TheGlint

This San Francisco Mansion is TheGlint, Not a Frat House.

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:16:00 -0500

Yesterday, a very disappointing article was written about TheGlint, entitled ‘This San Francisco Mansion Is Where Peter Thiel’s Genius Kids Party And Plot’. It’s disappointing because while much of it is accurate as the photos show, it’s inaccurate in what it describes TheGlint to be.

Yes, TheGlint is located in a mansion. Yes, TheGlint has more male members than females living in the space. Yes, it was the 21st birthday of two Thiel Fellows who were celebrating it with their friends and mentors. Yes, it turned out that a reporter from Business Insider was there due to some complicated scheduling issues and our trusting natures. Yet what she wrote about is absolutely not what TheGlint is about.

The truth is that TheGlint is a live-work community that accelerates the creation and creators of value through design, philosophy, the arts & sciences, technology and entrepreneurship. It aspires to shift the conception of heroism from historical warrior ideals to a new paradigm of creativity, collaboration and innovation. It is actually the polar opposite of a “frat house.”

It is easy for people to gloss over a beautiful idea or concept and see only what seems to be on the surface. We accept this and, truth is, the burden is upon us to prove to the world that we are much more than what the article painted TheGlint to be.

We talk about accelerating creation and creators of value through arts & sciences. Last night we were lucky to have Reichart Von Wolfsheild, host of invention USA to talk about his experiences as an entrepreneur and inventor. In it, he outlined some valuable lessons that shifted people’s thinking and perspective towards their own companies and products. Along side Reichart, David Asprey give a talk on bio-hacking, what it means to be healthier and using technology to hack the way your body works. This fascinated the entrepreneurs in the room because everyone wants to know how to feel good after only two hours of sleep.

While all these talks and events happen at TheGlint, the guests - who include designers, artists, entrepreneurs, engineers and scientists - enjoy the art we have in our space. We have an art gallery that we’re building with partners like GetArtUp and DesignersCouch. An art gallery that we want to make the home for digital art around the world because we feel it’s an art form that doesn’t have a physical place like traditional art.

The point being made here is that when someone from the press isn’t here pointing cameras and creating an out-of-context story line, great things are already happening at TheGlint, something which, by the way, just launched on December 1st. These are inspiring talks and events that aren’t one-dimensional, aren’t just about tech entrepreneurship and are curated in a creative, artistic, and positive environment.

Indeed we have Thiel Fellows at TheGlint, but while the article makes it seem like the lowest common denominator of a college experience, these young adults are brilliant and have conversations that many, including myself, can’t even believe. Whether you believe in what Peter Thiel is doing or not should not and cannot take away from the brilliance of these kids, who work hard every single day. But as we all know, people love to focus on the unguarded moments we have.

It’s well worth noting that TheGlint is not only comprised of Thiel Fellows. We have other entrepreneurs from other parts of the USA and internationally, all working on their vision, their dreams and a legacy that we hope will impact the world. This article wasn’t just a disservice to TheGlint and the global brand we’re building but, more importantly, to the entrepreneurs who are a part of it.

We understand your frustrations with and reactions to his article. We understand the comments regarding the lack of women living at TheGlint, which we’ve addressed here. But for the naysayers, for the people who love to tear others down at every chance they get, we invite you to keep doing what you’re doing. It’s exactly what we need to drive us to improve every day.

One last thing. We all have to pay the landlord. No one lives here for free, including the founders. In the upcoming weeks, TheGlint intends on releasing all of its financials to the public. We also intend on being far less naive in the future, which includes being careful about inviting over journalists who claim the best of intentions.

Thank You
TheGlint.

Where Are All the Women at TheGlint

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:37:20 -0500

TheGlint prides itself on being this diverse, multi-dimensional, creative co-working space in San Francisco yet there are no women? We have people from all parts of the world, all ethnicity in various disciplines. That’s our goal. But again… were are all the women?

Here’s an explanation… not an excuse.

We’d like everyone to understand TheGlint was conceived within three weeks: signing the lease, getting the residents, furnishing and further developing the concept of TheGlint.. To get everything up and running, we couldn’t be as selective about our residents. It turns out most of the people close to us who was going to take this risk with us were males.

So yes, there’s bit of a frat vibe happening in the space that we’re aware of. Considering what TheGlint is, we want nothing more than to tip the scale to balance the sexes. We want nothing more than to represent that there are women entrepreneurs and innovators out there.

What’s been further hindering it is that TheGlint is a shared space, including your bedroom. It’s tough to get females who are willing to bunk with four other guys. It’s a tough sell to most females but the truth is, we haven’t been running into as much females to sell them this idea.

However, we are making strides. Chelsea Rustrum, co-author of One Couch At A Time, loves the idea so much that she decided to bunk with us for 1mth to see what TheGlint is about and how she’d like to be part of it. Best part, she’s NOT a girlfriend so we hope this is testimony to our efforts to bring female entrepreneurs on board.

