The improbable rise and fall of Couchsurfing
According to a recent Mixergy interview with founder Casey Fenton, Couchsurfing tried for years and years to be approved as a 501(c)3 organization (basically, a charity) so they could receive grant money to support cultural exchanges.  Eventually the IRS gave them a final, non-appealable determination of non-status.  Apparently, the cultural exchange aspect was not a strong enough reason when most people probably couchsurf to save money.  So their business model was broken, and they had to stop being a non-profit and become for profit, which, at that point, costs $1 million to convert.  I presume this is because non-profits must give away their assets to another non-profit if they cease operations.  So $1 million in VC dollars plus other investment converted them into a for profit.  Alas, not with such great results.  I think it is unfortunate the way the meme has spread that the founders were just making a money grab.<p><a href="http://mixergy.com/interviews/casey-fenton-couchsurfing/" rel="nofollow">http://mixergy.com/interviews/casey-fenton-couchsurfing/</a>