up front. I didn't want to be hiding anything; it's a terrible situation to be in when you're living in a place and you feel like you have to hide from your landlord. I also found a couple places that were okay with Airbnb and renting out the space for film and photo shoots, but those spaces were around four grand, five grand. Which is probably what this space is worth now."