Ask HN: Is saying "my startup is the airbnb of X" trademark infringement?
It is one thing to say this in passing conversation but wouldn't publishing this on any website (i.e. angellist) constitute trademark infringement?
Nominative use, also "nominative fair use", is a legal doctrine that provides an affirmative defense to trademark infringement as enunciated by the United States Ninth Circuit,[1] by which a person may use the trademark of another as a reference to describe the other product, or to compare it to their own.
Bear in mind that this is a defense and not an immediate get-out-of-court-free card. This fair use exists because otherwise it'd be impossible to refer to trademarked items at all without infringing in some way. After all, you just used the word "airbnb" in your post ;-)
Focus on the important things. This being copyright infringement (I doubt it is) isn't important. If it got to the point where it mattered, you're very successful, and you can likely change it quickly at that point.
Non-competing companies, you should find, are more than willing to help other companies, rather than try to destroy you because of small details like this.