"I grew up in a small town and I wondered if I would live and die there; if I had any free will and control over whether that was my destiny or not. Couchsurfing was a way to escape." Casey Fenton, co founder of Couchsurfing.

The founder of Couchsurfing on optimizing for impact

Casey Fenton created Couchsurfing, the platform now known as one of the pioneers of the sharing economy. It was his way of taking control of his destiny, to share his experiences with other, and facilitate trust among people so more can live the life they dream about. But how does one create trust between millions of people? And what does it mean to “hack your ego”?

“Life is a precious thing. Life is an opportunity. I want to experience as much life as possible with the time I’m given with the other amazing people of this world. To do that one of the most important things is to have trust. You can’t go on one of these epic adventures, epic surfing of couches, building epic companies without trust. Epic experiences generally go along with cooperating with other humans. You can’t get as far unless you dare to cooperate. And cooperation is a trust exercise.”

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