Common: Co-Living Startup from a General Assembly Founder

I'm really excited to see more companies like this. While the economics are interesting, I think the real value that co-living brings is community.

People used to get their feelings of belonging from their church and religion. As religion takes a backseat, people are finding that sense of community in new areas (like Crossfit).

I personally felt really lost toward the end of university. Due to injury, I was unable to play sports, which is where I'd found my "tribe" growing up. I also was doing a lot of soul-searching after shutting down my last company, and so was feeling disconnected from a lot of the people in the startup world.

Anyways, through a series of random events, I ended up starting a coliving experiment for developers & entrepreneurs in Costa Rica.

I thought the value would be having interesting people around while abroad, but the best part was getting thrown into a collegial atmosphere, where people would just hang out and shoot the breeze about anything they found interesting. It was a really profound experience for me, and I've since spent 11 out of the last 14 months in various co-living arrangements around the world through Hacker Paradise.

There are definitely drawbacks to intense levels of community. You have a bit less privacy, and interpersonal friction will arise.

Still, I think it can be a really remarkable experience for people in their "Odyssey years," while they're still trying to figure out what they want to make their life's work. I know I've made closer friends through co-living than I would have otherwise.

Can somebody please start a co-living startup that actually increases the quality of housing for the money instead of decreasing it?

"I have a great business idea -- you can rent a bedroom on Craigslist for about $1,200 a month, so let's add bluetooth and charge $2,000 a month!"

These people are parasites and they need to be stopped.

Wow have times changed. I lived in a (much less nice) communal building in Bushwick, Brooklyn a few years ago and it was just $500 a month for a room. As a newbie to NYC at the time, it was really great to jump into a fully formed community but after a while, it was just too much to be surrounded by people all the time. You could tell others were having the same issues and people started to pick fights over silly things and it just became a very stressful experience. This place is significantly nicer than where I stayed but I wonder how the issues that come with putting a large group of diverse people together in one space will be handled.

I stand firmly by the idea that a co-living arrangement should never be structured as a traditional corporation. Make it a co-op, and make each member (roughly) an equal shareholder. Have the incentives align.

Are there any such public co-living startups?

As someone who always prefers shared housing, this does not sit well. It's not a cooperative, it's a dorm/hotel-like arrangement where laundry and cleaning tasks are outsourced to people who can't afford to live there. You're paying someone else to be your mom.

That model works for short-term arrangements where inhabitants are very busy (students and travelers), but this sounds like it will become a gentrified echo chamber of Rob Rhinehart disciples.

I agree with other commenters that cooperative ownership models, with sharing of costs/chores/equity/governance, are more accessible across the socioecomonic spectrum and tend to build stronger communities.

This seems quite expensive given that the units are located in Crown Heights.

(19 people * 1900 avg rent) / 7300 sqft = $4.68 per sqft

Lets look at a typical unit [0] in Crown Heights. We'll look at large units (4+ br) to make it comparable as possible.

It's 4k per month for a 1200 sqft space with for 4br - so

$4000 / 1200 sqft = $3.33 per sqft

So about 40% more expensive than a normal shared unit + plus way more roommates. I think the extra 800-1000 difference per month should pay for food and laundry with plenty to spare for savings.

[0] - http://streeteasy.com/building/348-eastern-parkway-brooklyn/...

$1800/bedroom/month sounds like a lot for someone trying to bootstrap a start-up. My co-founders and I pay $730/bedroom/month in Los Angeles, and it's more than enough space. It would be nice to share a bigger space with other startups, but not $1800 great.

I would have liked something similar years ago. Here are a few features I would like

Free dinner, breakfast, and snacks A small kitchenet Free or cheap onsite storage Include all util also Wifi and premium cable pay rent online Security cameras way to let guest into building without going out to meet them Fully furnished option In unit laundry or laundry service Amazon locker

Reading the first paragraph makes me glad I don't live in New York.

$1800+ to rent a bedroom in a shared space? Really? Living in Texas, I have an entire 1500 sq. ft. townhouse all to myself for $1220.

This article is from October 19th, so 2 months old. They also announced their funding back in July.

Have there been any updates since then? What is fill rate? What is feedback from inhabitants like? Updates on next residence timing?

I'd love to do this for my next startup (in Seattle and/or Berlin; maybe an Asia location too). It's the most efficient way to work. I've done it with Sealand/HavenCo and in war zones, but not recently elsewhere.

It's unsustainable when startup isn't the primary (or, basically only) thing in your life, but there are a few potential solutions:

0) Be flexible. The biggest bar to this is probably people with families/kids (which I personally hope to never have, but I respect that some people, including great employees/founders/etc., do and deeply value having family interactions) -- do whatever is possible to address this. It's probably not a one size fits all solution. "Live on site 2-3 days/week, wfh otherwise" might actually be preferable to a lot of people with families than spending 1-2h/day commuting and 8-12h/day working 5 days/week.

1) Duration limited (say, a startup from 0 to 10-15 employees and $20mm/yr revenue -- could be 1-3y). Even if the duration is long (3y), having a specific time where it will change as the default helps.

2) People who are inherently suited to this (which probably works well for, say, early career security people; not as well for civil engineers.)

3) Intermittent -- work/live like this for months at a time, then go back "home".

4) High budget: live/work like this AND have enough money to have a "regular" house/apartment elsewhere, or at least go on great vacations.

5) Deep mission at the startup: "save the world from spy agencies", yes. "Build a more efficient billing system for other startups", probably not.

6) Strongly prioritize "no assholes rule" in hiring. (The worst thing about having one coddled asshole is then everyone else feels the need to equivalently act like an asshole to be taken seriously; it's self perpetuating)

7) Have an obvious physical reason for being in the same place -- easier to co-live in a remote location building a dam, than it is to co-live in an office park in Kentucky to build billing software.

So the only question is...can I Airbnb my bedroom?

The Negev is another coop that started in the bay area, but has recently expanded: http://thenegev.com/

Was a great landing pad, and would highly recommend to those moving to SF. Its $1250/month for a shared room month-to-month.

brad hargreaves (the founder of common, also co-founded General Assembly), is an amazing guy; super humble, really willing to help others. it's great to see him having so much success.