A new coliving community is part of a broader vision we’re building towards called the Neighborhood.

But why coliving? Because the organizers of this unconference used to live in a 20 bedroom coliving house called the Archive. In the beginning, we were a group of ambitious but not obviously outlier group of 10 friends. Over the course of the next 5 years, we grew from 10 to 20 bedrooms and hosted about 50 residents and subletters. But perhaps more surprising is that this group included the founding teams of 14 companies and about a dozen researchers. During that same period, these teams also raised $859M and co-authored GPT-3. Amazingly, one-third of those founding teams claim that the Archive was pivotal to their outcomes. Speaking for myself (Jason), I’m quite confident that I’d still be an ordinary software engineer at a random startup if not for the Archive.

What is the Neighborhood?

The Neighborhood is a multigenerational campus in the heart of San Francisco, and a key goal is to build 10-20 themed Archives within a single walkable square mile. The location includes Alamo Square, Duboce Triangle, Hayes Valley, and Cole Valley.

Here is our strategy for starting each house:

  1. We find a location. Jason will get a real estate license and we’re building relationships with local landlords, owners, and real estate investors. So far, we’ve secured access to a 14BR and an 18BR.
  2. We host a Califlorence unconference, themed according to something important to the next era of progress. We gather 75-125 inspiring people together, many of whom are open to the idea of living near community.
  3. We choose 2-3 house leaders from Califlorence volunteers. These leaders will be wholesome, discerning, and inspiring, and we’ll give them full control over one of the houses we’ve secured. By this strategy, all housemates will have passed two vibe checks: they were recommended to Califlorence because they’re inspiring, and they were recruited to the house because they’re values-aligned.
  4. Meet regularly until the house is running smoothly. This typically begins after Califlorence and ends sometime after move-in. We help them recruit housemates, establish their own culture, adopt coliving best practices, and fundraise to beautify their spaces.
  5. Rinse and repeat. With each iteration we learn a ton about how to create a gorgeous, tight-knit, inspiring coliving community and iterate on our methods.

In March, we hosted our first unconference, Califlorence Climate, which you can read about here. Treehouse has been meeting weekly since April, will open August 1st, and the culture and recruiting are coming along nicely! Aligned AGI House (name TBD) is next, has 18 bedrooms, and will open September 1st.

We’re also planning a large coworking space and cafeteria. Instead of working from home, Neighbors and friends should have the option to rent a permanent desk in a shared coworking space and enjoy wide-ranging lunch discussions with folks shaping the next era of progress. We know what this takes because in 2022 we helped find the location, raise money, and recruit initial community for The Commons, a 4,200sqft solarpunk library and coffeeshop. Eventually, this square mile will be dense with community hangout spaces, and since last year we’ve seen the rise of several awesome projects.

Lastly, we’ll build 5-10 coparenting villages. Our inspirations are Radish, Noasis, and Solaris, although we also have some other ideas for multigenerational infrastructure. This is at least a year or two away, but in the meantime we’ll facilitate community among Neighbors that are on similar parenting timelines.

It’s a tad grandiose, but the name “Califlorence” is meant to evoke Renaissance Florence. Fifteenth-century Florence produced an astounding collection of scientific and cultural talent that is difficult to attribute to random genetic variation or travel, including Michelangelo, da Vinci, and Galileo. Being in the right place at the right time matters for doing great work, of course. But the lesson of Florence is that perhaps the right environment can matter more than talent. It’s also just a delightful way to live.

<aside> ➡️ To get involved, join our Discord: https://bit.ly/neighborhooddiscord

</aside>

We’re interested in your feedback and comments: [email protected].

FAQs