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<ul class="summary-list"><li>Steve Martocci, cofounder of GroupMe, Blade, and Splice, is back with a new consumer health app.</li><li>His startup, SuppCo, helps people find trusted supplements and track their health progress.</li></ul><p>When Steve Martocci was still living in New York, the then-29-year-old GroupMe cofounder wanted to plan a date at the ultra-exclusive speakeasy Please Don't Tell.</p><p>Getting a reservation at Please Don't Tell was no easy feat. New Yorkers hoping to sip cocktails at the East Village joint hidden behind a phone booth had to call right as the bar opened, and beat out the others doing the same, for any chance at a table.</p><p>Martocci decided to solve his problem with code. He wrote a script that created dozens of phone numbers to call the bar's reception and then converge those lines into a conference call when an employee picked up one of the calls. His plan worked — he got the reservation, and then shared the application around to his friends for good measure.</p><p>"I only work on things that I really want to exist," he laughed.</p><p>It's the same approach he's applied to the past three companies he's started: GroupMe, Blade, and Splice. GroupMe, which he built in TechCrunch Disrupt's 24-hour hackathon, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-groupme">sold to Skype</a> a year after its creation for $85 million when Martocci was 27. His second company, music production platform Splice, where Martocci <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/starting-up-interview-steve-martocci-founder-of-groupme-blade-splice-2020-5">spent eight years as CEO</a>, has raised $160 million in venture capital, according to PitchBook. He also helped build the helicopter taxi company Blade, which <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://ipo-edge.com/blade-completes-business-combination-becoming-the-first-publicly-traded-urban-air-mobility-company/">went public in 2021.</a></p><p>So when, at a dinner party, Martocci's friend said she'd spent four hours that day organizing her supplements — after Martocci had been struggling with his own health and building up a corresponding supplement routine for years — his wheels started spinning.</p><p>Today, Martocci is unveiling his latest venture: an app that helps people find consumer-trusted supplements, create and manage supplement routines, and track their health progress over time.</p><p>The startup, called SuppCo, just raised a $5.5 million seed round co-led by Union Square Ventures and True Ventures, and including BoxGroup and Compound.</p><p>Martocci and his cofounder, Nick Michlewicz, are tapping into a complex, ever-growing market for dietary add-ins, including everything from Vitamin C to herbs to probiotics. It's a space wrought with criticism and flooded with cash — some estimates value the global dietary supplements market at <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/dietary-supplements-market-report">$180 billion</a> or more.</p><p>Martocci's goal, he told Business Insider, is to help consumers take control of their health. Whether the consumer is a biohacker like <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-bryan-johnson-dont-die-summit-singapore-longevity-health-biohacking-2024-10">Bryan Johnson</a> or your average Joe looking for a health tune-up, Martocci said, "SuppCo is for you."</p><p>Union Square Ventures and True Ventures both previously invested in Splice. True Ventures' Adam D'Augelli called Martocci "one of the best consumer product, zero-to-one founders of the past 20 years."</p><div type="image" title="Three images of SuppCo's app, including a person's individual supplement routine, Thorne's TrustScore, and an analysis score of a person's supplement stack" height="2880" width="3840" msid="114317389" hostid="261" sizebytes="188160"></div><h2 id="0da33132-1098-4cb7-b672-1c52ce43935e"><strong>Building consumer trust</strong></h2><p>Martocci first started taking supplements after GroupMe sold to Skype, when he was struggling with his health and weight. Working with a functional medicine doctor, getting regular lab work, and undergoing plenty of trial-and-error, Martocci began incorporating over a dozen supplements into his daily routine and tracking them all in a spreadsheet.</p><p>The <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.crnusa.org/newsroom/three-quarters-americans-take-dietary-supplements-most-users-agree-they-are-essential">majority of US adults</a> regularly take dietary supplements. But supplements aren't regulated in the US like other drugs are. Companies can start selling supplements often <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.fda.gov/news-events/rumor-control/facts-about-dietary-supplements">without even notifying</a> the Food and Drug Administration, and the onus is on the agency to find and crack down on bad actors already in the market.</p><p>That's where SuppCo's TrustScores come into play. The startup says it's collected data on over 500 popular supplement brands, reviewing over 160,000 products on attributes, including their total ingredient lists and consumer reviews. Martocci said the startup plans to keep adding to those analyses, including by evaluating ingredients added into certain products that aren't the supplements themselves.</p><p>SuppCo cofounder Michlewicz previously cofounded two supplement companies, WellPath and Grummies. His knowledge of the industry was instrumental in designing and researching the TrustScores, Martocci said.</p><div type="image" title="Nick Michlewicz, cofounder of SuppCo." height="1250" width="1667" msid="114317393" hostid="261" sizebytes="226556"></div><p>Martocci is particularly excited about the community aspect of the app. SuppCo wants users to be able to share their routines and health data with their clinicians and connect with other consumers about what's worked for them.</p><p>"People take vitamins and supplements; they've always done that. But there hasn't really been a way to do that with, one, a good database to track what you're doing, and then more importantly, the ability share it and collaborate with other people," said Andy Weissman, managing partner at Union Square Ventures. "That way, you could probably solve a large part if not all of the kind of issues you're discussing, which are, is this good? Has anyone taken this? Is this good for me?"</p><p>In the coming months and years, Martocci said SuppCo plans to use AI to comb through supplement research to strengthen the TrustScores, as well as to work with more experts, including doctors, scientists, and nutritionists.</p><p>Right now, the beta version of SuppCo's app is free to everyone. While Martocci wouldn't disclose the details of how he wants SuppCo to make money, he says his goal is to create a "co-op-like membership model" that rewards the app's users for sticking to healthy habits over time.</p><p>He clarified that SuppCo will never sell its users' data, and won't rely on ad revenue or notch partnerships with supplement companies. Martocci said he sees an opportunity to tap into the massive market with a new model that works with its customers rather than against them.</p><p>"I know there are really unique challenges in health, and there's going to be so much to deal with, but if anyone is prepared — having done what we did in music creation and building an incredible business there on the consumer side — I'm ready. I'm up for the challenge," he said.</p>

Exclusive: The cofounder of GroupMe and Splice is taking on the $180 billion supplement industry with new startup SuppCo

