⚠️ WARNING: This is "Work-in-Progress" 🚧
Definitely Not "Done"!
This project is public
to keep us accountable
to ourselves / each other
and everyone in-the-loop. 💬
Please don't read it if you are
critical of embryonic ideas 💡
that are not a Polished
PowerPoint
Pitch Deck. 👩🏫
If you read the README.md
and are curious to know more,
check the
/issues 👀
A lot has changed since
we
first wrote this document. ⏳
The global pandemic
🦠
and lock-down
🚫
brought construction/renovation progress to a halt. 🛑
We were unable to continue with construction due to restrictions 🙅♀️
and then when things re-opened
our foreman moved on to a different project 😕
leaving us with an unfinished exterior building
(i.e. building site!) 🚧
We requested several quotes
from local construction companies
but none had availability to help us. 🤦♀️
We have made decent progress
on the exterior
with the help of day labourers, 👷
but in construction,
anything that is not finished
is still a building site ... 🏗️
Our first child was born in 2020 👶
and we focussed on being parents 👪
while working full-time remote jobs to keep bills paid. 🧑💻
Our second child (2022)
consumed all our remaining time. 🎉
Children are awesome,
they demand/deserve attention & nurture. 🥰
We have explored using the Braga House for other purposes
including transforming it into a mini homeschool. 🏫
But, sadly, the numbers don't stack up;
it would make a huge financial loss
during the first 3-5 years. 💸🔥📉
Note: We haven't given up on the idea of running our own childcare, read below for more detail! ⬇️
Our goal has only changed slightly since we started;
we now explicitly include the words "family-friendly".
If anything this just makes it/us more focussed; 🎯
we aren't trying to make something for "everyone". 🙅♀️
To recap the goal is:
Build a family-friendly shared-living house
we love living in 🏡
that attracts like-minded health-focussed motivated people 🏃♀️
who want to make the most of their life. ⏳
Note: if you can re-formulate this to be more succinct, please do! 🙏
This goal aligns perfectly with the
dwyl mission.
❤️ ✅
as we all know ...
“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”
~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
We still have a lot of work to do before we can open the house to guests this is the short/focussed list:
- Finish the Sun Room + Garden:
home#14 🌱 🪴 🌳
This is by far our highest priority task.
Without a finished garden, we cannot open our doors for any activity. 🛑 We need a lot of help with the construction work! 🚧 - Design + Build Bunk Beds: bunk-bed#20 🛌
- Define
Systems: home#113 🕙
This involves the creation of written instructions, checklists and in some cases videos. But it all starts with writing down what needs to be done. - Build Online Application Form:
fields-demo#2. 📝
There are many reasons for creating our own application form the most obvious ones are: privacy/security, better UX, analytics and partial capture (improved conversion). - Invite first friendly guests to give us feedback. 🤗💬 We are already moving forward with this, they will help give us feedback on furniture/bunk bed prototypes.
- Review, finalise and implement door locking system and overall house security dwyl/home#282
- Iterate on Systems, Beds & Application + Feedback Forms. ♻️
- Open to Paying Guests ASAP with the systems in place.* ⏳
*Opening the house to guests
without Systems is chaos so can't/won't happen. 🙅♀️
The good news is: Systems is the area where everyone can help! 🙏
It's as simple as: observe something is "not right" or "can be better", 😕
capture it systematically (describe the problem verbally
and where relevant include a photo/video), 📝 📷 🎥
bring it to the attention of the person who you think is responsible
(e.g: Housemaster) 👩
then it will be fixed systematically while documenting the fix. 📝 ✅
This update to the plan aims
to answer as many questions as possible. ❓
We need complete clarity on our goals
and the plan to get us there. 🗺️
If you still have questions,
please open issues
to discuss. 💬
We have written several iterations of the [business] plan over the years, yet some aspects remained unclear to key stakeholders. When the message is unclear, it is the duty of the creator/transmitter of that message - not the receiver - to clarify it.
A simple rule-of-thumb is: if it not allowed in a kindergarten classroom/school, it's not family-friendly.
Examples include: smoking, vaping, drinking alcohol or any other non prescription / illegal substances.
Profanity
is discouraged
as is shouting.
Any kind of adult content
is strictly forbidden. 🚫 4️⃣0️⃣3️⃣
Bottom line:
be nice to everyone.
If you see someone being unkind,
either politely help them understand
what they were doing/saying is unkind,
and/or inform the housemaster
of the behaviour.
1: Family-friendly short-stay shared accommodation
in the top 2 floors of the house.
This includes the 4 large bedrooms
and “middle” floor which has the kitchen,
dining room and current play room;
which will be an informal co-working room
with both a sofa seating area and 10 ("hot") desks.
There is space for 24 beds.
(4 rooms x 3 bunks x beds per bunk)
Charging €15/night/bunk (market clearing in our city!)
and having occupancy of 70% we get:
24 x €15 x 365 days x 70% / 12 months
= €7665/month
Note: There will be peak months where occupancy reaches 95% (June - sept) and low season (Dec - Feb) where it’s only 20-30% so it balances out. We will also encourage longer-term stays with 30% discounts which equates to 70% occupancy.
