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I was thinking about these being good for freelancers and startups, then I realized they'll be expensive. There was a recent thread about housing for startup em

I was thinking about these being good for freelancers and startups, then I realized they'll be expensive. There was a recent thread about housing for startup employees: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23655398 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23655398 Liability kind of ruins any opportunity of making cheap living spaces. Edit: did some more browsing, found this update on Zeus, a co-living startup https://therealdeal.com/2020/05/11/airbnb-backed-zeus-living-sees-valuation-halved/ https://therealdeal.com/2020/05/11/airbnb-backed-zeus-living...

ghaff 6y ago
Zeus sounds like furnished corporate apartments -- i.e. a competitor to something like Marriott Residence Inn -- rather than "co-living." (These apartments have historically been used for relocation or for when an exec or someone else needs to spend a lot of time in a location away from their home base.)
Keverw 6y ago
Maybe buy an old cruise ship and put it in international waters lol. That'd probably help get rid of some of the liability and zoning issues.
- bryanlarsen 6y ago
  If you have no liability / jurisdiction then contracts with you are unenforceable. And if a customer can't get a valid contract with you, that means no customers.
  - Keverw 6y ago
    Yeah, not sure how the cruise lines deal with this... I know some of them have offices in the US, some major ones pick Miami but the ships are owned and registered to off-shore nations. One of the reasons they didn't get a bailout due to COVID, they pay little taxes and then also can avoid more stricter US labor laws.
    - bryanlarsen 6y ago
      As you said, they're registered to off-shore nations, so that gives them a jurisdiction.
- LyndsySimon 6y ago
  It’s been considered, and if memory serves, implemented a few times. I want to say someone put a ship full of migrant workers in international waters off the coast of California a few years ago. The concept is usually known as “seasteading” - though, to be fair, that term includes a good bit of political baggage as well.

ghaff 6y ago

Zeus sounds like furnished corporate apartments -- i.e. a competitor to something like Marriott Residence Inn -- rather than "co-living." (These apartments have historically been used for relocation or for when an exec or someone else needs to spend a lot of time in a location away from their home base.)

Keverw 6y ago

Maybe buy an old cruise ship and put it in international waters lol. That'd probably help get rid of some of the liability and zoning issues.

bryanlarsen 6y ago
If you have no liability / jurisdiction then contracts with you are unenforceable. And if a customer can't get a valid contract with you, that means no customers.
- Keverw 6y ago
  Yeah, not sure how the cruise lines deal with this... I know some of them have offices in the US, some major ones pick Miami but the ships are owned and registered to off-shore nations. One of the reasons they didn't get a bailout due to COVID, they pay little taxes and then also can avoid more stricter US labor laws.
  - bryanlarsen 6y ago
    As you said, they're registered to off-shore nations, so that gives them a jurisdiction.
LyndsySimon 6y ago
It’s been considered, and if memory serves, implemented a few times. I want to say someone put a ship full of migrant workers in international waters off the coast of California a few years ago. The concept is usually known as “seasteading” - though, to be fair, that term includes a good bit of political baggage as well.