Cabin Labs 2025 Roadmap Planning Kickoff

[jon]

Outline

Looking Back

• The Four Eras
• It Takes a Village
• Burn the Ships

Looking Forward

• 5 Year Goal
• Fall 2024 Plan
• 2025 Roadmap

Looking Back

The Four Eras

Cabin has been on quite the journey over the past 5 years. We’ve built over a dozen products, designed for an evolving type of core community member over time:

In our first era, from 2020-2021, we designed for Creators. Cabin was originally called Creator Cabins and the group that came together to form it was called the Creator Coop. When the Creator Coop came out to Creator Cabins in May of 2021, Cabin DAO was born to fund creator residencies onsite.

From late 2021 to late 2022, Cabin’s core customer was other DAOs. The 2021 bull market had created hundreds of DAOs with treasuries to spend, and we became a major service provider for the DAO ecosystem. We launched a series of gatherings for DAO contributors: operator residencies, retreats, and DAO Camp. We built a media brand around DAO content, including a publication, podcast, and Hacker News for DAOs. And we developed DAO tools, including an onchain and physical passport system for network societies.

The market changed with the Luna collapse in mid 2022, but FTX in late 2022 left the DAO landscape as scorched earth. We needed to refocus, so we drastically cut down our team of DAO contributors and searched for a new market. There had been some similarities about a lot of the DAO operators showing up at Cabin: we were nomadic, worked remotely, and liked being out in nature.

From late 2022 to early 2024, we focused on building neighborhoods for Nomads in nature. Our community coalesced around an initial set of values: colive, create, conserve. As an MVP, we operated coliving experiences in Texas, Portugal, Greece, the Eastern Sierra, Puerto Rico, the Azores, and other locations around the world.

As it became clear there was strong interest from the community for nomadic coliving, we spent the bear market building and launching our network city for nomads: 25 properties around the world for continuous coliving in nature. While the initial launch was a success, a coliving network was a challenging business to build.

In the post-pandemic era, there had been a huge tailwind of digital nomads that wanted to live remotely with people from the internet. But, by late 2023, it became clear that the market for nomadic coliving was shrinking as people settled down and returned to in-person jobs. Since then, this intuition has been been confirmed as Selina and Common, the two major players of the nomadic coliving market, now face bankruptcy.

We wrapped up the First Fellowship in late 2023 and then spent the first part of 2024 exploring a wide range of new markets: Clubhouse, Network Citizens, and The Neighborhood for Families.

First, we built Supper Clubs to test out local community engagement, and hundreds of people participated around the world, in places like Bangalore, Costa Rica, Boston, Dubai, London, Sofia, the Eastern Sierra, Amsterdam, Puerto Rico, and more. This gave us clarity that local in-person communities in places where people already live was the right direction.

Next, we tried to grow Citizenship as a subscription product to develop a business model for the local clubs, but failed to find PMF. In parallel, we tried to convert existing rural neighborhoods into third space Clubhouses, but found that the rural setting made this difficult.

For the Spring season, we decided to refocus on building deeper communities in places where people already lived: Cabin Labs - Spring 2024. We launched the Neighborhood Accelerator, and by the end of the season it became clear that the accelerator program was the most effective way to grow Cabin neighborhoods—and the core community persona driving this was Neighborhoods for Families.

It Takes a Village

As part of entering this Fourth Era, we recently updated our Obvious Truths to reflect the importance of families to Cabin’s vision:

1. Live Near Friends
2. It Takes a Village
3. Touch Grass

People often say that it takes a village to raise kids—but it also takes kids to raise a village. We believe Cabin neighborhoods can only be successful in the long-run if they are intergenerational. This does not mean that we are only building for families, or that we think everyone should have kids. But it does mean that we want Cabin neighborhoods to be the kinds of places where you’d want to grow up.

Grin and I have both experienced the need for neighborhoods for families personally. Having a kid last year completely changed my perspective on parenthood. Like most parents, it’s already been one of the hardest and most rewarding things I’ve done, and it solidified the crucial importance of raising kids in a community.