If the “overheads” for the businesses are shared and thus each only has to cover half, then both businesses instantly become (more) profitable/sustainable. Then it’s a question of figuring out the plan to make both coexist and ensure that parents are comfortable having their kids going to play group “next door” to a - carefully curated - co-living/working space.
I think it’s very much a question of framing, making it clear that all members of the community are thoroughly background-checked and having a very clear timetable for who has access to what & when. See timetable below.
If we specifically market the residence as “family focussed” it’s a niche that definitely is not being addressed.
- All visitors must apply to visit/stay
and submit their identity document ahead of time.
This ensures that we know exactly who is visiting.
We will inform prospective members that our app uses a background check service to confirm people’s identity - similar to how a bank does “KYC” - and if for any reason their identity/background cannot be verified we let them know with as much detail as we get.
Note: Identity submission is the
lawinPT, all hotels, hostels and guesthouses (etc.) are required to collect identification for guests and inform the local police of who is staying where/when. Ideally we operate on a referral basis so someone has to be recommended by an existing member (past guest) like Soho House in London. This makes the org a lot more sustainable because we don’t have to waste time with advertising/marketing. If the person making the referral has to “vouch” for the new member and receives a small/token commission (e.g: Spotify Voucher) when the referred person makes their first payment it heavily incentivize good people/behaviour. In our Ts&Cs we will write that we “reserve the right to reject an application that does not pass "cultural fit". We will provide the reason. We hope not to need to do this.
-
Focussed on learning and personal development not entertainment and distraction. What does that mean? 🤷♂️ simple: it means that infinity pool distraction Apps/Sites that have a proven negative effect on people’s mental health and suck as much of our time as possible (such as Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat, TikTok, etc.) are banned at the network level. Whereas we have subscriptions to learning platforms like Brilliant.org available for all to learn STEM instead of doom scrolling their lives away.
-
Strictly No alcohol, tobacco (or vape, etc) or drugs/substances (regardless of their decriminalised status) on premises. No exceptions. The rule of thumb is simple: if it's not allowed in a primary school classroom, it’s not allowed on our premises. If people feel the need to have a beer or glass of wine with their meal, that’s their decision, simply have that meal at a local restaurant and respect our rule. Plenty of good reasonably priced restaurants in the area, all serve alcohol; feel free to support the local economy. 👌
-
Stated preference for families with children but also welcoming to:
- Couples without children who are sympathetic to children -
e.g: teachers who haven’t yet started a family of their own.
For ref: there are 460k teachers in the UK alone.
And 5.2M across all of Europe see:
ec.europa.eu/eurostat/edn-20201005-1
if we just target this group of people there is an excellent niche.
Note: I'm not saying we will definitely focus on Teachers, just giving an example of a group of people we know well.
- Retired people whose children have left home but still remember what it’s like to have small children around. e.g: grandparents who love having small children around.
All of these are huge market segments, it’s just a question of appropriately keyword targeting them with our content. The only people we are (indirectly) excluding are those whose prefer “adult only” (no children) resorts and young adults who want to “party”. There are plenty of other places/venues that cater for these people. By specifically informing people that we don’t, they self-select and filter.
- Friendly Pets are very welcome, but must be walked (off-property) and kept clean/tidy. They sleep outside. We can create a small kennel if there is demand. Don’t think many people will be traveling with pets so not worried about this one being over-subscribed. Just want to leave the option open.
Remember: we only have 24 (eventually 38) beds so not a lot of space. Once demand reaches a sustainable level where we have good word-of-mouth and a waiting list, we can be highly selective with people.
Young adults that want to focus on their health and personal learning/improvement will instantly get it. Those who prefer a party house can easily find one. I wager the people wanting a quiet+healthy house will soon outnumber the rest once word spreads how much better it is.
Childcare is a challenge all parents face.
In our case we live ~400km
from our parents/in-laws,
so regular grandparent care
is not feasible for us the way it is for many other families.
Ditto for aunts and uncles.
So we are pretty much “on our own”.
This is both good, because it forces us
to resolve the challenge creatively on our own,
and obviously bad because our children
spend far too little time with their extended family. 😢
I refer to childcare as a “challenge” for the simple reason that if we want to continue working on anything for our company/business, that involves the adults spending decent chunks of uninterrupted focus time at a computer. Computer focus time is not compatible with toddlers that are curious, constantly moving and loud.
I use the quotes around the word “traditional” to emphasize that this is a very recent societal construct of “modern” (post-industrial revolution) society. Much like the “tradition” of Santa Clause 🎅 Halloween 🎃 or Valentine’s Day 🌹❤️ they all serve a very specific commercial purpose beyond their original cultural significance.
Taking one’s children to an institution that is professionally run by people outside of one’s family and leaving the children with them for 08:30 - 17:00 each day so that both parents can go to work, is a very recent - and arguably societally undesirable - phenomena. However, since it has existed as a social norm for the past couple of generations, most people don’t question it. The same way most people don’t question burning non-renewable fossil fuels for basic transport, heating or food production. ⛽️🔥😢
Just like we need to #StopBurningStuff, we need to get away from the “modern” outsourcing of parenting that leads to suboptimal outcomes.
