will.i.am Regrets Turning Down Huge Airbnb Investment Opportunity

will.i.am has admitted that he missed out on making a lot of money after turning down the chance to invest in Airbnb.

Appearing on the High Performance podcast hosted by Jake Humphrey, the Black Eyed Peas frontman detailed his investment strategy and the lessons he learnt from not backing the then-startup business.

“I couldn’t see Airbnb. There was an opportunity I had to invest — this is before they launched,” he said. “If you’re anchored in your perception, that’s healthy. Sometimes that could cripple you. In this case, it crippled my ability to see the scope of what was possible.

“If you don’t have concierge, if you don’t have house cleaning and room service, I don’t know if this company is gonna take off. Because at that time, I was travelling around the world in the best hotels, getting the best treatment. And I couldn’t see Airbnb.”

When asked if he’s ever calculated how much money he missed out on by passing on the investment opportunity, will.i.am let out a dejected laugh and replied: “You know what that would have been worth?”

Watch the clip below.

will.i.am has been a prolific investor, taking stakes in companies such as OpenAI and Runaway. He was also an early investor in Beats By Dre, which sold to Apple for $3.2 billion in 2014.

Airbnb had some notable early investors including Two and a Half Men actor Ashton Kutcher and Madonna’s manager Guy Oseary, who were also two of the first people to invest money in Uber.

will.i.am was previously honored by the World Economic Forum for his contribution to humanitarian causes.

Celebrated alongside actor Leonardo DiCaprio, the rapper and producer gave a speech about artificial intelligence and investment.

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“AI is, it’s a $100 million investment from, you know, various companies to make sure that artificial intelligence gets smarter, and the sad thing is that we don’t have the same investment towards education,” he said.

“So machine learning surpasses group learning. And so to talk about the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and celebrate it, but at the same time, you know, put a flashlight on some of the hurdles that we need to jump over as a society, and how is every human being equipped with tomorrow’s tools, these are important conversations.”

Over the years, will has invested in a number of artificial intelligence companies such as Sensiya and recently launched his own AI platform called FYI.