[djrogers]

Welcome to HN.

Couple of thoughts; first, it’s kinda weird for you to introduce yourself as a ‘founder’ - I’ve been around developers and real estate all my life, and I’ve never heard anyone use that term to describe what they do. Makes me wonder if you see this as more of a housing subscription service than a community?

Which leads to my second thought - what’s the thought process behind this being a rental-only thing? Are there any accommodations for families? Your website doesn’t appear to address kids or families of more than 2 people at all. Without ownership and family support, this really feels like a place nobody will be invested in making their home.

Third, how do you plan to deal with the inherent monopolies you’re building to avoid a ‘company town’ situation? For example, if residents are not allowed cars and are mostly stuck with your handpicked grocery store and restaurants, what will keep those establishments from just slacking off on service and overcharging?

Thanks for stopping by!

[dickfickling]

Not sure if you saw this, but Culdesac is a YC company (S18), which probably explains the “founder” nomenclature.

[tomaskafka]

Wow, thank you for the questions! At first I thought “awesome, America is learning livable towns”, but living as a captive customer of a rent-only company town sounds like dystopian hell. Sigh.

[ngoel36]

@djrogers -- Ryan was also on the founding team of OpenDoor. I can promise you Steve Ross, Michael Fuchs, Steven Roth, and Jerry Speyer all describe themselves as founders. The greatest leaders in real estate do, because they have innovated to build something people want. And Culdesac is very much a startup.

[pottertheotter]

As someone who has worked in both the tech startup world and as an institutional investor, I’m with @djrogers that it comes off weird. When I first read Ryan’s comment, I thought “ick, what a weird thing to call yourself a founder of a development.” I think the problem is the messaging—there is Culdesac the company and Culdesac Tempe the development, but for someone looking at this for the first time, it’s not clear that there are two entities. So it sounds like Ryan is saying he’s the founder of a development.

I spent a number of years as an institutional investor, and the people you mentioned would say they are founders of funds, firms, companies, etc., but they would say that they were the developer of something like Culdesac Tempe.