The last thing we want is to offload our children to “traditional” childcare in the form of a pre-school. As noted by Sir Ken Robinson in the most viewed TED Talk of all time (by a wide margin!) most schools “kill creativity”: ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_do_schools_kill_creativity or youtu.be/iG9CE55wbtY I know that I felt this at the various schools I attended as a child; the best case scenario was "controlled creativity" in Art Class, but the worst-case was "shut-up and memorise this for the test". 😕 Even in my favourite lesson, Design and Technology (DT), there were always artificial - usually budgetary - limits to what we could create in the lessons.
The “fix” is remarkably simple:
- Teachers should be well educated and compensated - like they are in Finland. 🇫🇮 😍
- They should have access to good resources so they never skip an activity for lack of money. Not the absurdly low budgets we often see even in fee-paying schools!
- Learning cannot be run “for profit”, rather the bottom line is: are children thriving? Schools should be run sustainably and never “Private Equity” financed.
It’s just a question of framing the concept
so everyone understands.
We aren’t building a “school” or a “hostel”
there are plenty of those already. Boring! 🥱
We’re building a life-long learning community
that inspires curiosity & creativity
in people of all ages.
It starts as young as possible with
Montessori /
Waldorf
principles of self-directed/lead group-based learning in infants.
Children are lead and cared for by competent/trained/qualified adults.
Adults visiting the house are carefully filtered
for those who are life-long-learners.
We have space for 21 children in a 60m2 room and 120m2 Garden Space.
If we operate under the following assumptions/constraints:
- All fixed overhead costs of the co-living space
can be shared with the playgroup.
Including mortgage, electricity, building/grounds maintenance, full-time cleaner and admin. - The south garden space is for exclusive use of the playgroup during the day 08:00 - 18:00. Other activities (e.g. Yoga, Pilates & Meditation🧘♂️) are possible 18:00 - 21:00 and weekends.
- Ground level South garden is used by playgroup during the day too.
- Basement bathroom is used by playgroup during the day. Anyone using the pool + sauna + spa during the day must reserve a spot using our App. That way everyone knows exactly who is using which facilities.
- Play ("Leisure") room is reserved
for
2heach morning during weekdays. - Basement (“MR Room” -> “Nap Room”) will have 3 (Full-size) Bunk Beds
tailored to children taking naps.
It will be called the “Nap Room”
and children can use it at any time during the week.
The 3 full-size bunks (6 beds) will be made available on “busy weekends”
(Friday, Saturday & Sunday Night).
Guests must checkout by 11:00 Monday Morning.
The Room is cleaned/reset 11:00 - 12:00 ready for weekday nap times. - The basement office will continue to be the office. It needs to be hyper organized to run both businesses. “Authoriszed Persons Only” sign on the door.
Potential Revenue of PlayGroup:
- 14 children. Parents paying
€350/month = €4,900 - 21 children. Parents paying
€350/month = €7,350
This revenue is far from enough
to sustain the whole building
as previously noted in our
playgroup calculations spreadsheet.
But it means we can afford to pay for two competent + trained people
to look after the children and have a good teacher:student ratio.
With a ratio of 8 children per adult
we could bring the price down to €320/month
and still keep the lights on.
This is a much more attractive (market clearing) price and still totally doable in terms of the available space. 💭
This is a sample timetable for illustrative purposes. Revision/improvement welcome!
| Time | Children | Adults |
|---|---|---|
| 07:00 - 08:00 | Waking up & get dressed | Wake up / Exercise / Quiet Time |
| 08:00 - 09:00 | Breakfast + quiet play/reading | Personal Time / Breakfast |
| 09:00 - 11:50 | Morning Play/Work Period | Morning Quiet Work Time |
| 11:50 - 12:00 | Pre-lunch hand-wash break | Finalize work and tidy desk |
| 12:00 - 12:25 | Children's Lunch | Adults Prepare/buy Lunch |
| 12:25 - 12:30 | Clear/Clean Dining Room | Stay clear of the cleaning! |
| 12:30 - 13:00 | Prepare for Nap | Adults' Lunch |
| 13:00 - 15:00 | Nap Time (Optional) | Afternoon Quiet Work 1 |
| 15:00 - 17:00 | Afternoon Play/Work | Afternoon Work 2 |
| 17:00 - 18:30 | Free Time / Sports / Park! | Creative / Work 3 / Admin |
| 18:30 - 18:55 | Children/Parent's Dinner | Adults Prepare Dinner |
| 18:55 - 19:00 | Clear/clean Dining Room | Plate Dinner |
| 19:00 - 19:30 | Children Bath | Adult's Dinner |
| 19:30 - 20:00 | Bed-time Story + Sleep! | Clear/clean dining room & Kitchen |
| 20:00 - 21:00 | All Quiet on Top 2 Floors | Quiet Creative / Contemplation |
| 21:00 - 07:00 | Sleep! | Get as much sleep as possible ... |
We have several rooms/facilities in the house and need a clear timetable for usage e.g:
| Time | Play Room | Library | Workshop | Garden | Pool |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 07:00 - 08:30 | Quiet Music | Quiet Read | Quiet Work | Kids | Any |
| 08:30 - 09:00 | Louder Music | Kids Read | Noisy Build | Kids | Clean |
| 09:00 - 11:50 | Kids Music | Kids Read | Noisy Build | Kids | Anyone |
| 12:00 - 13:00 | Adult Music | Clean + Reset | Mid-Volume Build | Planting Time | Adults |
| 13:00 - 15:00 | Quiet Music | Quiet Read | Quiet Build | Planting / Kids | Adults (quiet) |
| 15:00 - 17:00 | Clean + Reset | Quiet Read | Kids/Noisy Build | Kids | Kids |
| 17:00 - 18:30 | Anyone | Quiet Reading | Noisy Build | Clean + Reset | Family |
| 18:30 - 19:30 | Adult (Noisy) Music | Quiet Read | Quiet Build | Yoga / Pilates | Family |
| 19:30 - 20:00 | Quiet Music / Film | Quiet Read | Clean + Reset | Meditation | Leisure |
| 20:00 - 21:00 | Quiet Games / Film | Adult Quiet Read | Laser + 3D Print! | Martial Arts | Tri (quiet) |
| 21:00 - 07:00 | Quiet Games / Film | Inspiring Reading | Prep Next Day | Closed | Closed |
For historical purposes,
the older version of the README.md
is kept below.
