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

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