Coliving Cocktail #24

Hi all,

Here are this week’s coliving news and thoughts - enjoy the cocktail slurp 😋

Coliving for entrepreneurs: the BIG opportunity —

Last week, I was more than delighted to see that Tribe Theory, a hostel chain at the intersection of being both a startup accelerator and coliving, raised $3.5mio by American venture capitalist Tim Draper and rebranded itself Draper Startup Houses. Their new goal is to provide affordable and stimulating housing for one million entrepreneurs by 2030.

Here’s the deal: I believe there is a tremendous opportunity in combining coliving with traditional startup/accelerator programs.

Why? Carlos de la Lama, founder of Startup Embassy, nailed it down to three points when we talked about it last:

First, participants get accepted rather late into acceleration programs, sometimes a week prior to its start, hence having to figure out accommodation quickly. Second, accelerator funding money often comes with huge delays, making it hard for participants without savings to invest into their own accomodation. And third, the coliving space would be easily marketable once the program is over, especially thanks to the amount of high-quality members and personalities that inhabit(ed) it.

On top of that, the exchange of knowledge between founders would be massive: many of my friends, who are accepted at big accelerators such as Techstars, end up not interacting with their peers at coworking spaces, as teams are focussed on getting things done. This could change if members of accelerator batches would share their free time together - namely, sharing a home, a kitchen, a living room, where the time and space for interaction exists.

Draper Startup Houses are onto something. And accelerator programs should follow their lead.

Coliving updates from the web —

• Conscious Coliving relaunched their manifesto: in my opinion, the #1 masterpiece when it comes to thinking coliving. This relaunch includes a 30-page toolkit with all major leading coliving resources from community-building to all-things-coliving, and I’d highly recommend getting your nose into this.
  
• JLL is giving us a short overview of the rise of impact investment.
  
• Hardvard Business review shares a 7-step process of building communities, including key components for community-building at scale and how to measure its impact.
  
• And lastly, this article brought up the building-happiness paradox, stated as the following: “Buildings (and the land they sit on) are the most important pillar of our financial system, and as our most recent global crisis demonstrated, an occasional source of its collapse. But while buildings generally make us richer, they don't seem to make us any happier.” The paradox stresses the importance of rethinking real estate, especially with its psychological impact in mind.

Coliving events not to miss  —

• Today in Paris: Co-Liv is hosting its monthly meetup on the spatial and experience design codes of coliving (register here)
  
• If you're in Amsterdam on Monday Feb 17th, join the coliving meetup at Zoku (register here)
  
• Curious about discovering key coliving players in NYC? Co-Liv is hosting a 2-day learning expedition in the Big Apple (April 23/24) including space visits, open debates, and discovering the scene with a group of coliving operators (pre-register here)
  
• If you’re a coliving operator, there will be two main conferences awaiting you: Coliving Hub is hosting their annual conference on April 25/26 in Los Angeles (get tickets here) - highly recommend to attend for their level of insights and community of operators; and Co-Liv will be hosting their annual conference this summer in Paris (pre-register here) - with a focus on finances in coliving, the art of community building, and best practices in operations.

And what I've been up to...

I flew over to Buenos Aires, were I settled down with Renat, one of my best mates and my partner in crime when it comes to creating coliving spaces, marketing agencies, and epid adventures (like this one).

Since then, I’ve been waking up at 6am, heading to the coworking space and cranking out my book. The result: 22,166 words in 10 days - it’s finally coming to fruition 😋

Also, I had the honor living on a boat for a few days in Amsterdam (thank you SPX!) and discovered barefoot running (which broke my running records).

While I'm currently under the radar in terms of social media and “big project announcement” but promise, you’ll see a lot of 💥 coming up starting March.

(yes, I love to tease 😜)

Have a great February,

Gui

PS: If you have any thoughts on what you just read, please share them with me, I’d love to read them. And if someone forwarded you this email, you can subscribe to my newsletter here.

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