Still relevant for context.
People are often more productive/effective when working from [their own] home:
http://paulgraham.com/opensource.html > Workplaces
However we are well aware that working from a "normal home" can be challenging:
https://open.buffer.com/state-remote-work-2018
What if people could live and work in a home
that is designed from scratch for:
-
Optimal restorative sleep, healthy eating and exercise. these are the foundation for all other pursuits.
-
Community-centered living; surround yourself with like-minded intrinsically motivated people.
(with private "alone time" spaces and quiet/respectful housemates) -
Dedicated areas for both in-person and remote collaboration and individual focus/creative work.
-
Minimal distraction; no TV or other mindless distractions.
-
Latest WiFi technology, highly reliable (dual/redundant bonded) 1Gb Fiber internet connections. (full-stack Ubiquiti enterprise grade switch/access points)
We intend to build a community where people can live, learn and work with other like-minded people focussed on making things people want and need.
We will have a "bias" towards people who want to (learn how to) start/work on their own ideas; i.e. "founders".1
People who are not inclined (or ready) to start their own project(s) will still be encouraged/welcome as often working for another project is the best way to learn in a "controlled environment".
http://paulgraham.com/hiring.html > A Public Service Message
1we will not exclude anyone because they don't want to start a company themselves; that would silly, however we will have an application question asking people why they prefer not to just for clarity.
"Solve a problem that you yourself have then you will at least know that it's something that at least one person really wants. And when you are part of the target market you will have insights about it that you wouldn't otherwise." ~ Jessica Livingston https://youtu.be/a2B4cVFIVpg?t=2m56s
We have been strong proponents of Remote Working since the beginning of @dwyl:
https://twitter.com/naazahmed11/status/964527953156694016
People get the work done just as effectively and their quality of life improves dramatically if they aren't "chained" to a desk in a big city from "9-to-5". See: https://github.com/dwyl/remote-working
However from experience it's often difficult to find a good place to both live and work remotely. Most places are only "ok", they are not designed for getting creative/coding work done.
We have felt the pain of:
- Terrible WiFi / bandwidth which means essential team video calls are unusable. Remote working requires stable and consistent internet as a "hygiene factor"
- Bad seating or lack of desks means working for long periods results in neck/back pain. We intend to have ergonomic sofa, standing and coding/video editing desks.
- Poor nutrition, sleep and exercise habits. Being somewhere for a short time often results in bad habits. We intend to do everything we can to help foster the best habits which will in turn maximise personal effectiveness/productivity.
- many other "small things" which make a huge difference.
The saying goes: home is "where the heart is".
We intend to extend this definition to include:
homeis where you feel welcome, loved and happy.homeis where you can learn and flourish in a "safe space".homeis where you can focus on your health, nutrition and well-being.homeis where people go to get work done making "something people want."
During Startup School we intend to build the App
to help us measure everything in the home community.
Areas we are hoping to explore include:
- "Customer acquisition" - finding the like-minded people who want to live, learn and work in a co-living environment.
- Measuring and Optimising for Happiness (see: "OMTM" section below)
- Promoting learning and sharing of knowledge/skill without fear of intimidation through "brogrammer" behaviour.
- Security systems both physical and virtual for accessing the building.
- Sleep, nutrition & exercise tracking to promote a healthy "personal foundation" We have experience building apps in this space for others e.g: https://github.com/healthlocker/healthlocker
- Share responsibility for resources and avoid "tragedy of the commons".
As you can tell from this list, we have "lots of ideas".
We want/need Help/Mentoring from a YC partner
to know where to focus our attention.
We intend to direct all of our content towards female founders because we feel they are an underserved group. YC's demographics https://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-demographics indicate that fewer than 25% of startups have one or more female founders:
"Of the founders we funded in our most recent batch, 11.1% of the founders are women (about 23% of the startups have one or more female founders), 3.7% of the founders are Hispanic, and 4% of the founders are Black."
"The bad news, of course, is that applicant percentages are low relative to the entire population." https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/20/y-combinator-diversity-2017
This is a problem we have personally felt while working in Tech and it's one our female members continue to feel as tech is still overwhelmingly male-dominated and still has "bad apples" spoiling it for others.
We want to be part of the solution.
