Devon Zuegel

One theory I've heard for why startups have taken root in California, especially the apocryphal startup garages for all the early companies, was because in California, there are these garages that are warm enough most of the year that you can actually work in them. And there's sort of this extra cheap space that is attached to a lot of people's homes.

One theory I've heard for why startups have taken root in California, especially the apocryphal startup garages for all the early companies, was because in California, there are these garages that are warm enough most of the year that you can actually work in them. And there's sort of this extra cheap space that is attached to a lot of people's homes.

And so they turned into the workshops of various inventors and people who created things. Whereas on the East Coast, your garage is freezing cold half the year.

And so they turned into the workshops of various inventors and people who created things. Whereas on the East Coast, your garage is freezing cold half the year.

So I think when you end up being able to treat space as something that's cheap and something that you don't necessarily have to pay for, you end up getting a different type of creativity coming out of it and more things that take a lot of physical space.

So I think when you end up being able to treat space as something that's cheap and something that you don't necessarily have to pay for, you end up getting a different type of creativity coming out of it and more things that take a lot of physical space.

Yeah. So I grew up going to this town in Western New York called Chautauqua. My grandmother lives there. It's a small town of about 8,000 people. And it was built about 150 years ago. I'd visit her every summer. And the thing that's really special about Chautauqua is that for nine weeks every summer, Chautauqua hosts what they call the season, which has workshops, lectures, performances.

Yeah. So I grew up going to this town in Western New York called Chautauqua. My grandmother lives there. It's a small town of about 8,000 people. And it was built about 150 years ago. I'd visit her every summer. And the thing that's really special about Chautauqua is that for nine weeks every summer, Chautauqua hosts what they call the season, which has workshops, lectures, performances.

It has a symphony orchestra, an opera, and a very active theater. You can kind of picture it like a college campus, except it's multi-generational. And I grew up going there and it's been my favorite place in the whole world since I was a little girl. But it wasn't until a few years ago, I brought my husband there for the first time.

It has a symphony orchestra, an opera, and a very active theater. You can kind of picture it like a college campus, except it's multi-generational. And I grew up going there and it's been my favorite place in the whole world since I was a little girl. But it wasn't until a few years ago, I brought my husband there for the first time.

And as we were walking around, he just asked me a simple question, which was, Why aren't there more places like Chautauqua? Why is this the only one? And that literally stopped me dead in my tracks. It felt like a movie almost. I was like, wow, that's a great question. Why isn't there?

And as we were walking around, he just asked me a simple question, which was, Why aren't there more places like Chautauqua? Why is this the only one? And that literally stopped me dead in my tracks. It felt like a movie almost. I was like, wow, that's a great question. Why isn't there?

Because I'd been a fish in water, not really thinking about how Chautauqua came into being and why that wasn't more common. And so that was about five years ago now and took me down the rabbit hole and I just kept thinking about it. And Basically, I ended up realizing I need to build a new Chautauqua in California, which is my home state and where my family is and my friends and my network.

Because I'd been a fish in water, not really thinking about how Chautauqua came into being and why that wasn't more common. And so that was about five years ago now and took me down the rabbit hole and I just kept thinking about it. And Basically, I ended up realizing I need to build a new Chautauqua in California, which is my home state and where my family is and my friends and my network.

And so basically, I'm building a modern version of Chautauqua.

And so basically, I'm building a modern version of Chautauqua.

On some level, it shouldn't be that hard because we know how to build buildings. We know how to build roads. This is not rocket science. We're not making a technical breakthrough. But you are empirically correct that when you look around, there aren't a lot of new towns being built up. I think part of it is that...

On some level, it shouldn't be that hard because we know how to build buildings. We know how to build roads. This is not rocket science. We're not making a technical breakthrough. But you are empirically correct that when you look around, there aren't a lot of new towns being built up. I think part of it is that...

There's sort of this sense that the frontier is closed in the United States, and I feel like it's more than just the physical frontier. I think that a lot of people in a lot of industries feel like we're at the end of history, and it's almost a more philosophical reason. I could answer this question in a lot of ways. I think on one hand, I could answer this philosophical level.

There's sort of this sense that the frontier is closed in the United States, and I feel like it's more than just the physical frontier. I think that a lot of people in a lot of industries feel like we're at the end of history, and it's almost a more philosophical reason. I could answer this question in a lot of ways. I think on one hand, I could answer this philosophical level.