The NOMADIQ Obit
Lessons from Building a Flexible Living Network
After 2+ years of building NOMADIQ, we've wound down operations. Here's what happened, what I learned, and what’s next.
The Vision That Captivated Us
Post-COVID, I recognized a fundamental shift toward location independence. NOMADIQ was designed to be the world's first borderless living network—a subscription service giving members access to a portfolio of fully-furnished properties under one payment covering essentials, amenities, and community programming. Our hybrid model would simultaneously increase NOI for property owners while offering tenants unprecedented flexibility.
Despite raising capital and launching our first property to 100% occupancy—validating core aspects of the thesis—we ultimately failed to scale.
Critical Lessons From the Trenches
1. MVP-Market Fit Is Different From Product-Market Fit
Our initial property reached full occupancy, proving demand existed. However, our MVP wasn't representative of the full vision's economics. Having had to whittle down the intended GTM from multiple properties across various markets to one single location, the business model was fundamentally changed. Without multiple properties across different markets to leverage arbitrage opportunities, we couldn't demonstrate the financial viability that would attract further investment. A scalable MVP should validate both customer desire AND business model mechanics.
2. Consumer Businesses Run on Momentum
Once fully occupied, I diverted attention from marketing to fundraising and partner acquisition. This created an invisible debt: our social presence—the lifeblood of consumer growth—stagnated exactly when we needed to showcase growing demand to potential investors and property partners. In consumer businesses, marketing isn't just acquisition; it's validation.
3. Contracts Before Commitments
After multiple promising meetings with a key developer partner, I hired staff to meet their stated timeline. When the contract phase arrived, continual delays revealed the gap between interest and commitment. Five months of delays taught me the hard lesson that verbal enthusiasm, even across multiple meetings, isn't bankable without signatures.
4. Fixed Costs Kill Optionality
Taking on office space and expanding the team simultaneously increased our burn rate while decreasing our flexibility to pivot or extend runway. Each fixed cost became an anchor when we needed to be nimble.
The Expertise Built
Through this journey, I developed multidisciplinary expertise that few possess:
Built and operated a tech-enabled real estate platform from concept through execution
Led fundraising and partnership cycle to successfully close funding and bring a prop-tech product to market
Translated market insights into product features to achieve 100% occupancy
Recruited and managed a team of world-class talent
Managed stakeholder relationships across investors, property partners, team members, and customers
Looking Forward
Starting a business where your product relies on another business's assets introduces complexity that most founders never encounter. We brought a product to market, found initial product-market fit, pivoted to scale, then failed—but the expertise gained is invaluable.
So what is next?
I'm drawn to opportunities that leverage my strengths: seeing market shifts before others, underwriting the opportunity, and executing rapidly. I've never been more equipped to create value, and I've never been more determined.
The NOMADIQ chapter closes, but the insights live on in whatever comes next.
In the meantime, I’ll be posting here, iterating on a side project called Ledger, and having lots of conversations to see where I land next.
