dave payne’s Post

Congratulations to Ifrah Khan and the whole Swiftstay team...fantastic job getting this beautiful product into the world! The Swiftstay experience is very different from everything that exists in travel. Take a look. We'd love to have you as a member!

Me and my wife have been Airbnb hosts for five years and we really love it. However there’s a real job & skillset needed to be a host, so the vast majority of people are left out. At Neighborhood Studios we saw an opportunity to create another way and Swiftstay is launching today for our members. As I’m preparing my home to be on the platform, it’s refreshingly different than being an Airbnb host. More like a friend staying. I suspect a major shift is happening here that’s too early to see clearly.

Here's some basic investor pitch advice that I've been giving lately for founders getting ready to raise capital for the first time. 3 parts... Part 1 - Open a blank google doc. Start with the high level narrative first. Divide the narrative into page breaks (that will later be slides) with a clear goal for each section. Like a chapter in a book. Focus on the script first - the words that you will say. Don't worry about copy & design yet. Part 2 - Once the script is tight (for real), do the slides. They matter much less than the words that you say, so slides can (should) be very simple. The best founders I know have super simple slides. Part 3 - Once the script and slides are ready, record a Loom video giving your complete pitch. Share that Loom and the google doc with your close advisors and encourage them to add comments into the doc as they watch it. Some great links related to this... https://lnkd.in/eVwp-FyG https://lnkd.in/eDF7bJG4

slow is smooth and smooth is fast

this might be the startup quote that i think about most often. huge startups are only possible if they are non-consensus. the search for non-consensus ideas is the search for ideas where most people think one thing, but they are wrong. it’s the search for truth.

Every so often we have a guest join our Friday morning all-team meeting at Neighborhood Studios. It's the weekly meeting where we triage our new ideas (about 40 per week). Plus lots of donuts. I love what Landon Howell said here... People spend 90% of their time within 5 miles of their home, but technology hasn’t significantly impacted our local lives. The best hyperlocal startups haven't been created yet. Atlanta, expect to see (at least) two new startups per year that directly touch you day-to-day life. At Neighborhood Studios we are on it!