We have been inspired by parents like Bethany and Kathi in the current Neighborhood Accelerator cohort, and by visiting Ojai earlier this year and seeing the chosen family being built there by Matai and Zoya. We’ve also heard a clear desire for family-friendly neighborhoods from many future potential parents, like Savannah/Jon Bo and Cam/Shirah.

This feels like the natural evolution of Cabin’s vision. In mid 2022, when we originally decided to focus on Nomads, we actually considered Families instead. However, at the time, we didn’t have any parents on the team, so it was hard to understand how to build for them. Now, the contributor team has several parents, and it’s increasingly clear that the broader market wants environments for families.

Here’s the full excerpt of our the “It Takes a Village” Obvious Truth:

@jon

It Takes a Village

It takes a village to raise kids, and it also takes kids to raise a village. The only way to build a community with resilience and longevity is by designing for intergenerational living. We don’t think everyone should have kids, but we do believe everyone should be a part of raising them.

Everyone benefits from this way of living:

• For young parents, it is extremely difficult to raise kids alone in modern society. It’s lonely, expensive, and stressful—which explains why fertility rates are plummeting across the world.
• Older adults living in age-segregated communities often experience loneliness and isolation.
• Children benefit from the presence of multiple generations, gaining diverse role models and learning opportunities. For instance, older adults can offer childcare and mentorship, while younger residents can assist with technology or physical tasks.
• People without kids can be involved in the lives of friends who are parents and those parent’s kids, without needing to have kids themselves.

If you want a community to grow and last over time, it needs kids to carry to torch of the culture forward, and to make it their own. Intergenerational neighborhoods can become inclusive, dynamic, supportive communities that can thrive across generations.

Burn the Ships

Each of these transitions—from Creators to DAOs to Nomads to Families—required Cabin to “Burn the Ships” of our past and collectively reorient towards a new future. Starting in our Cabin Labs Spring 2024 Roadmap, we decided to stop investing in:

• Operating rural coliving for nomads
• Conference side events & housing
• Citizenship as a standalone subscription product
• Outposts that were not operating as neighborhoods
• Crypto-centric onboarding
• Supper Clubs as funded one-off gatherings

Based on the progress we’ve seen over the last season, we believe this was the right decision, and now intend to more formally “Burn the Ships” by ending all of the above initiatives, focusing on Families, and going all in our neighborhood building via the Neighborhood Accelerator program.

Looking Forward

5 Year Goal: 500 Neighborhoods

Cabin is building a network city of modern villages: a global network of neighborhoods where you’d want to grow up. Our neighborhoods are existing places where we build social and physical infrastructure for resilient communities. A neighborhood is a walkable area where we live near each other and practice Cabin’s Obvious Truths.

Neighborhoods—whether they are urban, suburban, or rural—have always been the most important unit of our network city. After removing outposts, there are now a dozen neighborhoods around the world in the City Directory:

In the next 5 years, we intend to grow to 500 neighborhoods. These neighborhoods will be long-term intergenerational living communities aligned around Cabin’s Obvious Truths. The goal of 500 neighborhoods seems achievable—using some very basic math, if we run 4 cohorts per year with 25 stewards for 5 years, we will have 500 neighborhoods go through the accelerator program.

This doesn’t account for other factors like program growth and retention, so here’s a slightly more complicated model that shows the accelerator program with 10% growth per cohort, a 70% graduation rate, and 30% long term retention. Under this model, we could build 103 retained neighborhoods in the next 3 years:(Neighborhood growth model - Google Sheets). Increasing this retention rate will be key to success:

Fall 2024

For the Fall, Cabin Labs is planning to focus on two main goals to take steps towards this longer term vision:

1. We run a neighborhood accelerator program to help people turn their neighbors into friends and their friends into neighbors.
   Goals of the accelerator:
   1. Form and grow 20 new neighborhoods
   2. Create a growth loop of neighborhood content
2. We run a directory that connects people who want to live in community with neighborhoods looking for aligned community members to move in.
   Goals of the app:
   1. Show people the existing network of neighborhoods
   2. Connect people to others near them
   3. Encourage people to form new neighborhoods
   5. Help them with tools to coordinate local collective action

2025 Roadmap

This post is intended to be the opening of a discussion about Cabin Lab’s Roadmap over the next year. As we look towards 2025, it’s time to start answering questions like:

• How can we grow towards 500 neighborhoods?
• What should we do to foster intergenerational neighborhoods?
• What do you think we should focus on?
• What business models should we pursue to make Cabin financially sustainable?