No, we have no intention of excluding or making men (or people who identify as male or non-binary) feel "unwelcome", much to the contrary, everyone is welcome regardless gender, ethnicity/race, sex, politics or religion.
The only pre-requisites are that:
- people are here to "be nice".
- share knowledge/experience freely.
- don't make others feel "uncomfortable" with what you say or do.
- macho ("bro-like"/intimidating) behaviour will not be tolerated; "Brogrammers" need not apply. see: https://github.com/dwyl/code-of-conduct
"Sexism in tech is real." ~ Sam Altman https://blog.ycombinator.com/diversity-and-startups
Female founders and tech workers often feel "unwelcome" in a male-dominated world, we are going address this head on.
From our experience in the Tech Industry, both running Founders & Coders, Ladies of Code and Working as Developers/Engineers in several companies, we have seen/felt first-hand how a small minority of men are condescending/intimidating towards ladies/minorities, we will address this by being the change we want to see.
Rather than trying to reason with unreasonable people, be nice to them, and then be better than them in every measure. Eventually they will get it.
"role models are what we need most if we want to encourage more women to start their own companies"
~ Jessica Livingston - What's Different about "Unicorns" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ygr3rx4hSsc&t=122s http://foundersatwork.posthaven.com/whats-different-about-unicorns
What this means in practical terms is that we need to:
- help young ladies discover/build STEM-based problem solving skills
- nurture a community of supportive peers/leaders full of people who coach/mentor/guide each other if/when they get/feel discouraged
- collectively build "big" ideas that have significant social impact.
“It really is true, the company will build whatever the CEO decides to measure.” ~ Sam Altman
via: https://medium.com/how-to-start-a-startup/47-quotes-from-sam-altman-on-building-a-great-product-51aa656952ab
Our short-to medium-term metric is "Happiness". We want to make "Happiness" our primary "KPI" because we know that by measuring and optimising for happiness first any other goals will be achievable (often automatically)!
We realise that "Happiness" can be a subjective measure however we intend to make it quantifiable in the same way that there is a "World Happiness Report": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Happiness_Report we intend to do that for our company/project and make it available for others too!
This does not mean there won't be disagreements and even conflicts. What it means is that everyone involved knows what we are "optimising for", and can act accordingly.
We have already begun to make some progress on this.
see: https://github.com/dwyl/feedback
It's our anonymous MVP on: https://dwyl-feedback.herokuapp.com/feedback/new
A variant on measuring Happiness is measuring the extent to which people are "Doing What You Love". We believe in this strongly to the extent that our current company is called "DWYL" ... see: https://github.com/dwyl/start-here
The reason we are not trying to measure "dwyl-ness" is because sometimes to do something you love, you have to fund it doing a job you don't necessarily love. PG put it best:
"The test of whether people love what they do is whether they'd do it even if they weren't paid for it even if they had to work at another job to make a living." "How To Do What You Love" http://www.paulgraham.com/love.html Paul Graham, 2006
Some of the people living/working at home will fall into the category
of "work at another job",
so measuring their overall happiness is a more accurate metric.
“Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.” ―~ Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land via: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/happiness
There are "three things they [founders] should be focussing on: writing code, talking to users and exercising". ~ Jessica Livingston Startup School 2012 https://youtu.be/KQJ6zsNCA-4?t=16m51s
Within 5 minutes walk from home there is a great river-side running path,
a football and basketball court and outdoor gym.
7 minutes walk there are superb tennis courts, public swimming pools
and a yoga/pilates studio with both beginner and advanced classes.
We feel that having exercise activities "nearby" is good but in order to actively promote exercise (eliminate excuses), we need to do more.
We have a plan to offer several exercise activities within the home
property/garden which will minimise (or eliminate) "friction"
to participation.
https://twitter.com/iteles/status/1020315417238294528
Even though there is a public swimming pool
7 mins walk from the house,
after we UX-tested it a few times
we determined that it "falls short"
in 3 key areas:
- Way too much chlorine. (our skin stank of the stuff even after a long shower!)
- Strange opening hours (only opens at 9am) and is closed for 2 months per year.
- Over-crowded at "good" times (first thing in morning, lunch and "after school").
##### Reasoning for Building our Own Pool. (WARNING: Contains Math/Logic!)
When we go swimming it is always for "fitness" (not to "splash about"), we usually swim for around 20 minutes (1km) and then get out/shower and go home. Showering takes 5 mins, therefore the "essential time" for the activity is 25 mins. If it takes 7 mins to walk to the pool, 2 minute to pay (€3.50) and change from clothes to swimwear and another 3 mins to get dressed (after swim+shower) and 7 mins to walk home, we are spending 19 minutes getting to/from/ready for the exercise and only 20 minutes doing the exercise. This feels like a chronic waste of time even if the walk is "nice", it gets "old" when you do it twice every day. we would much rather spend the "commute and prep" time on more effective exercise e.g: core strength training.
We want to make exercise an integral part of people's daily routine, and to achieve this we want to minimise the "friction".
The pool we are building will be heated (using solar panels), treated using sea salt and UV light (the most environmentally/skin friendly way to disinfect pool water see: https://www.spectralightuv.com/salt-water-pools ) and less than 30 seconds walk from your desk!
