Urbanist Ventures made a splash at YIMBYtown 2024 in Austin!
Urbanist Ventures public semi-regular update March 2024
Urbanist Ventures is on a mission to scale urbanism through startups. Want more access? Tell me about your interests at join.urbanist.vc. (There’s something here for everyone, but if I don’t know that you are an accredited investor, I can’t share deal flow with you!)
Always be launching. We did just that at YIMBYtown 2024 in Austin, “the Coachella of zoning reform.”1 It was a resounding success. The urbanist startup message reached at least 11,000 influential people, 20x the 500-600 physically in attendance. Austin was the ideal place for that message — and the ideal place to crank up the volume on building Urbanist Ventures in public.
I was on the fence about returning to YIMBYtown after a pandemic hiatus (and brought Covid home with me — see lowlights below). I’ve been planting seeds for a while but wasn’t sure that the movement was ready yet. I almost didn’t go. My strategy was to play it cool.
To my pleasant surprise, it didn’t take long for a fellow attendee to verbalize the same frustration that inspired me to start this ambitious project. We need exponentially more housing, said YIMBYs of NoVA founder Luca Gattoni-Celli during early Q&A — how do we get there?
I reconnected with former classmate Daniel Herriges who has since made a name for himself at Strong Towns and coauthored a forthcoming book, Escaping the Housing Trap, with founder Charles Marohn. A newcomer to YIMBYtown but not to the movement, he too picked up on part of what drove me to focus on cultivating an ecosystem of complementary urbanist startups — and leveraging my unique expertise to help them succeed:
YIMBY is scoring impressive policy wins across the country through advocacy and coalition-building. If I have a critique it's that the movement's still overly focused on regulatory reform.
I predict a growing number of places where land-use regulation really isn't the front-line barrier to building a lot of new housing units anymore. It'll help to grow an expansive YIMBYism that looks at *all* the barriers (even if the movement's core remains policy advocacy).
In the course of getting Urbanist Ventures off the ground, the founders of flagship portfolio company Swyft Cities further illuminated this issue for me. Swyft Cities was born at Google, where the problem ultimately wasn’t permission to build vibrant, walkable urbanism but the staggeringly high cost of doing so — even for deep-pocketed big tech.
Prediction: Swyft Cities’ modular mass transit solution will be as transformative for global real estate as railroads and elevators. Stay tuned for a deep dive on this game-changing urbanist startup! In the meantime, check out their sales deck.
Swyft Cities’ modular mass transit solution will be as transformative
for global real estate as railroads and elevators.
How do we think more exponentially about scaling urbanism? Even with the YIMBY movement’s current momentum on policy wins, we’re probably several decades away from urbanism so abundant that most Americans could reasonably afford to choose a walkable urban lifestyle.
That’s the problem I’ve been obsessed with, especially since Sam Altman published “Moore’s Law for Everything:”
‘Moore’s Law for everything’ should be the rallying cry of a generation whose members can’t afford what they want. It sounds utopian, but it’s something technology can deliver (and in some cases already has). Imagine a world where, for decades, everything — housing, education, food, clothing, etc. — became half as expensive every two years.
We don’t just need to legalize vibrant, walkable urbanism. We need to actually be able to build orders of magnitude more of it — and quickly. There are many approaches to this. My weapon of choice is scalable urbanist startups.
And the truth is…
I want more than abundant urbanism. I want urbanism that transcends our wildest dreams. Urbanism so good that it leaps beyond the bounds of what we can currently imagine.
I want urbanism that is not just accessible to everyone, but profoundly transformative, setting new benchmarks for what cities can and should be. Places where life, in its fullest expression, flourishes.
YIMBYtown highlights what’s unique about Urbanist Ventures. This project creates a space where startups and activism deliberately meet and remix — bringing together the best of both worlds. I’m admittedly a bit of a weirdo in both places. What I am doing doesn’t fit neatly into a box. But it sure does make for good stories.
YIMBYtown got me so fired up that it’s clearly time to launch this blog where long-form content and semi-regular updates (like this one) will live. Can you think of *one person* who would be excited to hear about this project? This experiment is only going to work with your help, so please spread the word!
[T]he vibes and crowd were surprisingly different at this year’s [YIMBYtown]... In addition to vegan lunches and name tags with preferred pronouns, the conference included — even celebrated — a group that had until recently been unwelcome: red-state Republicans.