Share your thoughts below!

[KathiInPorto]

Thank you for your post, @jon !

I think re of the 100 neighborhoods is slow or fast it’s always a matter of what counts as a neighborhood… what’s the minimum threshold to be considered a cabin neighborhood. I’ve been wondering that for a while…
And what do we measure it in?

• People who are part of the neighborhood? (When are people part of a neighborhood? Which level of engagement counts?)
• number of events hosted?
• the existence of third spaces?

If every steward in the accelerator adds 1 neighborhood to the network then of course it could be way sooner… but I doubt that every neighborhood that’s being started right now will make it to a decent size and sustainable growth over the next 10 years…

I think having some clarity on what’s a cabin neighborhood and what’s not, would be of great help…

Also a possible criteria: does everyone in the cabin neighborhood know that they are in a CABIN neighborhood and has opted in to being part of this network?

[Dahveed]

Thank you Jon for putting this together (and thanks to everyone in the core team for putting so much thought, energy, and play into Cain all these years, y’all are heroes).

Some feedback thoughts from my perspective.

1. Surprised how much of the early history of Cabin I didn’t know — some really cool initiatives. I get how burning the ships keeps us more focused and lean, but do wonder if full-stop cutting support for everything serves Cabin’s growht plans. For example, I personally would never even hear about Cabin if not for the ETH Denver side-event. Creator Residences could be a version of a third space in those neighborhoods catering to creatives (relevant to my neighborhood, too). And Supper Clubs could be a great lead magnet too.

2. I get the focus on families for the sake of multigenerationalism and longevity of neighborhoods. At the same time, it pushes me away, as well as others who want to focus on adult relationships.

3. The chart. I’m actually with Jon on 100 neighborhoods in 3 years being very fast growth. The numbers, though. 30% long-term retention feels very low. As in, if those are the projections, we should put a lot of effort into raising that number. Just like in any business retaining customer is cheaper and more valuable than chasing new ones. Would love to see the graduation rate above 80% but get that attrition happens. The cohort growth numbers are very ambitious in the sense of “can Cabin handle that?” I’m assuming Savannah will have help, but still it’s a lot. We’ve had some great discussions about deepening the cohort experience (peers, more personalized mentoring, visiting stewards, etc.). But all of that needs to be tested. I love being ambitious as long as it’s not at the expense of quality.

To that end, I’d love to see some thought put into strengthening the neighborhoods that are already going through the cohorts. Anything and everything to raise that 30% long-term retention to at least 70%. This could include finding at least one other steward for each neighborhood, helping it share spaces and resources, setting up local budgets and currencies, etc. IMHO, I’d rather see 10% cohort size growth and 90% retention.

4. Love the growth loop of neighborhood content.

5. Would love to see/brainstorm more on top-of-funnel activities, possibly by repurposing some of those burned ships.

[Dahveed]

Very sharp questions!

For me personally, I’d consider my neighborhood “Cabin-worthy” as long as it has

1. At least one regular event (weekly, monthly — no less frequent)
2. Core group of friends within a 15-minute distance who hang out regularly
3. Intentional social engagement with the neighbors, such as opening up events to neighbors, neighbor-led events,
4. Placemaking efforts (fixing, cleaning, improving, re-imagining of shared and public spaces or opening up own spaces to others)

What am I forgetting?

As far as “Also a possible criteria: does everyone in the cabin neighborhood know that they are in a CABIN neighborhood and has opted in to being part of this network?”

I’m more on the side of “no” in the sense that it adds unnecessary complexity. The stewards and those most actively helping them should know, absolutely. Those interested in any aspect of the Network City should know. Others, probably not. I am in favor of putting out lots of content; talking about Cabin and its values during some events, especially when there are people present who haven’t heard about Cabin; having some branded art (i.e. Cabin logo) in shared spaces, steward’s homes, etc.

