CouchSurfing

Couchsurfing was conceived by computer programmer and New Hampshire native Casey Fenton in 1999, when he was 21 years old.[1][9][10] The idea arose after Fenton found a cheap flight from Boston to Iceland but did not have lodging. Fenton hacked into a database of the University of Iceland and randomly e-mailed 1,500 students asking for a homestay. He received between 50 and 100 offers and chose to stay at the home of an Icelandic rhythm and blues singer.[9] On the return flight to Boston, he came up with the idea to create the website. He registered the couchsurfing.com domain name on 12 June 1999.[9][11]

Couchsurfing International Inc. was formed on 2 April 2003 as a New Hampshire nonprofit corporation,[3] with plans to apply for 501(c)(3) tax exemption.

The website was launched on 12 June 2004[9] with the cooperation of Dan Hoffer, Sebastien Le Tuan, and Leonardo Silveira.[10]

Lunch at former headquarters in San Francisco

From 2006 until the company raised financing in 2011, development of the website occurred mostly at events called "Couchsurfing Collectives", in which members met to voluntarily improve the website.[9] Collectives took place in Montreal, Vienna, New Zealand, Rotterdam, Costa Rica, Samara, Alaska, Istanbul, and Thailand.[7][9][12] However, the collectively-coded website was full of software bugs and crashes were common. Many members believed that the website needed to be redesigned from scratch.[13]

In June 2006, problems with the website database resulted in much of it being irrevocably lost.[9][14][13] Founder Casey Fenton posted online asking for help.[15] A Couchsurfing Collective was underway in Montreal at the time and those in attendance raised $8,000 in donations and committed to recreate the website.[9] In 2007, Google search volume for couchsurfing.org overtook the search volume for Hospitality Club.[16]

The company applied for 501(c)(3) tax status as a nonprofit organization in November 2007 but tax exempt status was rejected by the Internal Revenue Service in early 2011.[1][17] After researching alternatives, advice from lawyers, the need for additional financial resources, and competition from Airbnb, management decided that the New Hampshire non-profit Couchsurfing International Inc. would sell its assets to a newly founded for-profit corporation.[17][1]

In August 2011, a private for-profit Delaware C corporation, also called Couchsurfing International, Inc., which was formed on 3 May 2011,[4][18][19] raised $7.6 million in a first-round financing led by Benchmark Capital and Omidyar Network and acquired the assets of the New Hampshire company.[20][21][22][23] The New Hampshire non-profit company was dissolved on 4 November 2011.[3]

The conversion to a for-profit corporation was objected to by many members[13][24][25] since the guiding principles of the original non profit organisation promised that CouchSurfing operates as a nonprofit,[26][27] a promise that was broken by Fenton and Hoffer.[1] Founder Casey Fenton said he received 1,500 emails in the days after announcing the conversion.[1]

The company was briefly certified as a B corporation (mistakenly labeled as a Benefit corporation in a blog post by Casey Fenton),[28] but that certification was eventually removed.[29][1][30][31]

In August 2012, Couchsurfing received an additional $15 million in funding from an investor group led by General Catalyst Partners, with participation by Menlo Ventures, as well as existing investors Benchmark Capital and Omidyar Network. The additional funding brought the company's total funding raised to $22.6 million.[18]

In 2012, the company launched mobile apps for iOS and Android.[32] In June 2016, the company added a feature called "hangouts" that enables members to quickly meet with other nearby members.[33]

Jennifer Billock, CEO of CouchSurfing from October 2013 to October 2015

Co-founder Dan Hoffer served as CEO from 2011[20] to 2012, Tony Espinoza served as CEO from 2012 to 2013,[21] and Jennifer Billock served as CEO from 2013 to 2015.[34] Casey Fenton was stripped of his board seat due to differences with management and is no longer involved in the day-to-day operations of the company.[7]

In 2015, Couchsurfing required additional funding but did not have the metrics to raise a Series C round. Instead, the company received funding from an investor group [Dugan Katragadda, a branch of Valencia Street Capital][35] led by Patrick Dugan, previously part of the business development team of Palantir Technologies and an avid sailor, diver, and pilot. Dugan's investment was large enough to reconstitute the board of directors.[7]

Around 2016, Ben Hanna, formerly the user experience and design team lead, approached outside investors about purchasing the company but the talks did not materialize.[7]

The company has stated that it is not a significant part of Dugan’s income. However, it tested, to "minimal success," more than 10 ways to fund the company, which included, "permitting members to charge for hosting, asking surfers to pay a nominal fee when confirming a stay, negotiated advertising and sponsorships, affiliate partnerships (Couchsurfing getting paid when members purchased something we promoted), selling merchandise, a Couchsurfing cryptocurrency/blockchain, and more."[7]

In May 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the company instituted a permanent subscription fee in some countries, which led to "widespread anger" and criticism.[8]