This is what the pool looked like yesterday (very much "work-in-progress"):
For an idea of what it will look like once complete, see: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/315392780150038400/
We have reserved 10 x 4m of garden space and $4000 for an outdoor gym area. e.g:
In addition to outdoor mindfulness and meditation areas:
we plan to have an indoor area dedicated to encouraging the practice.
There are several risks of creating a founder-focussed co-living home/community any of which can "sink the ship", we need to be aware of and address them all.
From our background in "Enterprise Risk Management", we are trained to think in terms of hyperbolic headlines and worst-case scenarios.
This list is ordered in terms of their probability and potential impact:
-
Data miss-management leading to breach, GDPR fines and negative PR. We intend to apply all the "best practices" we have learned from building/auditing apps in the Finance and Travel sectors where personal data protection is Data will be encrypted We wrote an example/tutorial on this. See: https://github.com/dwyl/phoenix-ecto-encryption-example In addition to both field-level encryption, regular key rotation and strong access control, we intend to perform regular third-party (controlled) penetration tests, both on-site and remotely to test our security. Having a house that actively recruits hackers has both pros and cons, we intend to leverage the pros by inviting our "white hat" personal friends e.g: Adam Baldwin https://github.com/evilpacket (head of security @npm and "Security Bug Bounty Hunter") to visit and hack on our internal network. Additionally we will setup a "Security Bug Bounty" (with responsible disclosure) via https://www.hackerone.com once we have ironed out any "basic bugs" using our team and existing network.
-
Physical access security fail could lead to loss of property. Everyone will be trained in importance of and simple "good habits" of physical security both for their own safety and so that we can all "have nice things". We intend to have cameras recording key entry-exit points and all external doors will require App (or key-card) access.
-
Personal injury (or death) from using the facilities. People will go through an in-depth induction when they arrive and we will conduct regular risk assessments for health & safety. If the worst happens, we have €10M public liability insurance, and Portugal has a great (public/free) healthcare system which can be used by "visitors"!
-
Open Sourcing All Code, won't that invite competition?! We feel that the benefits of having a 100% Open Source community culture is aided by and even requires open-sourcing the code. This will encourage people to contribute to improving the App(s) which in turn promotes a sense of ownership. We want to actively encourage other entrepreneurs to "copy" the
homebuilding and share their improvements because we feel this will "make the world a better place for everyone". -
Descent into chaos (messiness and lack of hygiene) e.g: LikeALittle's (LaL.com) Hacker House: https://youtu.be/MAihXfHa7K8 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4346049 Circle Inc? (YC W11?) One of the major of our App will be to prevent messiness and promote accountability. We intend to explore "gamification" so people get some sort of reward for "desirable behaviour" that does not have an intrinsic motivation.
-
"Alcohol/Drugs-fueled Sex Scandal" ... No Drugs or Alcohol allowed on the premises. We don't "control" what people consume when they are away from home, we just have a rule that they don't bring/consume it within. This is to avoid any association with being a "party house" and to prevent a leading cause of personal injury and death: intoxication.
- No Sex. This is enforced at
podshare.co
and avoids a whole heap of issues we cannot afford to face.
#NoMeansNo...
- No Sex. This is enforced at
podshare.co
and avoids a whole heap of issues we cannot afford to face.
-
It's not for everyone. We have been travelling and worked remotely and we know how big the demand for tech-focussed co-living is; it's real. Just look at NomadList and Coliving.com (expanded upon below) But we readily acknowledge that this is not for everyone. Read the comments on this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nmuy4zktBI (Note: we are NOT building a hyper-expensive zero-privacy sardine-can "pod sharing" at $50-60/night ... we are building a spacious, quiet and clean "affordable luxury shared living" where we chose to share so we can meet interesting people, learn from peers and do meaningful work)
If you can help us think of and address any other risks, we would love to hear from you!
In the short term we want to focus on building our App.
In order to test the App we need "users".
To get these users we intend to use the following "channels":
To generate demand from people outside of our existing network (and get "MVP customer feedback") we intend to use AirBnB. We will deliberately keep the amount of detail on our AirBnB listing to a minimum to "underpromise and over deliver" and hopefully people will be pleasantly surprised when they arrive.
We will incorporate the feedback of people who find us through AirBnB into our App and ask people for reviews on Google, TripAdvisor and to post pictures on their "Social".
We have experience of both listing and "consuming" on AirBnB. (see: "Experience in Real Estate?" section below)
We are friends of Jenny at https://digitalnomadgirls.com
a network of female-only "Digital Nomads" (remote workers)
who either have their own micro-business
or work for someone else remotely.
Reach: Fb: 8.8K, Insta: 24.9k,
Tw: 4.5k (August 2018).
We intend to offer places "at cost" to members of DNG because they are lovely people who share our vision and we know they will help fuel our organic/social traffic by mentioning (linking to) us on their travel blogs, Instagram and YouTube.
Inês is a co-organiser of Ladies of Code (London) https://www.meetup.com/Ladies-of-Code-UK (3K members) and has access to other female-focussed Meetup networks. We intend to leverage these to find people who are able to work remotely, and invite them to stay with and learn with us.
Once we have our basic formula working, we intend to test running ads on https://nomadlist.com Our hope is that we get enough "organic" demand to not need to run ads. However given how niche/focussed Nomad List is, we feel that if we need to generate targeted demand, this is the route we will take.
