My new yacht

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After an incredible 5 months in Medellín, I’m writing this on my flight back to Los Angeles.

This bi-annual move between continents where I entirely flip my life upside down is always bittersweet. On one hand, I genuinely cannot wait to be back in LA. It’s where most of my best friends call home, where I’m most productive, and where my routine is the most dialed (work, gym, surf, yoga, breathwork).

But there’s so much that I love about being in Colombia that I’m leaving behind:

The lifestyle. I have a private chef and maid that saves me about ~150 hours per quarter. It’s a total cheat code to have more time to focus on the business.

The accommodations. The cost of living relative to LA is… different. I have a beautiful two-floor penthouse with an amazing home office and tons of amenities.

The weather. They call it “the eternal spring” because it’s pretty much 75°F and sunny every single day, year round. I’m genuinely a much happier person when the weather is nice.

The people. On average I find the people in Latam to be super friendly and warm. Plus, I’ve built an awesome community of friends and founders down there.

The views. I mean, come on, it’s hard not to get inspired when I wake up to this every morning.

LA and Medellín are ultimately just two different seasons of life for me. Each has its trade-offs. Each serves a different purpose.

In Medellín, I’m pretty much off the grid… and that’s a feature not a bug. Your time is your most valuable resource as a founder, and far too many people don’t do enough to protect it.

When I’m down in Colombia, it’s so much easier to say no to things back in the states. “I’m on a different continent” is an amazing excuse to decline all of the dinner invites and events.

There were a few exceptions: I made the trip to London in February and SXSW in March. Both were opportunities for the business that were too good to pass up, but dozens of other events didn’t make the cut.

Saying no to more things means saying yes to the things that really matter.

And one of the things that really matters to me is building beehiiv into a multi-billion dollar business. While I was off the grid in South America, I was really able to lock in… and I think the results speak for themselves…

November: was a record month with $3.5M in revenue (thanks in part to BFCM).

December: we quietly raised a $12M strategic round.

Q1: was a blowout quarter; we added over $4M ARR and shipped dozens of impactful features.

We’re in a really good groove right now, and I owe a lot of that to my ability to focus on the business without any distractions. Or at least, fewer distractions than I experience in the States.

While work consumes 99% of my life, I really try to max that last 1% as much as I can. I’d be lying to say my time in Colombia was all work and no fun.

Guatapé is this beautiful manmade lake a few hours outside of the city. I ripped a few weekend trips there and got really pretty good at wakesurfing.

My parents came to visit for the holidays, which was an absolute blast. It was their first time in South America.

And the homies used my birthday as an excuse to come down and visit for a week.

Both professionally and personally, the past 5 months were exceptional… which is all you can really ask for.

That said, there's one thing Medellín can't compete with: the caliber of people and opportunities back in the U.S. The energy and ambition that you find in New York, SF, and LA is unparalleled.

As a founder trying to disrupt an industry and make a dent in the world, that environment is intoxicating. Being off the grid in Medellín serves a real purpose, but so does being back in the thick of it in LA.

Two different seasons of life.

Anyway, I’ve decided that my first big purchase when I’m back is going to be a nice dining room table.

Why?

For one, I’m currently working with some shitty IKEA table that my old roommate bought when we first moved in four years ago.

And second, I was inspired by this episode of My First Million that I listened to a few weeks ago. Shaan was riffing on this idea of "building your own yacht."

The concept: before you commit to a new relationship (business or personal) you typically want to see some social proof and credibility. The second you step onto someone's yacht, they've established both. You've entered their frame. They control the experience. And thanks to the law of reciprocity, after receiving something (an invite on their yacht), you feel compelled to give something back.

Not everyone can buy a real yacht (guilty). But there are all kinds of ways to create “little yachts” that don't cost nearly as much: hosting a dinner, organizing an event, creating content, etc. These little yachts generate inbound luck, relationships, and other things that quietly compound over time.

I heard that episode right after getting back from SXSW, which was essentially a week of non-stop stimuli and in-person connections. Then I had dinner at the Cloudflare CEO's house with Mark Cuban, Michael Dell, Scott Galloway, and a bunch of other absolute ballers (I was the outlier). After that, I was yacht-pilled and inspired to do some hosting myself.

I’ve been fortunate to build a pretty awesome network of founders and operators, but historically haven’t prioritized making time for them IRL.

But I’m going to build my little yacht and start hosting dinner parties. Eight people, a chef to cook for us, a couple bottles of wine, and maybe some peptides (I hear that’s what the kids are doing these days).

Maybe I’ll get sick of it and decide that I hate hosting them after a few. But right now I want to create a space to bring together the most ambitious people in my circle (and expand that circle even further).

That’s probably what I’m most excited about. Closely followed by breakfast burritos, surfing, and working from PST. Which, by the way, is the most elite timezone (I wrote a whole blog post about it last year).

The best part about living this dual-life between continents is this feeling I have right now. A little like starting over in a new city — new routine, wide-eyed, excited. Except I'm just going home to a place I love after a long hiatus.

I’ve traveled around the world, but nothing feels better than landing at LAX.

Now someone please tell me where I can buy a nice dining room table around here.

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This one has a little bit of everything: mountain views, city views, lake views, and a whole lot of zen.

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