Tired of London, tired of life...

How you can start new businesses by solving personal problems.

Throughout my whole life, I have been building products for myself. Whatever the business idea was, it had to solve a problem I was facing, in a way I wanted it to be solved.

As a regular taxi customer, I started Taxibeat 12 years ago to make the taxi experience better for myself, with the conviction that many people like me had the same needs. Evidently, it was millions of them.

One of my passions was spending time in cities around the world. The word "vacation" usually was associated with traveling to big modern megacities (ok, sometimes to the sea and mountains too). I love exploring megacities like London, New York, or Paris, understanding their dynamics, experiencing their cultural activity, and discovering growth opportunities. Being born and raised in Greece my whole life made spending time in a modern megacity feel like renewing my brain cells and resetting my idea-creation mechanism.

I made that realization when I did a lot of traveling in Latin America in the last eight years. While I traveled to some beautiful places of the continent's nature (from Patagonia to Machu Pichu, even beyond the continent's edge to Antarctica), it was its cities that I longed to return to again and again. While visiting these nature's wonders was a one-time experience for each (won't go back to Patagonia), getting the vibes of Mexico City, Lima, or Buenos Aires was a repeat need.

But something was missing. I didn't have the feeling of being part of the cities I loved. Staying in hotels or Airbnbs made me feel like a tourist, while what I needed was to be a part-time resident. I'd love a second home in some of these cities (or at least one), but I couldn't afford any.

With Flyway, my co-founders and I are solving this problem for people like us. While permanently living elsewhere, you can now afford to own a pied-à-terre in your "second city". By co-owning a great apartment (and Flyway managing it for you), you can frequently return there, knowing there's a place to have your personal belongings waiting for you, and use this place as a base station to experience the city as a resident. You can become part of the neighborhood, get to know the corner shop owners, and contribute to the local economy more consistently.

This is an experience only wealthy people could have so far. Now, the affordability spectrum opens up with Flyway to many more people. So here we are, ready to launch our first home sales soon. We're starting with London. Why? Because, as they say, "tired of London, tired of life".

We have a blog full of content about the benefits of managed co-ownership. It’s a new era, things change fast.

#experience #london #building #growth #flyway #coownership #sharingeconomy