But generally, I want people to be curious about Cabin and ask rather than us talking about Cabin like we’re Jehova’s Witnesses (which, thankfully, I haven’t seen).

[KathiInPorto]

It’s interesting to read that the focus on families excludes you. I’ve actually never looked at your neighborhood that way, but it’s true… you’re not focusing on families or creating your community with the goal of raising kids there. At least as far as I know. But at the same time you’re one of the most active people in Cabin. So I think it’s very very important to get curious there and see what attracts you to Cabin and what you see aligns with your neighborhood ambitions. Cause I think it would be awful to loose people like you (and you specifically) just by having that focus on families…

So also worthwhile discussing; how would neighborhoods like yours fit into Cabin if the obvious truth of “it takes a village” is not relevant to you.

In my case I think the “we touch grass” part is lacking. I mean I agree that it’s important to touch grass aaand: our neighborhood does not have a tooon of grass that is actually great for touching… so I am not touching a lot of grass and spending time outside in nature…. (Though that gives me an idea of events to host… a phone free hang out in the park….)

@savkruger @grin
I think those questions might be very relevant if you design a “questionnaire “ for new neighborhoods that get added to the directory!
Every steward could for example answer questions about their perspective on the obvious truths and how they apply to their neighborhood.

[KathiInPorto]

Also: I agree with the thoughts about burning ships.
I think there were so so many awesome things in Cabins past that could get integrated and adjusted to fit the new direction. Might be worthwhile to go through them and see which of the things we learned could help us now! Still loving build weeks, creator residencies, supper clubs…(even if I’ve never been to any of them.)
Cabin definitely gained a lot of knowledge about how to run events. And about placemaking. And about third spaces…
How can we make use of that knowledge?

First thoughts…

I would love to see a third space in every neighborhood that checks all the boxes of obvious truths…
A place for families, a place with grass (aka a garden) and a place where friends can live… a house with plenty of hang out spaces on the ground floor… maybe a cafe with playground… a communal garden in the back and a couple short term rental apartments for friends who consider moving into the area …
I have no idea how to get something like this off the ground but I bet there are people in here that know at least part of it.
How can I find them? How can cabin make it easy for me to find them and get the support I need to start something like that?

By the way: things like that would make membership worthwhile for me… whereas 7days of free stay at N0 was just not compelling enough for me to sign up…
I do think having access to the right people and the right knowledge has a ton of value if you wanna build a community from scratch.

And with that… good night for now.

[Dahveed]

When brainstorming the accelerator landing page, we came up with more inclusive language about “it takes a village” – but I forgot what it was. I’m attracted by bringing my friends to live close enough to interact regularly, eating dinner weekly, hosting and going to events, getting the neighborhood more connected and engaged in self-improvement/placemaking. I’m attracted by have a global network city of engaged neighborhoods with strong connections and fun rituals. I love the idea of flying into Porto and visiting your neighborhood’s events. Or to do a West Coast tour of Cabin neighborhoods. I’m excited by brainstorming accelerator improvements, marketing initiatives, content creation, and the fundamental things like vision, roadmap, etc.

Playing with Cabineighbors is FUN. I feel engaged, appreciated, and, of course, accepted. But language is tricky, and the current formulation (work in progress, I’m sure) does feel exclusionary. And I’m 100% in. But imagine people who are just hearing about Cabin and have no interest in raising anyone’s kids (or being unsure) reading this:

“We don’t think everyone should have kids, but we do believe everyone should be a part of raising them.”

I can see the good intention in this. But “everyone” and “should” are red flags.

With touching grass, same here — not core for my neighborhood so far, especially with very few green spaces in it. But with hiking trails around the mountains, the beach, dog parks, small parks just outside the neighborhood, etc., there is enough interest in “touching grass” even if it’s outside the neighborhood itself.

[KathiInPorto]

@jon

• How can we grow towards 100 neighborhoods?

• What should we do to foster intergenerational neighborhoods?

• What do you think we should focus on?

• What business models should we pursue to make Cabin financially sustainable?

