Civilizations, communities, progress, and social dynamics are my driving curiosities
Hey! I’m Thomas. I’m on a mission to understand the root of loneliness, depression, and unfulfilling life conditions. I was plagued with all three for 7 years in my teens, but have otherwise lived a happy life. Some would say it’s teenage angst, but I’ve come to find the common denominator was the people around me. Live with family and friends; life is good. Live around people that don’t share your values; life is bad. Most lived environments cause depression, anxiety, and general unhappiness. I feel called to do something about it. After a few years of research, I believe many of these problems are downstream of how our cities, neighborhoods, and institutions are designed. Living in a connected community can make all the difference. Living close to others that share your values isn’t only paramount for well-being, but it’s also important for progress. It’s no coincidence that college campuses spawned startups like Facebook, Google, Snapchat, and DoorDash. Building things is inherently social. The diffusion of ideas is crucial to uncovering truths of reality. My work is entirely centered on creating better conditions for well-being and progress. Since 2020, I’ve made a few stabs at trying to create these conditions via coliving, and some have seen success but ultimately found that coliving by itself doesn’t have the potential for longevity. I feel like I’m finally getting close with my latest iteration: Solaris. Solaris is a group of neighboring apartments and soon to include an AI build space. The ambition is to create something like a college campus for technologists, except you build your life’s work instead of obtaining a degree. It’ll look like dozens of spaces for learning, researching, and building within a 20-minute walk in San Francisco. If successful, I think this model of living could be reproduced all over the globe but for different communities. It will be hard, but it’s important for an ideal way to live.
If you build institutions that serve technologists’ desire to learn and build within half a square mile, then a campus will form whereby thousands of people will move near each other to build things and form deep relationships. As a result, if it sufficiently serves people and sews together the social fabric, we may be granted the opportunity to solve big world problems and extend this connected way of life to other places.
Building Solaris (July 2022 - Present)
Solaris is my latest experiment. It’s a handful of neighboring apartments and soon to be a space to build AI; however, the ambition is to grow it into a thriving campus with thousands of residents and companies being built. Imagine Silicon Valley densifying into a walkable neighborhood. Some day I hope to see many of these environments spanning the globe. Backed by city investors like Balaji Srinivasan & Eric Wu.
Founder - Together Casa (Jan - Oct 2021)
Together Casa was a coliving marketplace that connected young technologists together for housing. We helped Edyfi, the founders of Utopia Labs, The Garden, Mountain Compound, and many more start coliving experiences. My mission for this company was to create a better way of living for the long haul. Ultimately, I didn’t coliving houses as the vehicle for a better and long lasting way of life, so I shut it down at the end of 2021.
Founding Designer - Fast (Jan 2020 - Jan 2021)
Joined the original team of six to build one-click checkout. Set the brand design direction of Fast. Learned quite a bit from observing a company hire more than build a product. Ultimately left due to a desire to pursue my ambitions.
CS @ George Mason University (2015 - 2017)
Majored in computer science. Realized I was learning more programming on my own than in school. Made some money in crypto. Dropped out after my second year. Moved to San Francisco.