More innovation from CouchSurfing

(written by Lawrence Krubner, however indented passages are often quotes)

CouchSurfing is becoming a new kind of corporation. CouchSurfing does not get credit for the level of social innovation it has shown.

We started CouchSurfing with a crazy idea in mind. We thought that maybe, just maybe, the world could be changed one couch at a time. 5,766,182 inspiring experiences later, we couldn’t be more sure of it.

What you’ve done as a community has inspired us to take our mission and our vision to a whole new level. We want to understand what inspiring experiences are made of, so we can enable you to have more of them. We want to make CouchSurfing easier to use so that anyone who’s interested in changing the world one couch at a time will feel welcome here.

To accomplish this, we’re making a radical change in structure. As of today, CouchSurfing is proud to announce that we are joining the growing ranks of certified B Corporations.

What is a B Corporation?

As a B (Benefit) Corporation, CouchSurfing will be part of a group of innovative businesses that deliver products and services with a commitment to social and environmental responsibility, transparency, fair work conditions, and doing good for the world.

Video Info Center: CS and B Corp
What changes?

Expect to see lots of improvements to the website! Becoming a B Corporation allows us to get funding from investors who believe in what we do and want to see us achieve our vision. We’ve already received backing from Omidyar, the philanthropic investment firm behind Wikimedia and Kiva.org, and from Benchmark Capital, a respected firm with investments in social websites like Quora and Twitter. Their support will allow us to give you more of the features you’ve been asking for. When you look at the amazing way that this community has grown with a relatively basic set of tools, it’s really exciting to imagine what it will be like when you’ve got even better systems available to you.