— “The Surprising Left-Right Alliance That Wants More Apartments in Suburbs,” Conor Dougherty, The New York Times
Zoning reform is the kind of procedural issue that usually fails to capture headlines. But the same under-the-radar quality enables Democrats and Republicans at either end of the horseshoe to come together in bipartisan coalitions to make real change. … The rise of red-state upzoning is something of a reversal from just a few years ago, when many Republicans were eager to brand such reforms as part of a left-wing campaign to ‘abolish the suburbs.’
— Megan Kimble and Kriston Capps, Bloomberg CityLab
The pro-housing movement is the most dynamically bipartisan thing happening in American politics today. — Welcoming Neighbors Network
HIGHLIGHTS
Swyft Cities has a fascinating and inspiring sales deck now — check it out. Teaser above. More coming soon.
I have a live deal. If you are an accredited investor, let me know at join.urbanist.vc so that I am allowed to share deal flow with you! Angel syndicates and related technology have (comparatively) democratized startup investing in recent years and reduced minimum check sizes from $25k+ to $1k. If you’ve never invested in startups or through syndicates before (which I assume will be the case for most readers) and are interested in learning how, stay tuned for more guidance.
I leveled up within the Hustle Fund Angel Squad, a.k.a. the “Y Combinator of angel investing,” and have officially become a Vertical Lead, a very select group of members who bring deals within their areas of expertise to the broader membership of 1500+ investors.
I blew right past 2,000 Twitter followers thanks to YIMBYtown. This is a significant milestone because “2,000 is the point at which you’ve demonstrated product-market fit for your account” (h/t Francis Santora). I don’t know how large the audience is for urbanist startups yet, but there’s definitely an audience. Join the conversation here.
YIMBYtown produced unexpected warm intros for a relevant grant and fellowship to boost my work and network. This all being inbound indicates that I should push harder on building in public, sharing progress, and making asks — hence this blog.
March election results could be the beginning of San Francisco transitioning from doom loop to boom loop. There’s appetite for urbanist moonshots regardless, but YIMBY coalition wins are energizing all around!
Urbanist Ventures cohosted our first event, and it was even in person.
I made new business cards that are converting well. I previously experimented with a printable flyer MVP (hearkening back to early YIMBY slate cards), then settled into connecting on LinkedIn through QR codes instead, but I ultimately concluded that the latter doesn’t scale well beyond 1:1 conversations. I was missing out on opportunities to collect contacts and reach interested people again.
Even thought it’s more real estate development than startup, California Forever is an urbanist moonshot I admire. My first job out of college brought me face-to-face with the status quo of greenfield development in California, so I am definitely not “infill or bust.” The knee-jerk reaction to California Forever, even amongst YIMBYs and urbanists, demonstrates why there’s a need to organize folks who support urbanist moonshots and want to see more of them attempted. My new friend Ryan Puzycki and new-ish friend Devon Zuegel have some very good takes on California Forever that align with my perspective.
I’m bullish on Apple Vision Pro. Stay tuned for more.
Encouraging words serendipitously arrived in my inbox at just the right moment from a former journalism teacher who witnessed my first major business endeavor firsthand — whipping the high school newspaper into shape! — and, apparently, still remembers even decades and thousands of students later.
I often think of you in admiration, and am reminded of the approach of “leaving things better than you found them”, rather than attempting to tear down simply to put one’s own brand on a thing. Warren Buffet did that with his funds (Gates Foundation), and I think that requires being more evolved as a human being. That was you to me.
— A delightful blast from the past
ASKS
A portfolio company is looking for warm intros to the San Diego and/or Los Angeles Mayor’s Office.
There is considerable appetite for this project. I am a champion bootstrapper but welcome benefactors.
If you know me (or know of me?), testimonials/social proof are also welcome.
Do you have the skills to help me with the Urbanist Ventures brand? Know a great Webflow developer who could build something awesome, inspired by the current starting point?
Follow me/Urbanist Ventures and Swyft Cities on Twitter!
Have a relevant ask you’d like to see here? Email asks@urbanist.vc. Please include an expiration date as appropriate.
LOWLIGHTS
After a four year run of our household successfully evading Covid, it finally hitched a ride home with me from YIMBYtown. I had to miss out on a private event that I suspect would have been very productive. On the bright side, this cleared my calendar enough to prioritize writing which (I think) has become a critical next step.
