The All-in-1 Coliving Guide
Share
Explore

icon picker
Introduction: Who, What, Why

Okay, so what is coliving? It’s not just crowded & communal spaces for nerds to hack together.
Coliving, often also referred to as “hacker houses,” “founder houses,” “group houses,” and/or “hype houses” can be defined as community living with other like-minded folks that live, work, and play together.
Each coliving house is unique and varies based on the people, culture, and mission behind it. I’ve seen coliving houses range from a group of 4-6 friends renting a house together, working remotely, and enjoying down time, all the way to 25-people, programed communities that intentionally bring strangers and friends together.
Not only do you share common and living areas with others, you also share experiences, values, and lifestyles. You can find coliving houses for almost any interest (tech, young founders, content creators, bio, and more) in any major city.

Why should I consider coliving?

With remote work and new standards of flexibility in work, school, etc. after the pandemic, the global coliving markets are growing .
There are . Safe to say that coliving is a growing and significant trend.
Some of the benefits of coliving can include...
Built-in community and belonging
Meeting new people that share lots of commonality with you
City-living with lower costs (coliving can be
cheaper than apartment housing)
Access to larger & unique properties (houses, bungalows, etc.)
Flexibility of short-term housing, location, and timeline
Furnished spaces & common area
Social experiences (always invited to and never obligated)
Spontaneity
Contagious energy from the people around you & mutual learning
Coliving is also not a new phenomena—especially in San Francisco, communal living goes all the way back to the 60s/70s when the era of Peace & Love brought together young people en masse to small houses. The tech boom and birth of Silicon Valley also brought the concept of Hacker Houses (i.e. Facebook), through wanting to experience fast-paced innovation in a house with smart and ambitious people looking to build something together.

Who is Coliving For?

While coliving can heavily skew towards the younger/Gen Z folks, I genuinely think anyone can participate in coliving (look at on TikTok), it all depends on what you’re looking to get out of the experience as well as what houses are open & align with you. There are coliving opportunities for any age demographic, interest, background, and walk of life.
Coliving is great if you want to...
Meet new people and form deeper relationships & friendships
Move to a new/big city and have a community of people built-in
Save money on rent by sharing
Have a flexible living arrangement without the hassle (mostly) of leases, furnishing, etc.
Figure out what you want to next in life (transitory period)
Work remotely from a new place
Seek diversity within a niche
You probably would not enjoy coliving if you do not wish to share spaces with others (houses can have private bedrooms and shared common areas or shared rooms like bunk beds), do not want to put yourself out there and socialize, or have circumstances/preferences in your living situation that are not flexible.

Examples of Coliving Houses (tech-focused)

Here’s a list of houses that you can check out (and potentially may have openings) to get a better sense of the myriad of coliving houses on the market. By no means is this fully comprehensive and please let me know any I’m missing and should be on this list!
SF
Atmosphere House
Cabana (YC Founders)
Incepto House
Boston

NY
LA
Habitat House
Pop-Up (Multiple Locations)
(non-tech focused)
Here are companies and sites where you can book coliving slots just as you would renting an Airbnb:
(NYC)
(NYC)

Future of Coliving

In the tech sphere, you can see coliving making its way through the industry with even companies investing more into coliving, like Contrary, Draper, and On Deck. Edyfi, a home for the self-directed, the non-conformists, and the dreamers, recently joined Contrary Capital, a venture fund backed by founders from Tesla, Airbnb, Facebook, and more, to further develop special projects. On Deck, dubbed as the “Stanford of the Internet” and a community of the world’s top talent, also launched their own line of coliving in San Francisco for their members.
Not only are individuals partaking more in this experience, but companies are also seeing the value of coliving and venturing into new types of offerings around this concept.
Coliving is definitely one trend to make note of, regardless of what industry or background you have. And I hope this guide can shed light into actionable ways to get involved and flourish!
👉 Next:

Share
 
Want to print your doc?
This is not the way.
Try clicking the ⋯ next to your doc name or using a keyboard shortcut (
CtrlP
) instead.