PRNewswire—Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], July 19: <keyword id="1606194" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Aereo" source="Orion">Aereo</keyword>, India's leading <keyword id="22468617" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="drone-based-business-intelligence" source="Orion">drone-based business intelligence</keyword> provider, has successfully closed a <keyword id="22468616" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="USD-15-million" source="Orion">USD 15 million</keyword> <keyword id="1095983" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Series-B-funding" source="Orion">Series B funding</keyword> round led by 360 ONE Asset. The round saw participation from long-standing investors StartupXseed Ventures and Navam Capital.<br /><br />Aereo delivers <keyword id="20829411" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="business-intelligence" source="keywords">business intelligence</keyword> solutions to help manage large capital assets using proprietary drones and an AI-powered data analytics platform. Their sector-specific solutions cater to mining, infrastructure, urban and rural development, land records, and other industries translating into a 400% revenue growth in the last two years and market dominance.<br /><br />Vipul Singh, co-founder and CEO of Aereo, stated, "This funding milestone enables us to expand our <keyword id="22468614" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="aerial-intelligence" source="keywords">aerial intelligence</keyword> solutions for capital asset management. With our proprietary drone tech and 360 ONE Asset's partnership, we aim to revolutionise this $10 billion industry and create a global footprint."<br /><br /><keyword id="22468618" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Suhas-Banshiwala" source="Orion">Suhas Banshiwala</keyword>, co-founder and CTO of Aereo, stated, "Our vision is to continuously innovate drone manufacturing and data analytics for the greater good. We are excited about the confidence our customers and shareholders have shown and are gearing up for an orbital shift."<br /><br />Aereo has been recognised by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) as one of the top three infra-tech organisations. As a technology partner for Coal India Limited's Digicoal initiative, Aereo provides critical business intelligence for some of the world's largest coal mines for improving productivity, efficiency, safety, and environmental compliance. It has also been empanelled with Tata Steel since 2019, aiding the digitalisation of over 27 critical mines and stockyards. Over the past three years, Aereo has achieved significant milestones, including mapping over 45,000 villages under the SVAMITVA scheme and covering more than 50,000 sq. km of land area for the Digital India Land Record Modernisation Program (DILRMP).<br /><br />The Series B investment serves as a powerful catalyst for Aereo's growth, with a key focus on automation. Their AI-powered drone data analytics platform is set to revolutionise automation and digitisation. With strategic partnerships, R&amp;D, and new product development, Aereo is ready to lead the global <keyword id="22468613" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="drone-solutions" source="keywords">drone solutions</keyword> sector.<br /><br />Karan Ahuja, Fund Manager at 360 ONE, remarked, "We're thrilled with the momentum in the <keyword id="22468615" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="commercial-drone" source="keywords">commercial drone</keyword> tech sector in India. Our partnership with Aereo reflects our belief in their cutting-edge innovations, and we're excited for their solutions to go global."<br /><br />Ravi Thakur, Co-Founding Partner at StartupXseed, added, "Aereo has been a trailblazer from the start, delivering exceptional solutions and building the drone ecosystem. We're excited to support them in their next major growth phase."<br />

Aereo, India's leading commercial drone solutions startup, secures USD 15 million in Series B funding round

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Mohammad Alnobani co-founded a tech startup in the West Bank in 2022.</li><li>Six months into the Israeli-Hamas war in nearby Gaza, Alnobani and his cofounder are relocating to escape the conflict.</li></ul><p><em>This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with Mohammad Alnobani, 34, who cofounded "The Middle Frame," a tech startup based in Ramallah, a city in the Palestinian Territories. The following has been edited for length and clarity.</em></p><p>At around 1 a.m. on <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pictures-of-hamas-oct-7-terror-attacks-israeli-homes-photos-2023-11">October 7</a>, I arrived in Amman, Jordan, on the way back to my home in Jerusalem from a trip to Belfast, where I attended the One Young World Summit.</p><p>I met my CTO at the airport; they were traveling to Ramallah, a Palestinian city in the West Bank. We'd decided to travel together to the borders, which opened at 8 a.m.</p><p>We got into a bus that was supposed to move between Jordan and Israel at around 8.30 a.m. Then, we were told they were closing the borders. We started checking the news. I read that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-hamas-chose-attack-israel-now-after-decades-conflict-gaza-2023-10">Hamas got through a fence</a> surrounding Gaza.</p><p>I was nervous as hell — whether you're <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-from-river-to-sea-means-israel-palestine-rashida-tlaib-2023-11">pro-Palestine or pro-Israel</a>, once you hear a major event is happening in the region, you know what's coming next is not going to be good.</p><p>We got off the bus and went back to Amman. We didn't know what to do.</p><h2><strong>I founded a tech startup in Ramallah in 2022</strong></h2><p>I was born in Saudi Arabia but grew up in Jordan. My mom is from Nablus, a city in the West Bank, and my dad grew up in Jerusalem. I moved to Jerusalem at 16 and went to university in Ramallah. After living in Qatar and London, I moved back to Jerusalem in 2019 and set up an advertising agency with my brother in 2020, which I was a part of until January 2022.</p><p>In February 2022, I set up "The Middle Frame," a stock image platform, with my business partner Raya, a photographer I met in Boston during an entrepreneurship fellowship in 2021.</p><p>Raya told me she wanted to build a platform for authentic stock images from<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dubai-economic-jewel-of-the-middle-east-gulf-neighbors-saudi-2024-2"> the Middle East</a> and North Africa.</p><p>I knew where Raya was coming from.<em> </em>Back when I worked in advertising, creatives always struggled to find images that accurately represented local cultures from Arab regions on international platforms like Shutterstock and Getty Images.</p><p>Over 1,800 contributors are signed up on our platform. Photographers upload their own images, which we moderate.</p><h2><strong>The Palestinian startup scene</strong></h2><p>Our business is based in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rami-kashou-palestinian-fashion-designer-homage-clothing-2024-1">Ramallah</a>, where Raya lives. We're both familiar with the city; it's where I went to university, and half of my family lives there. It made sense cost-wise for us to work locally and set up our business there.</p><p>The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/palestinian-tech-industry-struggles-amid-israel-hamas-crossfire-2023-10">Palestinian startup community</a> is very small. I think a lot of people around the world don't know it exists. It's very easy to get into and it felt like a good environment to find our feet.</p><p>I knew there was almost no political and economic stability in the area, but as it was my home country, I felt like I had to try and do my part. If starting a company in Ramallah could benefit the community by creating jobs and further building on the small startup scene there, we wanted to try.</p><p>We wanted to onboard Palestinian team members to give them experience in a tech startup, but we had been struggling to recruit people due to the ongoing conflict.</p><p>Myself and Raya are the only two working full-time for "The Middle Frame," but we have a part-time CTO and web developer who are both Palestinian, as well as six part-timers in Egypt.</p><p>As a stock image platform, we wanted to provide local photographers with passive income from sharing their images.</p><p>We're targeting advertising agencies and media outlets that can download our images, but since the Palestinian population and market are small, we felt there was a limitation on our growth and scalability. Only a handful of companies and publications would be using the images.</p><p>Since the startup community is also small, there aren't as many opportunities to collaborate with other startups or gain knowledge from them. There's only <a target="_blank" href="https://thestartupscene.me/MenaEcosystems/The-Future-of-Palestinian-Startups">one VC</a>, and there aren't any <a target="_blank" href="https://startupgenome.com/ecosystems/palestine">mature startup accelerators</a>.</p><p>We planned to expand into a bigger market eventually.</p><h2><strong>We were determined to keep working despite the uncertainties caused by the conflict</strong></h2><p>During the first week after the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hamas-goal-october-7-attack-israel-gaza-war-2023-11">events of October 7</a>, I was checking the news every day. Waking up was a struggle. People living in Europe and the US invited me to healing circles, but I wasn't ready to talk about the situation yet.