We even had Hushpreet Dhaliwal, CEO of Nucue, bunked two nights with us in the guest space. This shows some women are capable of sharing such space.

We want diversity in ethnicity, nationality, disciplines and gender. If you think about it, it’s ambitious to be diverse in all these areas but rest assure, TheGlint will achieve it with the support of our community.

Shopping for TheGlint

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 06:30:28 -0500

Shopping…

IKEA turned out to be a real friend. We managed to find decent quality furnitures and affordable prices that were well designed. Durability and strength will come into question at times but they definitely make a space look good. We got what we could afford.

These are some pictures of some fun times while buying the bunk beds you’re most likely to sleep on when at TheGlint.

Setting Up…

It was a pain but we, mostly Alexandros, set up the bunk beds. I promise all the screws are in tight.

Completion…

We’re pretty proud of the guest space at TheGlint. It’s the most complete area and outside features an art gallery. It’s clean, smells good - always and our guests are always fun to bunk with.

We hope to see you at TheGlint sometime.

Here’s Daniel pitching his startup, MeetCute to The German...

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 05:29:55 -0500

Here’s Daniel pitching his startup, MeetCute to The German Silicon Valley Accelerator.

TheGlint. A Heroism Accelerator.

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 05:21:06 -0500

TheGlint is a creative, collective space located in the center of San Francisco founded by Charles Lee, Alexandros Pagidas and myself. The house is a seven bedroom house, four stories and located at the top of Twin Peaks, overlooking the city. It’s inspiring, breathtaking and downright gorgeous.

More than a House

The idea of TheGlint is much more than a gorgeous house on a mountain.

Elevator Pitch: A Heroism Accelerator

Some accelerators do aspects of what we’ll be attempting. For example YC. Others built a nice community but they were one-dimensional (Blackbox). TED has done a good job curating amazing people but is a temporary once a year event. Universities have devolved into business bureaucracies. Monasteries have turned their faith and search into dogma. Artistic collectives are creative but unfocused and all over the place hence failing to achieve impact. Hacker spaces cater only to particular types of people and confine themselves to the fringes.

TheGlint is a live-work community that accelerates the creation and creators of value through design, philosophy, the arts & sciences, technology and entrepreneurship. It aspires to shift the conception of heroism from historical warrior ideals to a new paradigm of creativity, collaboration and innovation.

Our tagline is ‘redesigning heroism’ which is at the core of what we want to do. The definition of hero is quite broad and even subjective because it can be someone who save lives, who creates beautiful products or captivating artwork that evokes emotions. We seek to discover heroes in every dimension and our belief is that this cannot be done individually but collectively. As a community of extraordinary individuals, TheGlint will accelerate heroes through inspiration, feedback and motivation.

There is nothing wrong with financial freedom being one of your motives; we all need some resources to survive and few would doubt that extra resources, under the right skills and vision, can help everyone flourish. Steve Jobs once said, entrepreneurs are those who builds lasting companies, the HPs, Intels and Apples of our time. I disagree, what Steve speaks of are modern day heroes.

Our challenge, in order to accomplish our mission, is to discover ways where aspiring visionaries can create value and lasting legacies, not just for themselves but for the next generation. In doing so, we discover and or create heroes.

Based on this premise, TheGlint will very much be experimental. We will explore ways to overlay art, entrepreneurship, engineering, robotics, science and philosophy. There is no limit to our creativity and nothing is outside our scope of exploration providing it helps us discover passions, purpose and value. This is what will make TheGlint unique because achieving a single element in any individual is beyond measure. We do this, not through organized but a disorganized structure.

TheGlint will consist of its core residents who live and work in the space focusing on their own projects while part-taking in, voluntarily, in projects and events of TheGlint. These residents are the driving force of the community who will help cultivate each other and our guests. Our guests will be entrepreneurs, designers, artists, inventors and visionaries who align with our purpose and community. Guests stay at the house for a period of two weeks as they either visit from within the US or from all over the world.

We’ve carefully spent two gruelling weeks putting together what we feel is the best start to a community of this calibre. Every individual was carefully considered because of the value they bring to the community. These individuals are as follow:

StartupGenome: Max Marmer, Bjoern Herrmann, Ertan Dogrultan
Thiel Fellows: Alexander Kiselev, Tom Currier, John Burnham, Jeff Lim
Founders: Charles Lee, Alexandros Pagidas, Damian Madray
And others: Aleksandra Markova

These individuals are incredibly excited about our vision and have all been actively thinking about their own contributions. Alexander Kiselev already has his own idea on an art piece – he’s an engineer. The mere fact that that he’s already thinking on the subject of art shows the potential of what TheGlint will encourage.

I have several artistic ideas that will closely integrate DesignersCouch with TheGlint. Alexandros has an interesting concept around Philosophy.