As I am finally getting my own place for the first time at the age 30, I am starting to reflect on just where I have been sleeping the last decade.
It takes a village to raise a child and it takes a community to allow someone with no connections or money the opportunity to build things.
This is an open list of people who let me crash on their couch while I was struggling and are forever welcome on my couch. These are people who specifically went out of there way to help me, sometimes at a great detriment to their lives.
Rob – who let me crash on his couch in the living room of his shared apartment in Chicago.
Peter – who let me crash in the top floor of the Airbnb he and his friends got in Tokyo. He was even a solid wingman during that time. What a guy.
Young – who let me crash a few times in his tiny Manhattan studio. One time even with my girlfriend at the time.
Uma – who let me crash on the pullout couch of her Chicago apartment a few times.
Linda – who let me crash in the common area of her all girls building in college. And then found some friends willing to house me when her roommate complained.
Rishi – who let me crash at his parents house when I was starting a company.
Kaushik – who let me crash numerous times and gave reduced rent in his 2 story Brooklyn apartment with 8 bedrooms. He was even ok with me not paying the rent the last month when one of the other roommates let their friends break into my room.
Uyen – who let me crash many times in her Brooklyn apartment when I was severely in debt. She also moved me out of Kaushik’s Brooklyn apartment when it was no longer safe there.
Vi – who let me crash in her small studio dorm at Stanford with her roommate (who I was dating) for ~7 months on and off. I still can’t imagine the patience and generosity required to let a complete stranger do that.
Bowen – who let me crash on his couch in downtown San Francisco when I was just in town visiting.
Jaemo – who let me crash countless times all over the country. Since Junior High School in his parents’ basement so we could sing karaoke all night to his couch in San Francisco while he was living with his girlfriend. Most generously on the first floor of his duplex in Boston. I was at my lowest point, severely in debt and freshly screwed over from my first company. I stayed there at least a week and watched the entirety of “Nathan For You”, which I just discovered.
Eric – who let me crash at his parents place in Wisconsin and Illinois many times to play video games.
Greg – who let me crash in his parents’ basement many times to have LAN parties. Pretty sure we also slept in his car.
Neil – who let me crash in his house in Copenhagen with his one cat who needed to be touched the entire time and the other fat cat.
Ryan – who let me crash at the foot of his bed for what felt like a month when I had no money and no job and just found out my girlfriend was cheating on me.
Colin – who let me crash several times and introduced me to New York City which I now call home. He hosted many board games and introduced me to so many people.
唐继益 – who let me crash in his remote village in China. He only met me at a hostel for a day or so but said I should check out his town as most people there haven’t seen a foreigner in real life before. It felt a bit like a horror movie, walking through the small town with him and seeing every single person on the street stop what they are doing and look at me. Unfortunately I have no way of contacting him anymore.
Xue – who let me crash at her lovely place in Toronto.
Amir – who likewise let me crash at his lovely place in Toronto.
Osman – who let me crash on his couch for months in Hong Kong when we were starting our company. And then again in the Cyberport area when he snagged a nice office and brought a blow up mattress.
The Wefunder guys – who let me crash at their huge San Francisco mansion during their Christmas party while we just interviewing at Y Combinator.
Honorable Mentions
These are people who may have let me crash before, my memory is not very good. Either way, they certainly would let me crash and may have made offers in the past.
Aaron – who I think let me crash in his closet on one occasion, I think? He’s a standup guy so I’ll pretend he did. We also camped together.
Joe – who I don’t think let me crash anywhere, but we did go on some road trips together.
Maysen – who I also don’t I crashed with but I’ve met him all over the world so it certainly feels like I did.
Jasper – who I also met up with all over the world including trying to climb the tallest mountain in Asia. Halfway through my legs stopped working so I was forced to leave him and go back to the bottom when they started to work again.
Sally – who I also met all over China and Hong Kong. She always said I can crash with her cute kitties.
Chris – who I have a vague memory of crashing in his Boston studio with. I’ll just pretend I did.
Lukasz – who I have also met up with all over the world.
There were a few others who helped me out at the time.
H*****, Z****, and P******* I would happily host. Although as we ended up dating and had poor goodbyes. I take it they would find that quite weird.
P***** and A*** also let me stay on their couches. But unfortunately I no longer feel comfortable hosting them. As nice as they were to host me at the time, they were not so nice both professionally and personally.