Life @ a Silicon Valley Hackerhouse
7:00 PM: Oz is gingerly chopping red and green bell peppers in preparation of a chicken skewer. He works on his healthtech startup and seldom eats out.
Mary saunters into the kitchen.
She is actively raising funds for her food automation startup. The conversation gradually shifts towards the daily sacrifices of start-up life. Mary likes eating out; she hasn’t done so in weeks.
Oz nods in shared understanding.
Like red-hot steel quenched in ice-cold water, the glamours of startup life met harsh reality.
This moment was one of many that characterized my stay at a hackerhome in the heart of Silicon Valley’s Menlo Park — residence to startup founders sourcing for their first round of funding, visiting scholars at the Farm, and students (like me) interning in the many startups populating the Bay.
A cash crunch and a desire for a sense of community led me to seek accommodation in a hackerhome. Sharing a room with eight others, and a house with over twice as many people was intrusive. And alone-time was near non-existent. But for every sacrifice of privacy, we gained in community. And lots of learnings.
The lack of a social network and a support system stings most when you move to a new city. Here, we had ready company for watching movies, heading on day trips to the beach, the occasional communal meal, and late night ice cream treks ☺
Think of your first few days of school — everyone eager to make friends, no cliques or groups that you have to struggle to fit into. And most residents with an interesting background open to an exchange of ideas. Such was my home at Menlo Park. Not to mention spikeball games — a near constant day and night.
As well as the occasional formal academic talk…
And informal ones running into the wee hours of the morning.
In a world where we hyper-optimise our lives, stare at LED screens like zombies, and listen to one-way voices for hours on end; the hackerhome provides a safe space for idle banter, a chance to talk about how the day went, and non opportunistic company to share a drink with.
I left my short stint with a slight sniffle, and memories to last for years to come.