Growing towards 100 neighborhoods…

• get stewards to help others in their own city to turn their neighborhoods into Cabin-neighborhoods.
• Also: people on the ground could go visit already existing communities nearby and pitch the network to them… the pitch just needs to be clear and good and for that we need to get very clear on what the benefits are of being part of the cabin network. Or attend gatherings like “gathering of the tribes”
• Host gatherings in countries with already existing neighborhoods (they have the blueprint for how to build in their country) and invite people from different cities to it… could be residency style or could be a conference/unconference about network state/ DAO/Community relevant topics.

Fostering intergenerational communities:

• create third spaces like social clubs (my fav: the Den Denver: https://www.thedendenver.com/) that invite families, aspiring families and elderly people.

• connect people without kids who in the future want their own with parents and have them share their knowledge (and their kids), so that they can get experienced in childcare

• good places to start: connect with the doulas in your city… they at least can connect pregnant people with families…

• for the older generations there could be something like storytelling nights where they are invited to share their wisdom with younger people… Or older people could volunteer to become chosen grandparents…

• gardening together could also be a good activity for all generations…

• What do you think we should focus on?

• bringing the online community together again so we can find answers to all the big questions together. More engagement, more small experiments, more play, more fun, more meaning

What business model:

• I don’t have an answer. But what about having brainstorming sessions with the community??? Make them inviting and see how many people actually wanna figure this out together.
• Then narrow the brainstorm down to the 5 most promising options
• Then build teams that explore those options in depth…

Wondering if Cabin has to have one source of income or if it could be multiple ones…like “how could we make some money by doing what serves the community best from where we are at right now??” And then keep asking this question…

Some ideas I’ll throw in the brainstorming pot:

An app that serves neighborhood residents:

• allows people to see who lives in their neighborhood with fun profiles and a way to get in touch with them.
• Has an events section potentially even with automated flyer design as soon as you create a new event
• Has a marketplace to sell or swap your stuff (especially interesting for parents to know whom they can hand down their kids’ clothes and toys)
• Has a tools/skills library where you can see who has a power tool or a skill that you need
• Potentially includes a way to share cars
• Has emergency information and contacts

Another app that connects neighborhood stewards of different neighborhoods with each other (aka the directory) so they can learn from each other, contact each other, visit each other and so Cabin can attract new stewards.

[jon]

Great points, @Dahveed. I think you’re right that we should aim for higher retention vs. cohort participant growth. I was trying to be conservative on retention because we haven’t yet seen what the actuals will look like, and neighborhood building is an inherently long and slow process—but I think you’re right that higher retention will result in better long term outcomes than focusing on growing cohort sizes.

[jon]

This is helpful feedback, thank you! We are working on another set of edits to the Obvious Truth language based on community feedback & discussions at the retreat.

We changed it from “Raise Kids Together” to “It Takes a Village” to address some of this feedback. This is additional helpful feedback I’ll incorporate into the next round of edits:

@Dahveed

“We don’t think everyone should have kids, but we do believe everyone should be a part of raising them.”

I can see the good intention in this. But “everyone” and “should” are red flags.

[jon]

thanks for sharing these ideas!

@KathiInPorto

An app that serves neighborhood residents:

• allows people to see who lives in their neighborhood with fun profiles and a way to get in touch with them.
• Has an events section potentially even with automated flyer design as soon as you create a new event
• Has a marketplace to sell or swap your stuff (especially interesting for parents to know whom they can hand down their kids’ clothes and toys)
• Has a tools/skills library where you can see who has a power tool or a skill that you need
• Potentially includes a way to share cars
• Has emergency information and contacts

Yes, I agree, I think there is a lot of potential in neighborhood software tools we can help build as the network grows. It’s usually best with these kinds of things to do hacky manual version first, and then as they break, we can figure out which ones are being used and need to be built/automated/improved with software.

[Dahveed]

A friend of mine is developing something like that. It needs time for MVP to go through the iOS and Google Play stores and onboard the first batch of users first, so I’m not pressing her on the things we need for Cabin — but she gets it in principle. Not saying it’s definitely the right fit, but I’ll keep an eye on it and try to incorporate it into my neighborhood’s experiments as a test for wider Cabin fit.