</p><p>On October 9, I got on a call with Raya, who was with her family in Ramallah, and our CTO, who was with me in Jordan, to discuss the next steps. We had been running small testing advertising campaigns for "The Middle Frame" and were supposed to start larger campaigns in October, but we decided that, ethically speaking, it didn't feel right. We stopped our advertising efforts until February.</p><p>We took a screenshot of the call as a statement that we will keep working even in the toughest times. When "The Middle Frame" goes through a hard time in the future, we can look back at that screenshot.</p><p>Raya and I talked about the possibility of her moving <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-jordan-egypt-say-no-to-refugees-from-gaza-experts-2023-10">to Jordan</a>, but she said it wouldn't be easy — her kids and husband have their lives in Ramallah — and the conversation didn't go anywhere at the time.</p><p>We're thinking about the people dying and the struggles that our people are facing. Being in the media industry, we're documenting life in the region. It's not easy for us to ignore what's happening.</p><p>We know other startup cofounders from Gaza whose office buildings were bombed and who have officially stopped working. A cofounder who I met in Jordan just last year was killed — it was the toughest news I'd ever received in my life.</p><h2><strong>We're now planning to relocate to the UAE</strong></h2><p>During Israel's war on Gaza that followed the October 7 attack, the whole Palestinian economy faced the consequences. Middle Frame sales had halted completely in the area.</p><p>Due to the situation, I've been on the road travelling. Since October, I've been in Egypt, Dubai, Jerusalem and Ramallah. I was in Jordan until the end of January, and we initially decided to focus our efforts on the Jordanian market. I met with potential clients, like advertising and news agencies, and pitched to potential investors.</p><p>We don't know what the future holds. We took a risk by operating in Ramallah for nearly two years, but we knew we should acknowledge that there was no more room for growth and no longer risk our investors' money in a market filled with uncertainty.</p><p>Recently, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/settler-violence-against-palestinians-west-bank-rights-group-2023-11">Israeli settler attacks</a> in the West Bank have been very frequent. In mid-April, I was returning from a wedding and got stuck in a village for hours because the settlers were blocking the road. That was the same night <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/iran-israel-drone-strike-biden-administration-strategic-weakness-2024-4">Iran fired on Israel</a>; it really hit me that we can't stay here.</p><p>We've been discussing whether we're willing to relocate. We know that the<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/saudi-arabia-vs-uae-middle-east-economic-power-supremacy-dubai-2023-9"> UAE and Saudi Arabia</a> are bigger markets, and we think the UAE — where I believe there's a very diverse business market — would be the best place for us to go.</p><p>We're waiting on news from a local investor, but Raya, our CTO, and I hope to relocate at the end of this year. Luckily, Raya's husband is understanding and open to moving.</p><h2>We hope to return in the future</h2><p>If I had started "The Middle Frame" anywhere else, we might have been able to grow faster and raise more investments, but I don't regret what we did.</p><p>In the future, when our business is stable in a different market, we could maybe have a smaller operation in the Palestinian market.</p><p>The Palestinian startup ecosystem needs more examples of successful startups in the wider region to support the startups in Palestine and more investment bodies to support the early-stage startups.</p><p>Because the Palestinian startup community is so small, we've had to get on calls with investors and startup founders from other countries to get support and advice; it's pushed us to make connections internationally and it's made us more resilient.</p><p>However, taking a minute to zoom out and look at the big picture is important. Some days, you wake up to a news story that is painful to see and hear, making your day 10 times harder to work through.</p>

I'm a Palestinian startup founder. I wanted to do my part for my home country, but now we have to leave.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>William Li grew up in a village in rural China without electricity. </li><li>He's co-founded and invested in 40 companies, including premium EV startup Nio.</li></ul><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-xi-jinping-crush-tesla-elon-musk-american-ev-industry-2024-2">China is the world's leading electric vehicle market</a>, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ev-electric-vehicle-china-brands-byd-nio-wuling-zeekr-geely-2023-5">Nio is one of its key players</a>.</p><p>The Shanghai-based premium EV company was co-founded in 2014 by its CEO, William Li.</p><p>William Li, also known as Bin Li, has been dubbed the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chinas-answer-elon-musk-explains-company-take-tesla-2018-5">"Elon Musk of China"</a> for his push to develop self-driving EVs and his loyal fan base. His company's annual "Nio Day" drew crowds of 10,000 Nio owners who came to see the latest vehicle, the ET9, unveiled.</p><p>Here are eight things to know about the CEO of Nio:</p><h2>1. Li grew up on a dairy farm</h2><div type="image" title="William Li onstage in front of an image of the countryside" height="1737" width="2605" msid="108900733" hostid="261" sizebytes="120372"></div><p>Born in 1974, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/tech-design/article/3101572/chinas-elon-musk-billionaire-brains-behind-start-ups">Li grew up on a dairy farm</a> in China's agricultural Anhui province, where his village didn't have electricity until he was in high school.</p><p>He gained entry to one of China's most prestigious universities, Peking University, to study sociology and law. He launched his first company at the age of 21.</p><p>He's since gone on to cofound and invest in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.niocapital.com/en/team/4.html#:~:text=developed%20into%20Dangdang.-,Mr.,the%20internet%20and%20automotive%20industries.">40 companies</a> across the internet and automotive industries — three of these have gone public, per <a target="_blank" href="https://www.ft.com/content/6df9031b-4dca-405d-8165-6983de270e68">the FT</a>, including Bitauto in 2010 and Nio in 2017.</p><p>It's unclear what Li's net worth is — though he's listed as a billionaire in some rankings, he's not currently included on Bloomberg's Billionaires Index.</p><h2>2. He co-founded his first major company in his mid-twenties</h2><p>Bitauto, a car comparison website, was co-founded by Li in 2000. It was his first major success in the market, and went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2010.</p><p>In 2020, it was taken private with a $1.1 billion buyout, and Li resigned as CEO to turn more of his attention to Nio.</p><h2>3. His company is pioneering battery-swapping charging technology</h2><div type="image" title="a Nio car in the Nio battery-swapping station" height="2784" width="4176" msid="108900735" hostid="261" sizebytes="516994"></div><p>Li is distinguishing his company from other EV players like Tesla and BYD with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ev-battery-swapping-china-rescue-us-revolution-2024-2">battery-swapping technology</a>.</p><p>Instead of users plugging in their cars and waiting to charge, they can swap out the dead battery for a fully charged one at a designated station. The process takes just under five minutes.</p><p>To manage costs, customers can buy the car without a battery and then pay a monthly subscription to access the swapping stations. It has more than 2,000 stations around China and around 30 in Europe.</p><p>There's still a while to go to build up the infrastructure of this service and it remains more expensive than regular charging.</p><h2>4. His latest Nio model can shake off snow like a puppy</h2><div type="image" title="Camouflaged Nio ET9 shaking off snow" height="809" width="1442" msid="108900737" hostid="261" sizebytes="47646"></div><p>Nio's new ultra-premium model, the ET9, can independently <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nio-et9-ev-china-skyride-intelligent-chassis-snow-video-2024-2">shake off chunks of snow, clearing the windshield and roof</a>.