Ask HN: Would you give up equity for a place in a hacker house?
1 designorant 4 4/20/2025, 4:16:52 PM
I'm considering turning my London home into a rebel hacker house - something like a tiny, scrappy version of Entrepreneur First.
The idea:
- 3 months rent-free in London
- Time + space to work on your startup
- Live with other misfit builders
- Possibly some intros or a demo day at the end
In return, I’d ask for a small amount of equity in what you're building.
It’s aimed at founders who didn’t get into YC / EF / Techstars - or didn’t even apply. Pre-product, pre-traction, pre-funding.
1. Would this kind of setup appeal to you?
2. What % equity would feel fair to give up?
3. Anything you'd want added or removed?
Genuinely curious — not selling anything yet, just testing the waters.
Think about it for a second, for one you're excluding anyone who has a family. This means that you're looking at inexperienced people, and furthermore they'd have to not put too much value on their own company. Why would I give up any of my equity for the equivalent of at most $4,500 in rent.
London is also a really bad choice for this type of thing due to cost of living. My plain right now is to go to a cheap Asian or Latin American country where I can live off 2k a month or so. Then work solo on my ideas and prototypes.
Probably not gonna turn into anything though.
In general "Hacker Houses" for aspiring entrepreneurs have always seemed like a good idea to me. (There was even talk of having "theme" hacker houses to attract/encourage certain demographics - which if nothing else shows how highly that experience is valued...)