

CouchSurfing raises $15 million Series B - ted0
http://www.couchsurfing.org/news/cs-organization/couchsurfing-raises-15-million-to-improve-our-website-and-mobile-apps/

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osxwm
Oh god damn it. CouchSurfing.org is absolutely going to be ruined by taking VC
money.

It existed for years as a totally free volunteer based non-profit. The site
was kinda crappy and was sometimes slow, but it just worked. The important
things were the community and its network effects.

Now these VCs will be looking for their huge exit and they'll eventually start
fucking with the site (see: Quora). What a shame.

~~~
dkersten
I agree. I was heavily involved in couchsurfing a few years back (sadly
circumstances haven't let me do more than meet up occasionally now) and
anything that was ever organised was done by volunteers and the site was run
through donations. It was 100% about the community and about the cultural
exchange and it was fantastic in every way - some of my best experiences and I
made a few really good friends through it too (hell, just last week, a uni
friend of mine got married to a girl he met through couchsurfing).

While having VC's run it into the ground won't destroy the community that's
already built around couchsurfing (who don't completely rely on the site but
on their own personal network), it will certainly make it dificult for new
people to join in and take part and that would be a terrible shame. I hope
that the VC's stay on the side line and don't meddle with it too much...

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duked
I'm a user of couch surfing and like many people I liked it when it was
clearly non-profit it was a nice community build by nice people guided by the
same philosophy. However rcently they changed their status, and are now going
for profit (it's not really clear but it seems to be their motivations) by
using the initial momentum of the volunteers.

I'm sure, people won't just leave, but I suspect competition may start soon.

------
Buzaga
and the website's still horrible...(I'm a user)

~~~
koopajah
They address this in the article " The CouchSurfing website, as it currently
exists, needs a lot of help. It’s unstable and not very easy to use.".

They start by explaining also that they raised money specifically to focus on
rebuilding the website and improving the mobile experience. That won't happen
overnight though.

~~~
tspike
Given the harm that VC involvement can do, those improvements are completely
unnecessary and unwelcome.