</p><p>Li also demonstrated the vehicle's stability in a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nio.com/videos/nio-day-2023-a-new-journey">video</a> that showed champagne glasses full of liquid balancing on the front of the car while it drove over bumps.</p><h2>5. Nio cars come with a hefty price tag</h2><div type="image" title="A Nio parked in front of the NYSE" height="3724" width="6503" msid="108900740" hostid="261" sizebytes="930502"></div><p>Nio's premium smart EVs can be more expensive than a Tesla, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/18/nio-says-it-wont-join-the-price-war-and-slash-prices-like-tesla.html">CNBC</a> reported.</p><p>The ET9, which starts shipping in China in 2025, will cost customers $112,000, making it Nio's most expensive car.</p><p>Its mid-size cars, such as the Nio ES7 SUV, are priced at <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ev-electric-vehicle-china-brands-byd-nio-wuling-zeekr-geely-2023-5#2-nio-a-premium-ev-brand-says-it-will-not-join-teslas-price-war-3">around $68,000</a>, a lot pricier than the Tesla's Model Y, which comes in the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-raises-price-model-y-long-range-china-nov-21-2023-11-21/">$40,000 range in China</a>.</p><h2>6. Li's fans can direct message him anytime they want</h2><div type="image" title="William Li at the launch of the NIO phone" height="2427" width="3640" msid="108900742" hostid="261" sizebytes="340364"></div><p>Li wants Nio customers to feel like they're <a target="_blank" href="https://www.ft.com/content/6df9031b-4dca-405d-8165-6983de270e68">members of a club.</a></p><p>Anyone who purchases a Nio car can access <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nio-tesla-of-china-has-swanky-clubhouse-for-car-owners-tour-photos-2018-10">"Nio Houses"</a> equipped with meeting rooms, lounges, baristas, and supervised kids' play areas.</p><p>Last year, the company launched its own <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nio.com/news/NIO_IN_2023">Nio smartphone,</a> which connects to Nio EVs — customers can use the phone to unlock their car, adjust their seat preferences, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/chinese-ev-maker-nio-launches-first-mobile-phone-2023-09-21/">activate the car's self-parking feature.</a></p><p>Nio owners can also directly message Li in the car's app with feedback. This has meant that some senior execs from the company have faced calls from Li in the middle of the night to implement customer suggestions, per the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.ft.com/content/6df9031b-4dca-405d-8165-6983de270e68">FT.</a></p><h2>7. Nio developed a battery that can last for over 649 miles — and Li livestreamed himself trying it out for 14 hours</h2><div type="image" title="William Li" height="1667" width="2500" msid="108900744" hostid="261" sizebytes="196144"></div><p>In December, Li showcased the EV's groundbreaking battery lifespan with a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nio-has-developed-ev-battery-with-a-1-000km-range-2023-12">livestream of his 14-hour car journey</a> from Shanghai to Xiamen — all done on a single battery charge.</p><p>After covering the distance of 1,044 km (649 miles), the NIO ET7 was left with 3% charge.</p><h2>8. To Li's dismay, Nio cars are not yet available for sale in the US</h2><div type="image" title="Nio CEO, William Li with his hand on his head in front of the NIO logo" height="5760" width="8640" msid="108900746" hostid="261" sizebytes="1075200"></div><p>In an <a target="_blank" href="https://www.ft.com/content/8b903ae7-750f-460d-822b-adee7215c528">interview with the FT</a>, Li expressed dissatisfaction with the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-xi-jinping-crush-tesla-elon-musk-american-ev-industry-2024-2">25% tariffs levied against Chinese-made EVs</a> sold in the US.</p><p>He said geopolitical tensions between the US and China shouldn't impact business. Nio already has ties to the US: it's listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and most of its investors come from outside China.</p><p>But some US manufacturing advocacy groups have called for a block on Chinese EVs being imported from their outposts in Mexico as a threat to domestic industry, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/us-should-block-low-cost-chinese-automaker-imports-mexico-says-manufacturers-2024-02-23/">Reuters reported</a>. Elon Musk said that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-tesla-warns-chinese-ev-firms-could-demolish-rivals-2024-1">"Chinese EVs would pretty much demolish"</a> American automakers if allowed to be sold in the US.</p>

8 things you need to know about EV startup founder William Li — known as China's version of Elon Musk 

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Millionaire Marcel LeBrun is building a tiny-home village in Canada, just north of the Maine border.</li><li>It has 78 homes that rent for as little as $200 a month to formerly unhoused people.  </li></ul><p>It's been nearly two years since 12Neighbours, a tiny-home village in Canada, welcomed its first resident.</p><p>The micro-home community in Fredericton, New Brunswick, was founded by Marcel LeBrun, a former tech industry executive who sold his social-media listening startup to Salesforce for about $340 million in 2011.</p><p>LeBrun said he wanted to revolutionize how communities approach housing assistance.</p><div type="image" title="Marcel LeBrun at the 12Neighbours tiny home village." height="644" width="1140" msid="105131573" hostid="261" sizebytes="39044"></div><p>"I thought carefully about what would really help versus what I, a rich white guy, thought was in the best interest of this community," LeBrun told Insider. "Could I build something unique that makes the city better and actually helps people move on, not be stuck in subsidized housing for the rest of their life?"</p><p>The village's 46 staff members work to provide affordable, permanent housing and developmental assistance to individuals who have experienced chronic homelessness.</p><p>The village is currently home to 77 residents — ranging in age from 18 to 71 — who pay as little as $200 a month for housing and utilities. As of November, the community contains 78 tiny homes, with LeBrun intending to increase the count to 99 by May 2024.</p><p>The village currently has a waiting list of 700 people, LeBrun said.</p><p>Residents have access to addiction and mental health counseling, medical services, and employment opportunities.</p><p>A province in southeastern Canada just north across the border from Maine, New Brunswick is known for its rugged coastline, unspoiled wilderness, and maritime industries including fishing and lobstering. Despite a <a target="_blank" href="https://www2.gnb.ca/content/dam/gnb/Departments/fin/pdf/esi/nb-economy-in-review-2022.pdf">relatively strong economy</a>, the Fraser Institute think tank found that a considerable number of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.fraserinstitute.org/article/new-brunswickers-make-less-median-employment-income-than-most-other-canadians">New Brunswick residents earn less</a> than people living in other parts of Canada.</p><p>To help residents progress financially, a significant portion of the community is employed in 12Neighbours' own carpentry program or print shop, earning compensation that surpasses <a target="_blank" href="https://www2.gnb.ca/content/gnb/en/departments/post-secondary_education_training_and_labour/news/news_release.2023.01.0039.html">New Brunswick's minimum wage of $14.75 an hour</a>.</p><p>"We may look like an affordable housing organization, but we really see ourselves as a community of developers of people," LeBrun said. "Our focus is to help people overcome barriers so they can experience full and independent lives."</p><p>Take a look inside the 12Neighbours tiny-home village.</p><h2><strong>12Neighbours sits on 55 acres of land in Fredericton, New Brunswick's capital city.</strong></h2><div type="image" title="12Neighbours tiny home village." height="812" width="1530" msid="105131576" hostid="261" sizebytes="191606"></div><p>LeBrun, who purchased the land for $500,000 in 2021, said he initially had to convince local officials to support his tiny-home project.</p><p>"It was kind of a yes and a no: 'Hey, what you're doing is really cool, but you can't do it here,'" he said of the government's response. "I got them to support rezoning the area in a custom way that allowed me to build on the land."</p><h2><strong>The village is slated to have 99 homes, with 78 already complete and more on the way.