Start-up lessons from backpacking

Next time you’re planning a trip to a faraway city, and you’re feeling at a loss as you try to find the right hotel, consider this: You could sleep on someone’s couch instead.

The practice is called “couchsurfing,” and there’s even a Web site for it, www.couchsurfing.org. A free service, CouchSurfing has quickly grown into the world’s largest hospitality-exchange network. Its members offer their couches or spare beds to travelers from around the globe.

Here’s how CouchSurfing got started: Founder Casey Fenton got the idea after finding a cheap flight from Boston to Iceland. Rather than stay at a hostel, Fenton randomly emailed 1,500 University of Iceland students and asked if they would let him stay with them during the trip. He received more than 50 offers of free accommodation. Later, on the return flight to Boston, he started to develop the idea that would eventually become the CouchSurfing project.

CouchSurfing has some things to teach us about entrepreneurship and life in general.

First, CouchSurfing reminds us to build our networks before we need them. Don’t think you’re just going to log on to the CouchSurfing Web site the night before your plane leaves for Caracas and quickly find a place to stay for free.

CouchSurfing encourages its members to participate in the community before trying to find free places to stay in other cities. The Web site organizes casual get-togethers in cities around the world; new members typically start out by attending these gatherings, getting to know the community and letting the community get to know them.

The site also has an excellent system for evaluating its members, starting by verifying their identities and then allowing them to write references and “vouch” for each other. I have a few friends who are actively traveling the world using this system, and they began participating in the community long before they embarked on their trips.

Whatever kind of entrepreneurial venture you have planned, start building a network around it at least a year before you will actually need it. This will be a great way to meet your potential customers and to do market research, too. What better way to get to know your customers and their needs than to practice serving them in some context for a whole year before you actually start your business?

The second thing we can learn from CouchSurfing is that what you lack in money, you can make up for in creativity. Couchsurfers know that you don’t have to spend tons of money on fancy hotels in order to travel the world. You just need people who are willing to let you stay in their homes for free. And how do you do that? You remind the hosts of the richness that will come into their lives when they open their homes to the international community, and you remind the travelers of the benefits of trading impersonal hotel rooms for new friends and eye-opening life experiences.

Almost every start-up is short on cash, but imaginative ones figure out how to reach their customers even when money is tight. The end result is often a richer experience for both the start-up and its customers, because there is no room to cover up problems with money.

The third thing we can learn from CouchSurfing is that entrepreneurship is more than just starting a business. Entrepreneurship is a way of thinking, a way of living. Casey Fenton was flying back home after a weekend crashing on peoples’ couches in Iceland, and he let one kernel of inspiration lead him to build a platform that would end up connecting millions of people around the world.

Entrepreneurship isn’t about patents and venture capital and burn rates and market share. It is about seeing untapped potential and finding creative ways to bring that potential to life. As the founder of CouchSurfing discovered, you too will find that the person who helps the world unleash that potential will be surrounded by a large crowd of admiring people who happily owe him or her a debt of gratitude.