Network Advisor Spotlight: Matthew Ziskie, Airbnb

Silicon Foundry’s Network Advisors are a distributed network of hyper-connected founders, investors, and cross-industry leaders who are part of our extended Silicon Foundry family. This handpicked group of advisors, who are embedded in innovation hubs across the world, amplify our visibility across the landscape, extend our global network, and serve as resident experts for our Members.

Matthew Ziskie is the head of worldwide sales and partnerships at Airbnb for Work, which brings the best of Airbnb — including business travel — to professionals. Prior to his current role, Matt was Head of Global Procurement at both Airbnb, and Box before that. He has held procurement leadership roles in the biotech space both in the United States and Europe, and started his career as a strategy consultant serving the Defense and Automotive industries. Matt is a graduate of Boston College and the University of San Diego, a mentor at TechStars, and serves as an independent board member for the procurement automation platform, BidOps.

Q: Let’s start with your background: how did you end up at Airbnb doing what you’re doing now?

My background is in procurement. I was a big fan of the company and product, so when they were starting a procurement function it was a no brainer for me to pursue the opportunity. I led the global procurement function for roughly three years before joining Airbnb for Work, Airbnb’s B2B product offering

Q: What can you tell us about the team you’re leading at Airbnb for Work?

Airbnb for Work brings the best of the Airbnb platform to professionals. We started with offering business travel, but have also recently added services around corporate experiences, meeting and event spaces and relocations.

Companies are bringing Airbnb for Work into their managed programs and allowing their travelers to choose Airbnb as an option when they travel. What they are finding is that Airbnb can offer competitive rates, while offering their travelers the comforts of home.

Q: What specific superpowers have you picked up from past lives that you bring into your role at Airbnb for Work?

Well, I’m still looking for my first superpower, but I have found my background in procurement and supply chain to be beneficial on the sales side. Understanding what organizations and procurement teams need and how they view value added services has definitely been helpful to my current role.

Q: Over the years, how have you seen emerging technology changing the supply chain? What are some of the implications?

There are some really exciting things happening in supply chain technology! Automation and IoT are the obvious ones, but there’s also a ton of cool things happening around blockchain projects and predictive analytics.

While all of that is very encouraging, I see the real magic happening when you pair the modernization of the supply chain with the productivity gains and access to information knowledge workers have gained over the last decade.

Companies’ best resources, their people, now have the cutting edge services and applications serving them the information they need to make decisions, exactly when they need it.