</strong></h2><div type="image" title="A row of homes at 12Neighbours tiny home village." height="1095" width="2048" msid="105131578" hostid="261" sizebytes="234032"></div><p>Every four days a new tiny home is built, LeBrun said, and each unit costs about $50,000 to build and furnish.</p><p>Residents at 12Neighbours benefit from subsidized rent, making it more feasible for them to afford housing in a costly real-estate market. According to Canadian personal finance website WOWA, <a target="_blank" href="https://wowa.ca/reports/canada-housing-market">the country's median home price is $288,050</a>, as of September 2023.</p><p>"The housing market in New Brunswick is overpriced," LeBrun added. "It's a seller's market for sure. Everything is going above asking prices."</p><h2><strong>Each tiny home ranges from 240 to 294 square feet and has a kitchen, a bathroom, and a dining room.</strong></h2><div type="image" title="A 12Neighbours tiny home under construction." height="1536" width="2048" msid="105131579" hostid="261" sizebytes="304044"></div><p>The homes are constructed on site by 12Neighbours' building team, which includes both independently hired staff members and residents of the community. Of the village's 20 carpenters, three are community members.</p><p>"My original plan was to outsource to a number of different contractors," LeBrun said. "But then I decided to build a small team. Ultimately, we built our own little factory."</p><h2>The tiny homes come fully furnished.</h2><div type="image" title="The interior of a tiny home with wood walls, white kitchen cabinets, and a bed with flannel sheets." height="3024" width="4032" msid="105131581" hostid="261" sizebytes="795238"></div><p>When residents move into their units, they receive a starter kit, which includes bedding, bath towels, shower curtains, cutlery, cleaning supplies, and more.</p><p>One resident, Randy, went from living in his car to living in the village and also building tiny homes for others.</p><h2><strong>The tiny homes are eco-friendly and equipped with solar panels.</strong></h2><div type="image" title="A 12Neighbours tiny home with solar panels." height="802" width="1368" msid="105131582" hostid="261" sizebytes="157254"></div><p>"I have almost 300 kilowatts of solar across all the homes," LeBrun said. "It brings the utility cost down."</p><h2><strong>The village also has a community garden.</strong></h2><div type="image" title="12Neighbours community garden." height="852" width="1284" msid="105131584" hostid="261" sizebytes="183824"></div><p>Village resident Mark Osborne didn't finish high school, but <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2244850243936">he now lives in one of the tiny homes</a> and is studying for his GED, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Company.</p><h2><strong>Picnic benches are placed throughout the village, providing opportunities for residents to interact and build connections.</strong></h2><div type="image" title="Community members gathered around a picnic table." height="836" width="1418" msid="105131585" hostid="261" sizebytes="214668"></div><p>Samantha Seymour, who is in recovery for drug and alcohol addiction and was formerly homeless, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/12-neighbours-tiny-homes-goal-1.6975817">moved into 12Neighbours in October 2022</a>, according to the CBC. She received a pumpkin as a housewarming present.</p><p>"I have a great support system around me," she told the CBC, "and I'm doing the work necessary every day to stay there."</p><h2><strong>The village's 77 residents range in age from 18 to 71 and hail from diverse backgrounds.</strong></h2><div type="image" title="A resident of 12Neighbours tiny home village knitting on her porch." height="862" width="1390" msid="105131587" hostid="261" sizebytes="75560"></div><p>12Neighbours does not keep an internal housing waiting list but instead takes <a target="_blank" href="https://www.12neighbours.com/aboutus">referrals</a> from the New Brunswick Housing waiting list via the department of social development, which oversees housing support in the province.</p><p>"The qualifications generally are individuals who've been struggling with chronic homelessness," LeBrun said. "No one's disqualified, but the only two criteria we have are that people need to be able to live independently, and then secondly is safety."</p><h2><strong>12Neighbours has a screen-printing business that is run by members of the community.</strong></h2><div type="image" title="Marcel LeBrun and 12Neighbours resident working on screen printing." height="2048" width="1536" msid="105131589" hostid="261" sizebytes="218028"></div><p>The print shop sells branded apparel which includes T-shirts, sweatshirts, and totes. The designs are made by the shop's employees.</p><p>"We want to get them as far along as they can, so that we're not just meeting more needs, but we're actually helping to reintegrate these people back into the economy and community," LeBrun said.</p><p>Seymour, the resident recovering from alcohol and drug addiction, is the "print lead," according to the CBC, putting silk-screen designs on tote bags and T-shirts.</p><h2><strong>12Neighbours is in the process of constructing a 12,000-square-foot "social enterprise center," akin to a community center, for the village.</strong></h2><div type="image" title="12Neighbours social enterprise center under construction." height="754" width="1412" msid="105131590" hostid="261" sizebytes="83098"></div><p>LeBrun said the center will feature a café and a retail store that showcases merchandise produced by the screen-printing business.</p><p>"It will be a place where people can come to order a coffee and meet people they may not necessarily talk to every day," he said.</p>

See inside a tiny-home village that gives homeless people $200-a-month houses — and has a waiting list of 700 people

<p class="drop-cap">Shirly and Erez Weinstein had in many ways achieved the American dream. They immigrated to the United States from Israel in the early aughts, bought a house in the suburbs of Atlanta with access to high-quality public schools for their two kids, and excelled in their tech careers. There was just one problem: They weren't happy.</p><p>"Our life was just really busy," Shirly Weinstein told me. "Work, school, after-school — we hardly had any down time or time as a family."</p><p>They also weren't satisfied with the education options for their kids. "We wanted something more from school," Erez Weinstein said. "We tried Montessori, charter, public, but all these different options felt like more of the same."</p><p>The kids felt similarly. "Life was boring," Ella, their 11-year-old daughter, told me. So, to shake things up, in 2018 the family sold most of their possessions, bought an RV, and started traveling full time around the US and abroad while homeschooling.</p><p>For the next four years, the kids did not attend formal classes, instead learning from their experiences in different countries, and did occasional academic work on digital platforms like Khan Academy. Then, in 2022, the family learned about <a href="https://www.boundless.life/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Boundless Life</a>, a startup trying to build a global network for <a href="https://www.insider.com/we-travel-four-months-every-year-support-schooling-2023-2">digital-nomad families</a>, complete with built-in community, project-based education, and furnished homes where families live for three months at a time.</p><p>While the phrase "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/partying-yachts-drugs-remote-work-destroying-worlds-most-instagrammable-destinations-2021-7">digital nomad</a>" might conjure an image of a single 27-year-old software engineer writing code from a hostel in Chiang Mai, Thailand, Boundless Life — which has locations in Portugal, Indonesia, Italy, and Greece — targets a different demographic of long-term travelers: parents and their elementary-school-age children. The startup's aim, according to its cofounder Mauro Repacci, is to allow parents "the freedom to travel as a single person might, but with your kids."</p><p>Boundless Life is one of a handful of programs — like the <a href="https://www.greenschool.org/bali/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Green School</a> in Bali and <a href="https://www.thehiveadventure.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Hive</a> in the Dominican Republic — that cater primarily to international students and their remote-working parents. While there isn't great data on it, experts I spoke with say that only a small fraction of the estimated 35 million global digital nomads are traveling with children — which makes sense. Whether figuring out school or supporting kids' ability to maintain lasting friendships, many parents are wary of uprooting their families' lives for long-term travel.