The original SCQH (2020)

Archival document (October 2020). The core strategic analysis behind the fund, in situation–complication–question–hypothesis form. Part of the Fund Archive.

Situation

We've never been so materially well-off. Yet loneliness and disconnection are rising. At the same time, mindfulness and other well-being practices are growing, and more and more people want to live more wisely and well: with greater purpose, greater community, greater emotional and spiritual connection.

Crucially, maintaining those practices and creating real, purposeful community requires practicing and living together — proximately. Practically, that means co-residence: coliving, cohousing, or retreat.

Meanwhile, an increasing number of investors seek to secure their capital safely and with ethical impact — with a growing subset who are mindful or spiritually committed. And cities want more community-oriented, affordable spaces.

Complication

Creating mindful, purposeful community living requires a stable physical space — especially in cities, where the need is greatest. But raising the capital to acquire one is hard:

Community-suitable spaces are large, requiring substantial capital even though per-person cost is lower.
The relevant groups don't have much up-front capital (they're young, or oriented to well-being and wisdom rather than high-earning sectors).
Groups pool capital slowly and with difficulty — one person deciding to buy is much easier than six.
Groups are hard for banks to lend to.

At the same time, investors who want a stable, ethical, mindful real-estate investment lack a pool of vetted opportunities. And cities that want community-oriented spaces find few viable, capital-ready groups.

Question

How can we channel capital so that many more mindful, wise and well community-oriented co-living, co-housing and retreat-centre initiatives can be established?

Hypothesis

Establish, within a year, a professional-level real-estate fund focused on investing in and financing physical spaces for wiser, mindful living — community coliving/cohousing as well as retreat centres. Grow it to €1bn in assets under management within 20 years.

(The working brainstorm also sketched three delivery models: purchase-and-lease; core capital as a loan; purchase-and-operate. Purchase-and-lease became the prospectus model. And in the end, capacity constraints led to a fourth model none of us had written down: the broker/platform — see the fund we almost built.)

From the Fund Archive.