What drives startup founders to barrel through the free market with such Randian ruthlessness? Money, duh. But there's another possibility. Perhaps the will to succeed is so consuming because they know it might be the best idea they will ever have.

Earlier this year, a woman startup founder told me she'd once been hit on, persistently, by Airbnb's founder and chief executive. But she was grossed out, she said, because of his history as a competitive bodybuilder. Wait, what?

It's time to draw a line in the (shared) sand. Technocrats can have "disrupt" and "pivot." Bury those words in a PowerPoint pitch deck; they are lost to us now. But startups must not be allowed to co-opt "share." Just look at the twisted things they want to do with it.

Last night, California Attorney General Kamala Harris spoke "truth to power" at a fundraiser hosted at Airbnb's new crisp and airy Soma headquarters. But the only fat cats in the room were the Silicon Valley millionaires and billionaires who are helping to finance her reelection, including Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky and Airbnb investor Ron Conway.

The seasons are changing, and synergy is in the air: Airbnb's founder Brian Chesky is using his girlfriend's app as a platform to share their love—and his unofficial corporate slogan.

You have to hand it to Startupland. Where else could a company figure out its tax obligations only after the market says it's worth $10 billion? An even better trick is chanting "sharing" all the way to an IPO.

Now that Airbnb is a $10 billion soon-to-be-public corporation, the outlaw of the sharing economy is trying to go legit at the expense of its hosts. Literally.

Airbnb is about to close a round of funding that will value the company at $10 billion, reports the Wall Street Journal. That's four times as much as the company was valued in 2012, when it raised $200 million. This time, the valedictorian of the sharing economy is raising between $400 million and $500 million led by private equity group TPG.

Silicon Valley had a lovely time at the Oscars, part two: this one featuring Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, his girlfriend, Frontback community manager Elissa Patel, Airbnb investor and advisor Ashton Kutcher and his fiancée Mila Kunis. Duh, of course, Patel forced them to do a Frontback.

Both Airbnb and Uber—shining stars of the sharing economy or efficient middlemen, depending on how you look at it—have chosen to use New York as a model city for making sure lawmakers rule in their favor. And what better way to tip the scales than by backing the man most likely to be our next Mayor?

Since Airbnb is technically illegal in New York City, the startup is willing to make some big concessions. Today, the shining star of the sharing economy said it will launch a 24/7 hotline for New Yorker in order to "remove bad actors in our community that are causing a disturbance to their neighbors." Oh, and it thinks Airbnb hosts should pay an "occupancy tax.