</p><p>But with the growth of remote work and newfound energy to reimagine education in response to the coronavirus pandemic, businesses are jumping at the opportunity to make "nomading" with children a real possibility.</p><p class="drop-cap">Last summer I visited the Boundless campus in Sintra, Portugal. When I arrived by train from Lisbon, it was easy to see why the company had chosen the medieval mountain town as its pilot location. The Moorish castles and orange clay roofs give the town a classic European charm, and it has just the right amount of creature comforts and English-speaking waitstaff to please less adventurous travelers. At just shy of 400,000 inhabitants, Sintra is also big enough to absorb the 25 Boundless families without the expats dominating all the local haunts. </p><div type="image" title="A chef preparing a meal in a kitchen with a mosaic tile floor." height="1536" width="2048" msid="104016349" hostid="261"></div><p>The Boundless community, which includes families from around the world, felt a bit like a family camp. Families each had their own private accommodations scattered throughout the city, but they frequently spent time at one another's apartments for meals and aperitifs. Parents went out for afternoon espressos and lingered at school drop-off to chat about business opportunities before heading to a mosaic-tiled coworking space replete with WiFi and Portuguese custard tarts.</p><p>In the school, a remodeled two-story building blocks away from Sintra's castles, mixed-aged groups of students hunched over tubs of water to learn about density and volume. For lunch, the kids ate organic meals provided by a local chef. After school, kids from different families entertained themselves in the cobblestone streets and parks under light adult supervision. </p><p>Tim, a freelance computer programmer from Ohio, joined Boundless in 2022 after taking his kids out of school at the start of COVID. "The school said 'Zoom Kindergarten,' and I said screw that," he told me.</p><p>One couple from Seattle — Edward, a marketing consultant, and Jessica, an entrepreneur — not only pulled their four kids under 13 out of school to sign on with Boundless Life, but they also persuaded another family to join them for the experiment. "We wanted to travel, but you can't babysit a 1-year-old and homeschool a 7-year-old at the same time," Jessica said. "Education was the question. If we could figure out the education piece, the rest would fall into place."</p><p>According to Boundless' cofounder and head of education, Rekha Magon, Boundless' vision is for families to hop to Sintra for a semester and then to Italy's Tuscany region for another, all while their children progress through the same curriculum, which extends from preschool to age 12. "Education should be removed from a single building and exist in the world," she told me. </p><p>This was perfect for the Weinsteins, who consider themselves part of the <a href="https://www.insider.com/what-is-worldschooling-why-do-parents-choose-it-2022-8">worldschooling</a> movement — a growing community of families who have decided to eschew traditional education in favor of long-term travel and "learning from the school of life," as Erez Weinstein told me.</p><p>Compared with all the education options they had tried in Atlanta, Boundless was the first school that seemed to align with their desire for project-based learning with a global perspective. "If Boundless had locations all over the world, we would be set," Shirly Weinstein said. "It's beyond travel. It's experiencing the world." </p><p>And while the kids seemed to be thriving, perhaps the true beneficiaries were the parents. As one Boundless parent told me, "I've had more social interactions in the past week than months back home — and I didn't have to send a single email to coordinate."</p><p>Boundless had recreated the village.</p><p class="drop-cap">As a Brazilian from Montreal with Italian ancestry, Mauro Repacci is a fitting founder for a company that promotes global citizenship. The idea for Boundless came about after Repacci and his cofounder Marcos Carvalho sold their previous company, a home-buying platform called NestReady, and were looking to take a sabbatical. It was the summer of 2021. COVID restrictions were loosening and the built-up demand for travel was palpable.</p><p>"During the pandemic, like many people, we started to ask how we wanted to live our life, how we wanted to raise our kids," Repacci told me. "And we felt like we were limiting ourselves by staying in the same country for a long time." He added, "We felt something was missing." He started to tell friends about his aspiration to travel and take time off — perhaps a few months in Costa Rica, another few in Europe or Southeast Asia. His friends were intrigued by the idea of long-term travel but had hesitations about their kids falling behind in school.</p><div type="image" title="Sintra portugal" height="1333" width="2000" msid="104016352" hostid="261"></div><p>Repacci and Carvalho started a WhatsApp group with dozens of friends and friends of friends who were all trying to figure out how to make long-term travel work with kids. They researched international schools and looked into the feasibility of hiring a private tutor to travel with them full time. Their brainstorming quickly transformed into a business idea. </p><p>According to Lona Alia, the head of revenue for the nomad-travel-insurance provider SafetyWing, several factors have led to the growth of digital-nomad families. "There's remote work, the availability of high-speed internet, flexible schooling, and Airbnb," Alia, who is part of a digital-nomad family herself, told me. But perhaps the biggest factor is a cultural shift toward the value of experiences, Alia said. "Many people are realizing that the traditional path of acquiring material goods isn't necessarily the key to happiness, and are instead choosing to invest in experiences, such as travel."</p><p>For the Boundless founders, figuring out the education piece of the puzzle was key. For families to actually be able to make the leap, Boundless would need a curriculum that was rigorous enough to adhere to parents' standards and flexible enough so families could bounce between locales without their kids falling behind. To solve the problem, Repacci and Carvalho brought on their head of education, Magon, and head of brand and product, Elina Zois. </p><p>Boundless decided to base its educational model on the Nordic Baccalaureate, an interdisciplinary curriculum based on the Finnish education system that emphasizes project-based work, experiential learning, and cultural immersion. Classrooms are multiage and class sizes are kept small — fewer than 15 kids a class for students under 6 and fewer than 18 for those ages 6 to 12. During my visit, the school felt like a more expansive definition of what an education could be. Learning was not limited by the four walls of the classroom — it took place in parks, pottery studios, restaurants, and museums.  </p><p>Several educators I spoke with were skeptical about how the Boundless framework would translate into meaningful learning experiences for students from a range of academic needs, and how students would be able to integrate their Boundless experience if they transitioned back into more traditional school environments.</p><div type="image" title="An outdoor play area" height="1536" width="2048" msid="104016355" hostid="261"></div><p>But parents I met told me Boundless had sparked a level of intellectual curiosity in its children that spilled over to "normal life" upon returning stateside. "Getting to try out a different type of school was life-changing," one parent said. After returning to US public school this year, they said their kids were doing better than they had before doing Boundless. "Not because anything is better at their school this year than last year, but because they are different," the parent said.</p><p>The company serves about 85 families and 250 kids during any given semester. But despite some early success, Boundless Education, like the organization itself, is still very much a startup. The school isn't accredited — though it's undergoing the accreditation process — and the administration is still figuring out the kinks, like how to quantitatively measure student growth and how to cater to older and more advanced students' needs.