Our ultimate aim is to be part of the Y Combinator Network
because we feel that YC is the best "filter" for the type of people
we want to attract to live, learn and work at home.
Longer term we plan to build many instances of home around the world,
where prospective YC applicants can meet each other and
form, storm norm & perform
in a controlled environment before they apply to YC.
And current members of YC (both Europe and US founders)
can base their company and not have to think
about laundry, nutrition or bills;
We believe there is a strong symbiosis between YC's Network and home.
Inês and Nelson went to the same primary school.
They have been an "item" for 19 years (since age 14!),
business partners for 13 years
(2005 - 2007 and 2013 - present. )
and married for 1 year.
We are already building the Braga home. Construction is 65% complete.
We started the quest in 2017. see:
https://github.com/dwyl/phase-two/tree/master/braga
"Let's solve our own problem and see where it goes".
~ Jessica Livingston : How to Build the Future https://youtu.be/nFOC-cgIWaY?t=5m26s
We have started two companies together a Clothing Company and an App Development Agency. Both bootstrapped. Both profitable.
We are using the operating surplus from @dwyl to bootstrap home.
We have a decent amount of experience of training people from scratch
(with no previous experience) to get jobs as developers
or start their own companies.
Examples of companies founded/grown through Founders & Coders:
- FatLama https://fatlama.com/ (YC S17) - online rental marketplace for equipment founded by
- Scrimba https://scrimba.com online coding learning and pair-programming environment
- Personably https://personably.co ("rejected" by YC, funded by Rocket Internet)
see: https://foundersandcoders.com/about/
https://twitter.com/KatAlexPas/status/670278026324795393
https://medium.com/founders-coders/from-non-technical-to-hired-in-5-months-d010f601b1bc
We have previously bought, renovated and rented (out) 3 homes and feel we have learned on "small scale". All our property investments have been cashflow positive. Our existing properties are rented by/to "young professionals" who are not yet "ready" to buy (either because they are establishing themselves or unsure if they want to live in the particular city long-term). Charging people below "market rate" including all bills ("zero hassle") means they have a chance to save for a deposit for their own place (should they chose to go down the route of buying).
Our below "market clearing price"
means we are flooded with "applicants"
each time someone decides to "move on",
which means the other housemates get to chose from a wide pool of potential.
This has been a "win-win" strategy over the last 7 years and we intend to
adapt it to home: prices will be kept "low" (affordability is essential)
and existing housemates will decide who can join
based on an online application.
##### Affordable Housing?
We strongly believe in affordable housing for everyone as an essential "foundation" for all forms of human well-being and achievement.
We know (from personal experience) that not everyone is ready to buy their own house/apartment either because they have not been able to save for a deposit or have not found something (reasonably priced) to buy. Some people chose to rent instead of buy because it's cheaper in the short-run. See: "Renting vs Buying" on Khan Academy: https://www.khanacademy.org/economics-finance-domain/core-finance/housing/renting-v-buying/
We feel that AirBnB is a "force for good" because most of the time it puts extra cash in the pockets of people who need it: people renting out a spare room, couch or their flat/house when they are away.
However we acknowledge that AirBnB is a really divisive in cities like San Francisco, New York, Barcelona and London where landlords have evicted locals so that they can make more money renting to "foreigners" ... see:
- https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/12/profiteers-killing-airbnb-erode-communities
- https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/06/16/san-francisco-and-new-york-weigh-airbnbs-effect-on-rent/airbnb-is-a-problem-for-cities-like-new-york-and-san-francisco
- https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/barcelona-locals-hate-tourists-why-reasons-spain-protests-arran-airbnb-locals-attacks-graffiti-a7883021.html
This is a sample of one of our AirBnB listings in London:
Our listing is "unlisted" because the apartment is long-term rented
while we focus on setting up home.
To be clear: we don't want to be "landlords", we want to build a community and be part of solving the housing shortage, not exacerbate it!
The concept of "co-living" sounds remarkably like a "cooperative", why not set it up as a coop from the start?
Our medium to long-term goal is that people who co-live in the home
can co-own the company thus the amount they pay each month
goes towards ownership not "rent".
We intend to explore this option
further our 2nd year of operation;
once we have launched our 3rd or 4th home (i.e. "proved" the model).
We know (again, from experience), that if we were to attempt to
setup home as a "cooperative" it would take years to open the first one
because decision by committee is glacially slow and often diluted.
via: "5 Tips for Choosing a Co-living Space" https://www.thehustlejuice.com/lifestyle/2017/9/12/5-tips-for-choosing-a-coliving-space
We have been using MakeSpace as our guide when designing all spaces.
https://www.amazon.com/Make-Space-Stage-Creative-Collaboration/dp/1118143728
We feel we have an "unfair advantage" over "regular" real estate developers or interior designers who have not done collaborative tech or remote work.
This is our third business together. Both previous businesses have been profitable and required zero capital (100% self/revenue funded).
Portugal is highly popular with remote workers (often called "Digial Nomads") and startup founders alike. There is a burgeoning "startup scene" in both Lisbon and Porto.
Nomad List is a crowdsourced database of cities in the world to help you choose where to go next https://nomadlist.com
At the time of writing, Lisbon is #3 in the World on NomadList
and Braga is already at number #421:
Review of the NomadList page for Braga https://nomadlist.com/braga
indicates that there are a number of areas with room for improvement:
We intend to address all of the aspects under our control and help raise awareness of the rest.
