E36 Running the world's largest trust experiment with Couchsurfing founder Casey Fenton

Sand Hill Road

In this episode, Erasmus Elsner is talking to Casey Fenton, founder of Couchsurfing and Upstock, about the early days for Couchsurfing when Casey was pioneering what has since become known as the “sharing economy” and how is is now bringing the sharing economy to the cap table with Upstock.

00:00​​ Intro

01:13 The Couchsurfing proof-of-concept

02:46 The first Couchsurfing stay

03:49 501(c)3 non-profit status

06:34 The mechanics of the benchmark Series A

06:34 The mechanics of the benchmark Series A

08:27 The Couchsurfing MVP

10:38 The donation-based model

11:58 The demand side monetization model

15:34 The chicken-and-egg question

17:11 Casey’s philosophy on ego hacking

21:11 Building for the internet without ego

23:57 Upstock

28:34 Ideal customer moment

30:20 Switching costs

31:09 Competitors and integrations

33:40 Milestone-based equity kickers

35:03 Following Casey’s work