</p><p>There are also financial and cultural barriers to joining Boundless. For one, there's the price. It costs the equivalent of about $1,600 a child, a month, to take part in Boundless Education, and the equivalent of $460 a parent, a month, for coworking and concierge services — and that doesn't include the cost of housing. Though participants were relatively diverse racially and culturally, most of the families I met in Sintra were high earners from North America.</p><p>Plus, there are cultural and logistical challenges to picking up your family and living around the world for months at a time. Boundless advises families on how to obtain digital-nomad visas for countries that offer them, but the prospect of working abroad long term can be challenging depending on your country of origin. </p><p>"The biggest barriers to more people nomading are in-laws, grandparents, and a lack of imagination," Andreas Wil Gerdes, a leader in the worldschooling movement, said. "For 200 years, the majority of people have lived in a work-centric model of existence. Finally, people are going back to a life-centric model, but it will take time to catch on."</p><p>Gerdes is generally supportive of Boundless' mission but commented that the company served a limited slice of those who might be able to benefit from living and learning abroad. "Boundless is the brain-dead solution for people who don't want to have to make any decisions," he said. "But it's a step in the right direction."</p><p class="drop-cap">On my last night in Sintra, the Boundless families gathered together at Praia de Maçãs, a beach 20 minutes from downtown. Kids dashed in and out of the waves, occasionally running to shore to grab a snack or tug at their parents' trunks. "How long have you guys known each other?" I asked a few preteens who were building castles in the sand. "I dunno. A few days," one said, barely looking up.</p><p>Standing there on the edge of the European continent, I realized that although Boundless is cloaked in the sheen of a venture-backed startup, the business is actually a return to a more collective form of child-rearing. Sure, there's an app that parents use to interact, a curriculum that uses the UN sustainability goals for lesson plans, and a business model that's a response to a global workforce trend. But as I immersed myself in this network of families who were loosely looking after one another's children, Boundless felt more retro-chic than modern. </p><p>After leaving the beach, I joined the families for pizza at an outdoor restaurant. There were no iPads at the dinner table or calendar invites needed to organize the get-together. In a community full of families, conversations were not dominated by talk of academic tutors and afterschool programs. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. </p><p>I came to Sintra thinking Boundless might be too good to be true, but perhaps that was a failure of my own imagination. Maybe I, like so many others, am still too attached to the idea that school ought to look like 20 students facing the same way in a classroom for seven hours a day. Sure, Boundless is an expensive, turn-key study-abroad experience for elementary-school-age children and their parents, but it's also a refreshing take on what it means to give a child an education, which, <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-alarming-state-of-the-american-student-in-2022/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">especially in America</a>, is in need of a refresh.</p><p>Certainly there are risks of uprooting children from their routines and communities. Programs like Boundless may not be attractive or accessible to everyone, and it's unclear whether Boundless will be able to scale its programming to meet the growing demand. But when I think about the atomization of our modern lives, each of us cordoned off in our little boxes made of ticky-tack, learning from textbooks and digital apps, I see Boundless as a welcome alternative. Perhaps the world is the classroom we've been waiting for.</p><p><em><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/simone-stolzoff">Simone Stolzoff</a> is a writer and author from San Francisco. His debut book, <a href="https://affiliate.insider.com?amazonTrackingID=biauto-62117-20&amp;h=df736b25edacfa9fdc3b129d6c816075ed25285cfdf414fa075f97ee7d1a0486&amp;postID=64fa0771261711ba2f6156b2&amp;postSlug=digital-nomad-families-travel-abroad-kids-school-boundless-life-2023-9&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FGood-Enough-Job-Reclaiming-Life%2Fdp%2F059353896X%2Fref%3Dcm_cr_arp_mb_bdcrb_top%3Fie%3DUTF8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming Life from Work</a>, was published by Penguin Random House earlier this year. </em></p>

Remote work lets you travel the world. This startup helps you take your kids with you.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Urban planner Darin Dinsmore created a camp in Sedona, Arizona, with four tiny homes.</li><li>The small cabins are located on the side of a cliff and were designed to feel like tree houses.</li></ul><p><em>This is an as-told-to essay based on a conversation with Darin Dinsmore, an urban planner and the founder of TinyCamp, a collection of tiny house short-term rentals in Sedona and Cottonwood, Arizona. It has been edited for length and clarity.</em></p><p>My background in urban planning was one of the things that led me to start the TinyCamp project in Sedona and Cottonwood, Arizona.</p><p>I moved to Sedona three years ago to work on these projects, but I'm also the founder and CEO of a software startup based in the California Bay Area called <a href="https://www.crowdbrite.com/blog/about" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Crowdbrite</a>. Launching that company involved ten years of traveling all over the world, and when I came to Sedona I thought, "This is not a bad place to chill out at."</p><p>Five years ago, Coconino County, where Sedona and Cottonwood are located, was using a tool I created and they reached out to me and said, "We want to do a housing demonstration project and we're ready to rewrite the rules. Are you interested?" I thought it sounded great, so we got started and I started on the TinyCamp in Sedona.</p><h2><strong>I drew inspiration from my time living on a houseboat in Sausalito, California </strong></h2><p><strong></strong></p><div type="image" title="The Grow porch with outdoor seating and a small fire pit." height="1092" width="1456" msid="102200585" hostid="261" sizebytes="295746"></div><p>In Sausalito, we had such a community and you didn't need a lot of stuff. It was the kind of place where you'd meet your neighbors because you'd have to walk down the dock to get to your home.</p><p>With the Sedona properties, we worked with local builders to get the homes built on the side of a cliff. They're all permanent tiny houses with foundations and fire sprinklers, and they each have their own hot tubs and fireplaces. They feel like treehouses. </p><div type="image" title="Outdoor shot of Grow house during the early morning sunrise." height="1090" width="1454" msid="102200587" hostid="261" sizebytes="110838"></div><p>We wanted to incorporate the indoor-outdoor experience, so having the deck and patio, hot tub, and fire pit was important to us. Our houses are unique and they're not all the same, so it's not like staying in a hotel. They all have names like Grow, Flow and Breathe.</p><h2><strong>We have a lot of visitors, but a lot of them don't find us through Airbnb</strong></h2><div type="image" title="The loft bedroom located on the second floor of the TinyCamp home." height="2588" width="3451" msid="102200589" hostid="261" sizebytes="1023664"></div><p>People Google "tiny houses in Arizona" and we pop up. They want a unique experience. We've had proposals happen here, we've had honeymoon celebrations — people want to create memories.</p><p>We offer amenities to make those memories extra special. Also, people might want to have a health and wellness-focused stay so we can coordinate having a yoga practitioner there or set up a sound healing session. People are coming to renew themselves and breathe — just like the names of our units. </p><div type="image" title="Beautiful mountain scenic view of Sedona, Arizona." height="3024" width="4032" msid="102200593" hostid="261" sizebytes="1348676"></div><p>I saw this a lot during the COVID-19 pandemic. People were living in big cities like Los Angeles and felt stuck in their apartments and wanted to get out and get connected to nature while they were able to work remotely. </p><h2><strong>It shocks people, but tiny houses are expensive</strong></h2><div type="image" title="A ladder leading up to the loft bed area of the TinyCamp home." height="2274" width="3024" msid="102200596" hostid="261" sizebytes="497462"></div><p><a href="https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-search/Sedona_AZ/type-land/sby-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The land and tiny houses cost around $250,000 to $275,000 each</a>. The prices of tiny homes have gone up a lot — I went to a tiny house festival recently and they were <a href="https://www.rocketmortgage.com/learn/how-much-does-a-tiny-house-cost" target="_blank" rel="noopener">being sold for between $100,000 and $135,000</a>. The cost of materials has risen, and the demand has gone through the roof.