By Justin Wong
Student News Reporter
Disclaimer: This is a satirical take of existing facts, please save your money on your startups (or protein powder) rather than wasting it on suing a broke, shitposting student magazine.
A Newmarket 18-bedroom “stereotypical Silicon Valley ‘hustle house’” that is currently made up of all-male “young entrepreneurs and young professionals” recently gained attention after a social media post looking for flatmates went viral, but tenants said it is not a frat house, although it acts like one.
The flat, which calls itself the YoPro Collective, uses branding that is blatantly identical to the Facebook page of a group of young London art producers, despite describing itself as “some of New Zealand’s brightest up and coming leaders and entrepreneurs” in a now-deleted information document.
The document said the flat’s goal was to create “an ecosystem in which driven people can come back every day and truly feel at home while being surrounded in an intellectual and productivity greenhouse”.
It also claimed some of the tenants are working with aerospace company Rocket Lab, software firm Atlassian, consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), and “plenty of top-notch entrepreneurs”.
“To set the tone upfront, this is not designed to be a party/vlogger house where its’s constantly high energy, instead, it’s more of a sanctuary.”
“My grandma’s apartment across the road is $3m, this house cost $3.4m.”
Debate understands the flat’s main tenant had registered a limited company named “Silicon Mahi” at an apartment located across the house and had plans to proceed with a project in the same name that engages in “technology research activities”, despite not having any Māori representation.
The initiative had since been dropped after criticisms on Twitter.
Even though claiming it’s not a high-energy party house, the document revealed the flat had “initiatives” including parties, betting on world events, nominating 20-50 honorary members, 5-minute TEDx discussions, gym groups, co-consulting sessions, and groups for preparing high protein, low carbohydrate meals.
Future initiatives, according to the document, could include wrestling, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, gaming parties, art nights, setting up TikTok and YouTube accounts for “crazy stuff we do”, and a Billion Club Speaker Series that invite “high net-worth adults to speak to us”.
The flat also attempted to throw a flat warming party at the end of December last year that saw invitations extended to more than 700 people, secured corporate sponsors and promised “first 200 entries get a free tequila shot”, before it was cancelled after landlords threatened legal action.
Several current occupants, who insist they only be identified as Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, told Debate repeatedly every two sentences that the flat is not a frat house and it is planning to produce a product that “will be better than the iPhone when Steve [Jobs, former Apple CEO] announced it” in the coming years.
However, Debate is unable to get more comments from them or other tenants as they insist the entire editorial team invest in their artificial intelligence company or join its board of directors before answering any more questions.
Comments