I wasn’t selected to speak at YIMBYtown! And there were tons of speakers!
1) I knew from the outset that my whole urbanist startups thing would come across as a little out of left field, and I’d have to lobby to make it happen. By the time I had successfully gathered the necessary information to do so, it was Christmas, and I had determined that playing it cool might be a more effective strategy for the conference anyway.
2) Necessity is the mother of invention. Not wasting bandwidth on speaking freed up capacity to hustle, and I think that was far more productive (and fun!). Had I focused on presenting, I probably would have reached 1/5 of attendees at best due to competition from five sessions running concurrently and an unfamiliar topic. I’m pretty sure everyone who needed to take notice of this project did. The process of applying also motivated me to produce a fresh reusable bio, which has been helpful in other ways.
3) The organizers were genuinely kind and supportive about it all. They proactively offered to help make it happen next year, and I half-joked that I only want a keynote.
I’ve been “doing things that don’t scale” in order to get to this point. It’s become impossible to keep up, but it’s hard to let go of what has worked. I am going to need to build/invest in better, more automated systems.
My attempt to stalk former HUD Secretary Julián Castro failed. I had previously landed at a small dinner with him a few years back with very little notice at a low moment when I couldn’t take full advantage of the unexpected opportunity of having his ear. YIMBYtown was the perfect chance to follow up, but he was in and out like a ninja. Slowly but surely, everyone I want to be able to influence is coming into my orbit, so it’s only a matter of time, Julián!
I haven’t had capacity to do any advocacy around this and have barely mentioned it online, but my household remains long-term displaced by a neighbor’s house fire that never should have happened or gotten so out of control. It’s a constant headache.
TRAVEL & CONFERENCES
Upcoming:
March 20-21 | Houston, TX | Innovation in Action for Placemaking + Homebuilding
May 13-15 | Saratoga, CA | Camp Hustle
May 14-15 | Cincinnati, OH | Strong Towns National Gathering
May 15-18 | Cincinnati, OH | Congress for the New Urbanism’s CNU 32
➡️ Camp Hustle is one of my favorite events of the year, and I purchased early bird tickets, but I am feeling conflicted now that it overlaps with Strong Towns and CNU far away in Cincinnati. Do I talk urbanism at the conference that’s all about startups and investing or talk startups at the double-header all about urbanism?
September 17-19 | Las Vegas, NV | Blueprint
September 20 | Equitable Parking Policy Summit
Recent:
Austin, TX | YIMBYtown - sponsor
Boulder, CO
Madison, WI
San Jose, CA | Podcar City - panelist
Stanford, CA | Stanford Real Estate Council Emerging Leaders Retreat
Milwaukee, WI | Urban Spaceship Conference - speaker
Seattle, WA
Home base is San Francisco, CA, and I also frequent Napa, CA.
Know another conference I should attend? Someone I should meet while I’m in town?
Email suggestions and tips to travel@urbanist.vc.
METRICS
Twitter followers: 2,133
LinkedIn followers: 2,506
Contacts logged (CRM): 1,439
Email list: 534
Mobile list: 93
Syndicate members: 86
Swyft Cities Twitter followers: 823
Swyft Cities LinkedIn followers: 1,269
THANKS
Thank you to the YIMBYtown 2024 organizers who did a phenomenal job. I can’t think of a better way to experience a new city since the Detour app departed this world. Special shoutout to Co-Mayor Felicity Maxwell who is a force of nature and was especially warm and welcoming to me.
Thank you to Swyft Cities founders Jeral Poskey and Catrine Machi for your partnership and confidence in this project when it was most unproven. We’re doing something incredible together. Jeral recently gave me great constructive feedback about my unique perspective being more persuasive than using the perfect words, and I am running with it!
Thank you to everyone who has celebrated and amplified Urbanist Ventures on social media. You know who you are, and I promise to name names in a future update.
Thank you to several folks who have been particularly encouraging and helpful on this journey, including but not at all limited to John Manoochehri, Russell Varone, Sanjay Dastoor, Brian Nichols, Eric Bahn, and Haley Bryant.
You are receiving this newsletter because you either subscribed or gave me reason to believe you would be interested (and that’s what we call organizing!).
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-03-07/at-austin-s-yimbytown-fans-of-zoning-reform-seek-common-ground
This is really cool.