Specifically we are focussing on "Places to work from" which is currently the lowest scoring nomad criteria.
With these price estimates:
https://nomadlist.com/braga-portugal/cost-of-living
We can easily be one of the best value
co-living/working places in all of Europe!
1 NomadList ranking fluctuates based on the number of recent reviews from the community. Several Portuguese cities (Lisbon, Porto, Braga, Aveiro, Funchal & Coimbra) are consistently in the top 50 because the weather is _consistently great_, food+ accommodation is _relatively_ "cheap", internet speed is fast, English is widely spoken (_English is a **require** 2nd language in **all schools** from age 10_ see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Portugal ) and "locals" are super friendly/welcoming. We have a _comprehensive plan_ to make Braga _consistently_ `#1` in the World on NomadList.Also, it does not "hurt" that Braga is "higher ground" ... The elevation of the city is 200m (above sea level), which in case you're wondering is a really good thing (thinking longer-term) considering the fact that the sea level is rising ... see: dwyl/phase-three#16
Further reading on the "Tech ecosystem" in Portugal: https://medium.com/paua-insights/mapping-out-the-tech-ecosystem-in-portugal-who-is-who-862a85fce28e
http://paulgraham.com/hs.html (What You'll Wish You Had Known) > Now
- Recurse Center: https://www.recurse.com
- Grokhome: https://www.grokhome.com
- Hack’N’Sleep https://www.hacknsleep.com (affiliated with 500 Startups & Hack Reactor)
- Nomad Pass: https://nomadpass.com a listing of several remote-friendly living/working places around the world.
- Sun & Co: https://sun-and-co.com (co-living only no "hacking" component)
From reading https://yclist.com / http://www.ycombinator.com/companies it appears that YC has not invested in any other "Co-living" ideas.
After reading "Requests for Startups" http://www.ycombinator.com/rfs we are convinced that our project qualifies for mentorship in the Startup School program.
Let us highlight the categories which are applicable home:
We are re-purposing an abandoned single-family large (by European standards) house and transforming it into something new.
We are making all of our plans, decisions and outcomes public
online https://github.com/dwyl/phase-two/tree/master/braga
so that other people can learn from our mistakes/success
and if anyone feels they can improve they can "fork" the entire project
and go for it!
The most popular TED talk of all time
according to the official list
https://www.ted.com/playlists/171/the_most_popular_talks_of_all
is Ken Robinson's "Do schools kill creativity?"
Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case
for creating an education system that nurtures
(rather than undermines) creativity.
https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity
Clearly this talk resonates with a lot of people as do his various books.
Having a place where you can work without needing to commute and where you have access to an electric bicycles and other on-demand transport is the future.
While we are not directly addressing TRANSPORTATION,
we will make a car available to all members at each house we build.
Our plan is to have one or more electric car(s) available to residents
and when Waymo
Once we have proved the initial model of home
with a successful App and expanded to 5 locations,
we intend to hire a team member who will be responsible
for reaching out to and mentoring people are especially vulnerable:
young adults from "broken homes", children of incarcerated, drug-dependent
or dead parents and women who have been victims of domestic abuse.
We already have a working relationship with Domestic Abuse charities http://www.safelives.org.uk in the UK and http://www.cococi.org/fr/about-us in Portugal.
Our aim will be to give women and young adults who have been subjected to domestic violence a chance to live in a safe living environment where they can learn skills, find work and start their own success stories!
We intend to use computer vision for physical access controls (door entry). This will not be our "product" however we will "assemble" the pieces
For this we will partner with our good friend (dwyl alum) Nikhila Ravi:
see: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilaravi / https://github.com/nikhilaravi
who co-organises http://opened.ai
We intend to use robots for as much domestic work as possible to both alleviate the burden of "chores" and Initially this will be confined to a robotic vacuum cleaner, but with a Hardware Hacking Lab in the basement, we expect at least one of our members to get creative with this.
https://basicincome.ycr.org/our-plan https://blog.ycombinator.com/moving-forward-on-basic-income/
- Remote work is “the new normal”. (2018) https://www.fastcompany.com/40537399/remote-work-is-the-new-normal
- https://remote.co/10-stats-about-remote-work/
- Remote Work 2018: https://open.buffer.com/state-remote-work-2018/
- What's a Hacker House? | Grist: https://youtu.be/Z87meKvOV_0
(profiles http://www.grokhome.com IO House and cor36) - List of Hackbases: https://wiki.hackerspaces.org/Hackbases
- What is "Co-living"? https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-co-living-2017-2
- Co-living heats up in the U.S.: Communal-housing startups tap into a millennial need https://venturebeat.com/2017/12/24/co-living-heats-up-in-the-u-s-communal-housing-startups-tap-into-a-millennial-need/
- WeLive ? https://www.welive.com
- IKEA Co-living? https://www.dezeen.com/2017/11/14/one-shared-house-2030-ikea-space10-lab-anton-irene-co-living-website-platform/
- History of Co-living: https://issuu.com/lisainteriors/docs/design_studio_research
- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/15/happy-together-lonely-baby-boomers-turn-to-co-housing
