Coliving identity struggle
An industry insight from a business owner
My early days of Colivings
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.👇
The are 3 commercial models present on the market
- Micro apartments
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 origins of the Coliving Business Model
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 future of the trend?
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? 😁
Seems like some basecamps are already running educational programs that include housing. General Assembly+Common. ✌️
Imho: The identity struggle of Coliving resulted, so far, in 4 business models present on the market. The p2p economy and the globalization paradigms are clashing with the accommodation, with the educational and with the experience-providing industries. The outcomes are floating in the water. Some are just harder to see than the others…
Thanks for reading and don’t hesitate to hit that 👏 or support the author with your comment🔥.
-K.
