Coliving identity struggle

An industry insight from a business owner

In 2014 I got invited into my first co-living; in Palo Alto. A startup founder invited me over to work on the idea for a platform that would unite the dinner organizers and the crowd searching for new friends over the tasty meal. 🍱

6 months later I launched my first coliving community with my dad, in San Francisco. It was called The Digital Republic. Later it formed into a ‘Coliving Club’. 🌝

I’ve helped launch 7 locations, trying to unite them into a one organic community over the period of 9 months…😳

I immersed myself into the culture of digital nomadism & coliving. Building, reading, learning, talking, helping, building bunk beds, answering to customers online and offline, hosting, troubleshooting, networking, managing sales, marketing, branding, build startup strategies and social events like BBQ parties where I would cook at the grill in and out. I was literally changing the address every 1–3 months.😰

And here is what I think of Colivings.👇

2. Private rooms

3. Shared rooms

They all share similar communal amenities being added on top of the accommodation business model; just like a butter on a warm bread. For me the butter is a coliving’s secret sauce and the warm bread is the Hostel’s foundation. The growth of the coliving trend stress out one more time the desire of the current customers for a more engaging living experience.😻

The key difference between them is the level of privacy for the individual members and the operational structure affected.😏

Note: As the Coliving Club we were running models number 2 & 3 as the number 1 requires construction and we wanted to run the MVP, not the final product.🤓

All three models are financially viable and are showing positive numbers in a long run. Yet some co-living locations are not accommodation-oriented.🤔

The Hacker houses. 👽 The modern coliving pioneers that set up the trend for the productive communal living.

They are:

•Non-commercial initiatives

•100% driven by the community

•Designed to fit the specific need or to reach a specific goal

•Inspiration for the whole movement of the Coliving

•HBO’s Aviato incubator is really a Hacker House, tbh.

The accommodation-driven commercial model hard-forked into the Hostel business area is here to grow for years; a curious impact of the p2p economy. And as a result of globalization it makes a lot of sense for the individuals to lean towards the communities. 👾

But will there be another branch of the Hacker House concept? Education- or experience-driven business model with the a coliving accommodation added to the value? 😁

Thanks for reading and don’t hesitate to hit that 👏 or support the author with your comment🔥.

-K.

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