The Exchanges

Q of community activities. You get access to a coworking space. You got, you know, within the building, you got access to food, like, you know, and it was this, it was, it's, it was this sort of product for like 20 something people moving to a new city where they had like a community in it. What do you think of that idea? Where do you think that will go?

A I think that's, I think that's a little different because it's a company curating the community for you. And I think what's happening now is people are, are being a lot more intentional. So I was chatting with my friend Safwan and he said in San Francisco, his group of friends are literally taking over a whole floor in an apartment building. So as soon as like an apartment frees up, they, they hop on it and they have like a whole list, a waiting list of people that are trying to move in. And it's about curating your own community versus having other people curate it for you. So I think that's what's happening. Um, or it could be something as small as, you know, like splitting a town, Brooklyn townhome where you live on the bottom floor and best friend lives on the top floor and something nice about the impromptu going for a walk or just running to each other. Um, you know, when you have kids, if you need to run somewhere, they can watch your kids for an hour. Just having that Prime, you know, what community like literally pre-internet or a hundred centuries ago, what it was kind of like. And I think there's a whole trend of people moving towards it. And I saw, I started seeing different variations of this, right? So there's weekly dinners. So people just host weekly dinners, which is kind of straightforward. And then the, the easier version next to that is live next door to you…

AI assessment note: “I think that's a little different because it's a company curating the community”

Q I were to start a digital business versus a sweaty business, let's say a boring business, like from a, from a time commitment and from a lever leverage and scale perspective, much preferred digital business. Um, and so I think what you're going to start to see is like, I mean, I guess the price for an acquisition might go up on the smallest scale, right? On places like acquire.com.

A Yeah, I think we'll start seeing that. I think we'll start seeing some new financing that'll go into it. A lot of activity. I mean, prices will probably go up. I think we'll start seeing founders going back in and buying companies because they realize how hard it is to go from zero to one and how much luck and timing factor into it. But I think we'll just start seeing a lot more activity. I think we'll start seeing, um, you know, not just within those businesses, but startups that are kind of failing, merging with other startups that are failing to To survive. I think we'll just see a lot of M and a activity and not, it won't be big tech company buying small startup. It will be a lot of smaller businesses selling or merging together. I think we'll just see a lot more activity there.

AI assessment note: “Yeah, I think we'll start seeing that. I think we'll start seeing some new financing”

Q cities in the world. Definitely top five to somewhere in North Carolina. Did, did, did, did the, the concept of what J Cal was talking about, which is, you know, a couple million dollars for a small town, ten million dollars for a medium town and 20 or 25 for, you know, Top tier city or whatever. Did that play a role into your move or was it strictly personal?

A Strictly personal. I think it was in the middle of COVID pandemic. We're living in New York. We didn't, we weren't planning on moving. It was just kind of like wife families, North Carolina. Let's just kind of go there for a few weeks and a few weeks or in a few months and a few months were like, okay, let's just find a temporary house. And then we're like, oh, this is actually not that bad. It's kind of cool. Um, and then it went from like, are we going to stay here to like, or move back to New York? Well, let's just stay here. And now it's kind of like, okay, let's plant roots. So, you know, life throws curve balls like that and you just kind of have to move with it. But what's funny is that, um, while I live in like a, like, I would call it like a medium, like somewhere between small and medium, like my expenses, I would argue would probably be a little bit less than New York. It's like, you have a house and then You have cars and you have to put gas in the cars and you know, like, cause in New York, you don't need to own a car. You could just take Ubers or subway or bike. So it was just kind of like on a monthly basis. It's yeah, not, it's cheaper, but yeah, New York is way, way, way more expensive, but all those little things add up. Like you send your kids to like school and that private school and that costs. And yeah, so it definitely adds up if you want it to.

AI assessment note: “Strictly personal. I think it was in the middle of COVID pandemic.”

Q I mean, what do you, what type of businesses are you saying?

A Well, Like real estate is a great example, but, um, I think what will happen is the thought that comes to mind for me is a lot of new fund funding mechanisms are going to start popping up. And I think we'll start seeing the one in done round. And I think we'll start seeing dividend issuing start, you know, startups that pay a dividend because not every company is going to break out. So I think we'll start seeing a lot of people taking swings And if it doesn't really, if it takes off for whatever reason, they, they can go the traditional route. And if it doesn't, they could go the, the alternative route. So I think that will be an alternative path that I think a lot more founders will kind of embark on, especially as they hear stories from, you know, found entrepreneurs that are kind of trying something different that have done that path. But, and I think with the rise of AI and hard tech, I think a lot of funding will go towards really hard tech problems. And then There'll be this kind of like middle zone for everything else.

AI assessment note: “Like real estate is a great example, but... we'll start seeing dividend issuing... startups”

Q How would you recommend people think about what their number should be? And should they even have a number in the first place?

A I think people, yeah, for sure should have a number. I think everyone has a few number, which is basically the number you would reach where, uh, you have complete control of your time. You can do whatever you want. I think You know, for those of you that haven't read my newsletter, I decided to dedicate a few bullet points to money and at a high level, here's kind of what I wrote about. So I just pulled it up. So one is money does buy happiness. So I found this research report that says, you know, we've been told that happiness doesn't increase above 75,000 and all you really need is 75,000 dollars and every other dollar after that's marginal. But there's this new research that shows that, you know, the well-being rises with income and doesn't really plateau. So they weren't really tracking billionaires, but I would Think that it plateaus at some point and what money can provide is financial independence, you know, which ultimately gives you freedom and allows you to choose and pick what you want to do with your time, which I think is one of the biggest factors for happiness in life is when you can wake up and say, Financially independent and I can work on my own terms. I could work on whatever I want with whoever I want and I don't have to worry. The third thing I wrote about tied to that was most people, when you read about money, it's usually related to like flexing, right? …

AI assessment note: “I think people, yeah, for sure should have a number.”