25 companies from a range of industries that are getting design right. : Text by Clay Chandler, Erika Fry, Leigh Gallagher, Beth Kowitt, Michal Lev-Ram, Andrew Nusca, Brian O’Keefe, Rick Tetzeli, and Debbie Yong When Airbnb’s founders tell their origin story, they often hark back to the moment in 2009 when Paul Graham, head of startup incubator Y Combinator, gave them four crucial words of advice. At the time, Airbnb had fewer than a thousand registered hosts.