[dahdum]

Roam.co is essentially out of business, but having spent several weeks in their Tokyo property it was a great experience. Always someone around to chat or eat with.

Tokyo has a large number of Sharehouses built and managed by the full stack businesses the author mentions (along with smaller co-op styles). Roam Tokyo rented a floor of a sharehouse building which had regular tenants, coworking space, conference rooms, and a large commercial style kitchen.

The model definitely works well enough in Japan, including many with a mix of natives and expats.

[brunooo]

Hey, Roam founder here - we’re actually just switching our business model from fake tech company to a more equitable real-estate approach and thus phasing out unsustainable leases. More on that more publicly in about 1-2 months. Thanks for living with us in Tokyo and the kind words tough!

[dahdum]

Hi Bruno, I wish you the best. I’m going back to Japan for a couple months this winter and going to miss the Roam experience so much. Most sharehouses don’t do 2-3 months.

Both the community managers were fantastic. Looking forward to see your new business model!

[brunooo]

Thank you, truly appreciated. Both Marika, and I assume Krystal, are incredible humans.

The WhatsApp group is still going strong, so at least there’s an informal Roam for the time being - Marika is working on a coworking space at the moment, so there should be a home no matter where you end up this winter.

And yes, looking forward as well, thanks again!

[astrofinch]

What issues did Roam.co run into?

[brunooo]

Mostly supply side, with leases in major cities (hi WeWork!) already inflated because of organic distortions well described in https://medium.com/@sbuss/software-was-eating-the-world-now-... - on top of that just even more excess money in the system propping up too many companies looking for similar buildings and a lot of pressure to buy revenue.

The offering itself, the experience the team provided and the way the spaces where designed, not only aesthetically but also functionally, definitely works. Especially in addressing the issues in the original post.

The way forward for us is developing and owning our own locations together with customers, neighbors, service providers etc, and that in unusual but really interesting locations (think Kigali, Bethlehem, Kathmandu), with a foundation on top developing a common infrastructure for procurement, payments, customer service etc.

[astrofinch]

>The way forward for us is developing and owning our own locations together with customers, neighbors, service providers etc, and that in unusual but really interesting locations (think Kigali, Bethlehem, Kathmandu), with a foundation on top developing a common infrastructure for procurement, payments, customer service etc.

Nice. I like the idea of cohousing in undiscovered interesting places.