</p><p>Our regular nightly stays start at $200, and it's $250 for our stays with private hot tubs. The Achilles heel of the tiny house movement is that it's $10,000 for a sewer hookup. It's also $10,000 for a 5,000 square foot house — that blows people away. I was shocked when I found out those hookup fees are the same.</p><div type="image" title="The back porch of a TinyCamp home." height="1442" width="1922" msid="102200597" hostid="261" sizebytes="113314"></div><p>With the movement growing, there are also a lot of people buying plots of land for their tiny homes but they don't have the right permits, so it's something prospective tiny home owners need to be aware of. </p><h2><strong>The hospitality side of things is new to me, but at this point in my life it's fun</strong></h2><p><strong></strong></p><div type="image" title="A picturesque outdoor scene from the hot tub." height="3024" width="4032" msid="102200598" hostid="261" sizebytes="1637102"></div><p>I get to hang out with cool people who are coming to Northern Arizona for yoga retreats or hiking and who want to reconnect with nature.</p><p>With TinyCamp Sedona, we wanted to also help the community, so we partnered with a local charter school that was in need of housing for a teacher. We built one right on the charter school campus for them.</p><div type="image" title="Sedona Charter School building." height="3024" width="4032" msid="102200599" hostid="261" sizebytes="1982028"></div><p>In Cottonwood, which opened this summer, the units were built to feel more like a community. The wine scene there is growing, so people love to come up and walk to the tasting rooms. You're also seeing younger people visit.</p><h2><strong>Our larger vision is to create local housing and adventure lodging </strong></h2><p>Imagine if every hotel in Sedona had one affordable housing unit for every four rooms. If that was the case we wouldn't have a housing problem. </p><div type="image" title="TinyCamp kitchen with stove, microwave, and fridge." height="3759" width="5013" msid="102200890" hostid="261" sizebytes="1014022"></div><p>We want to be a part of the sustainable tourism solution as well as the housing solution. We're even working on a project in Clarkdale, Arizona.</p><p>Clarkdale was actually the first master planned community in Arizona when it was a mining town, so we're kind of following in those footsteps. Our Clarkdale project will be 50% affordable local housing with a dog park and community garden.</p>

I own a village of tiny homes in the Arizona desert that were built to feel like treehouses — see inside

SINGAPORE: An Indian-origin banker who was so consumed by the idea of making banking accessible for the unbanked, that he poured his entire life savings into a start-up that enables banks to set up branches in remote locations for just $150.<br /><br /><keyword id="57473" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ram-Sharma" source="Orion">Ram Sharma</keyword>, a permanent resident in Singapore, and a veteran in the banking sector, having worked with <keyword id="232258" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Centurion-Bank" source="Orion">Centurion Bank</keyword> in India and Bank Albilad in Saudi Arabia, and his friend <keyword id="13786415" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="ragu-nandan" source="Orion">Ragu Nandan</keyword>, set up a <keyword id="13786414" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="fintech-start-up" source="Orion">fintech start-up</keyword> in 2016.<br /><br />Based in Singapore, Bank-Genie develops digital solutions that enables banks to overcome prohibitive costs to set up branches in remote locations and make banking accessible to unbanked populations, according to the Today tabloid.<br /><br />The germ of this idea took root in <keyword id="445" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="sharma" source="Orion">Sharma</keyword>'s mind during a relatively mundane road trip he undertook in south India seven years ago.<br /><br />Sharma and his friend found themselves travelling for about 100 km just to find an ATM.<br /><br />“It struck me, why do ATMs remain here (in this town)? After this, there are villages where there are people living but there are no ATMs. Why should it be like that?” The Today tabloid quoted the 50-year-old as saying.<br /><br />Sharma poured his entire savings and “mortgaged everything else”, except the roof over his head, to raise over a million dollars to fund the company.<br /><br />Bank-Genie offers solutions that allow a bank to open branches and provide a suite of financial services with just “a tablet and a small Bluetooth printer and the card reader”, Sharma said in an interview with the tabloid.<br /><br />“Nothing more than that, and this will cost you around $150 to start a branch,” he quipped.<br /><br />In 2017, fintech managed to secure an undisclosed amount in a Series A funding backed by two key institutional investors: SBI Holdings Group, a Japan-based conglomerate that was spun-out of Softbank, and the Dutch development bank FMO.<br /><br />Such was the affordability of Bank-Genie's solution that Sierra Leone Commercial Bank, one of the largest commercial banks in the West African nation, was able to set up 600 branches in 90 days, including in remote areas — “somewhere up the mountains, somewhere in the valleys,” he said.<br /><br />In less than five years, Bank-Genie has ramped up its presence in Central Asian countries such as Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan as well as in Kazakhstan, where Sharma almost got stranded in around two years ago when borders started closing due to the Covid-19 pandemic.<br /><br />The start-up has acquired more than 30 client banks and financial institutions across Africa and Southeast Asia, with 13 banks in the Philippines alone.<br /><br />Scaling up its solutions took considerable effort, said Sharma, as the product built and installed for one bank cannot be replicated in another.<br /><br />“Each country has its own requirements. There are statutory requirements, there are compliance things which need to be met,” he was quoted as saying in the Today tabloid.<br /><br />“Some countries have regulations like customer data cannot reside outside the country due to privacy, so on and so forth. So banking is an animal which needs to suit each country differently,” Sharma observed.<br /><br />The start-up worked closely from the onset with the central bank of each country it stepped into.<br /><br />Sharma said that while the pandemic had scuppered some of his firm's expansion plans, it also presented opportunities.<br /><br />The growing need to practise social distancing had helped popularise the start-up's <keyword id="67227" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="genie" source="Orion">Genie</keyword> Q solution, which enables bank branches to take appointments, manage crowds and divert customers to less crowded branches where necessary.<br /><br />Looking ahead, while digital banking and cashless payments continue to proliferate into urban and advanced markets, Sharma believes that there is much work left to be done in remote geographies.<br /><br />“Our vision was always to bring a bank to every doorstep and democratise financial services so that financial services are accessible to the entire population in the world,” he said.<br /><br />With more than 40 staff globally, the Singapore-headquartered start-up has chalked up revenues to the tune of $3.1 million for the financial year ending March 2022, up from $840,000 during the previous financial year, Sharma added. <br /><br />SEE ALSO:<br /><a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/upi-reached-new-heights-with-5-58-billion-transactions-in-april-2022/articleshow/91250099.cms">UPI reaches new heights with 5.58 billion transactions in April 2022</a><br /><a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/amazon-summer-sale-to-begin-on-may-4-2022-big-offers-on-smartphones-and-laptops/articleshow/91249886.cms">Amazon Summer Sale to begin on May 4 – offers on smartphones, laptops, appliances and more</a><br />

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