Leaving NYC for the World.

Kicking off my Adventures in Digital Nomadism.

On January 1st, in just seven short days, I’ll be giving up my apartment in Manhattan, donating/giving away most of my possessions, and boarding a one-way flight across the pond to London, England.

I’ll likely spend a month around London, then travel south toward the Mediterranean. From there, I’m planning to spend at least 330 days of 2014 outside of the US, with no more than a couple months in any given country.

There’s something about traveling or simply a change of location that has always energized me. Maybe it’s every day is a new adventure, or seeing, up close, how other people live their daily lives, the way it shapes the way they think, and how my own understanding of the world evolves as a result.

The best change, hands down, was moving to New York City five years ago. I’ve met a ton of awesome people, gained some great friends, and the experience solidified an internal drive to build awesome things on the internet for other people.

To me, traveling never seemed very realistic as a sustainable lifestyle until recently. A few things that have changed my thinking:

1. The rise of the internet and how it’s shaped how we all communicate. I love this Brief History of Digital Nomadism. A lucky time we live in…
2. As a company, we’re embracing a distributed team culture.
3. Many recent success stories of great companies operating in a distributed fashion.
4. Much easier to communicate across large distances than ever before.
5. As a team, we’ve spent the last several months testing whether a distributed team works for us.

So, I’m going for it.

I’m purposefully not making any plans more than a few weeks in the future, but I do have a few guidelines for how I expect to use the time:

1. Continue to build and grow our company every day.
2. Ensure I have an internet connection anywhere I go.
3. Spend a considerable amount of time in each place (1 month+).
4. Live/work in residential/local areas (airbnb.com rather than hotels)
5. Favor local favorites over tourist attractions.

All of the above revolve around staying productive and learning as much as possible about all the different cultures of the world.

See ya out there.