Ep 33: Cofounding one of the fastest-growing global coliving/coworking spaces that just closed $3.5MM

Sean Tierney: 01:52 All right. Welcome to the nomad podcast. I’m your host, Sean Tierney, and I am here today with Liz Ribot. Liz is cofounder and chief operations officer of outsite. Outside is a global network of co-living spaces designed for location and flexible professionals offering short term accommodations and retreats for small teams outside. Provides a place to stay and work in beautiful settings, fun outdoor activities, and with a collaborative and entrepreneurial community. Liz has a bachelor’s degree in science and administration from the University of Idaho. She is from Puerto Rico, fluent in English, Spanish and somewhat French, uh, and has questionable taste in music. I’m kidding. Of course. Liz, welcome to the show. Hello. Thank you for having me. Cool. All right, so some quick context for listeners in terms of how we met. Uh, so about a week ago, I was at a dinner, a buddy of mine, Ben Lakoff, who is coincidentally a episode 19 of the podcast was in town and we met at a dinner, it was for outside people and I was just kind of at the end of the table sitting next to you talking and it turns out that you’re the cofounder. So we’ve kind of started chatting about it and this is perfect. Um, I think where I want to start is just the origin story. Like how, how did you guys start this business? What did that look like? Like take us back to the day when you guys kinda decided to do it.

Liz Ribot: 03:10 Yeah. So it’ll start it. When our, our main founder, Manuel, he went, uh, he came from Belgium to San Francisco, uh, with his startup at the time, which was a travel startup. So he went to San Francisco and he got really involved in the whole coworking scene there. Um, it was like super new for him. Um, that whole scene was like booming at the time, which was like 2013. Um, and he just thought it was really cool. He got really involved in it and he thought, wow, like wouldn’t it be cool to have like the same thing but a place where you can stay? Because being from Belgium, he was trying to find a place to stay in San Francisco and all he had at that time, airbnb was just bumping up. So there was just like the Airbnbs, the what we call, at that time where we call the hacker houses, which was like just bunk beds in one room.

Liz Ribot: 04:05 And another thing also was this San Francisco, super expensive. So he was like, wouldn’t it be cool if we could just combine this coworking element with a place where you could stay? And that is basically the start of at all. Uh, he decided to start a place in Santa Cruz, um, because he’s also a big time surfer. So of course, like close to the surface. Um, so he got a place in Santa Cruz. We started Super Beta, you know, uh, from scratch. We made an office in the garage and then I got involved because I had just moved to Santa Cruz and I was also looking for a community and I was working in administration at a hospital there at the time. And um, I came into the scene because I just wanted the community side of things. I already knew him Manuel from before and I knew what he was starting, so I decided to become the first community manager there. Um, and that is basically the beginning of it all. Like then we were like a little bit lifestyle. Like, oh, this is really cool. We’re meeting really cool people. And it just was like, okay, now we should we just stay lifestyle or should we take this big, basically go big or go home.

Sean Tierney: 05:13 Right, right. And this is the, I guess this is important because this is prior to co-living being a thing. Really.

Liz Ribot: 05:19 Yeah. Yeah. Everyone was super hesitant and was like, what are you doing? AIRBNB was not even a, like, it was just starting, like they were basically like, you know, the, the guys that, uh, made the sharing, uh, the basically the sharing accommodation a thing. Um, so a lot of hesitation at the time of what, what we were doing. Like, you know, all kinds of things with like, oh, but you’re living with strangers or white. What is this? Like you, you’re doing coworking in a, like in a s in a place where you’re also staying. What is this? Also remote work was not that big at the time. Um, I feel like now when you say remote work, a lot of people understand what you’re talking about or digital nominate. Um, and at that time that wasn’t the case. So we really fought hard to make sure that people like believed in what we were doing.

Sean Tierney: 06:08 Yeah, for sure. So you started at in San Francisco, in Santa Cruz, and then, at what point did you then decide to go big, you know, and start replicating it and taking it into other locations?

Liz Ribot: 06:20 Yes. So we got a lot of people from San Francisco staying in our Santa Cruz location. And that’s basically, uh, an influence from everyone who we were meeting there. We just had like this thing where it was like, okay, like in San Francisco you have this thing where everyone wants to go big with their startup. And so we fell into that. We were like, okay, we need to go vague. Um, so our first step obviously was to get investment, um, and to create a business plan of what we wanted to do with the brand, where we wanted to go, um, who, you know, like, because we have like a, after at Santa Cruz we did San Diego was the next house. So, um, at that point I left my job, my administration job and I became full time and took on the operations role from the beginning of that time. It was just two locations, but we then got accepted by an accelorator and that was a game changer because we then, you know, we were like learning from scratch, how to raise some money and uh, uh, what we need to do to increase our marketing and um, all of those kinds of things is, I was super helpful in order to, for us to grow.

Sean Tierney: 07:27 And that accelerator was that 500 startups. Yep.

Liz Ribot: 07:29 That was 500 startups at that time. That was 2015.

Sean Tierney: 07:32 Cool. Did you I met Dave McClure at south by southwest way back in the day. Yeah, were you working with him or was it someone else?

Liz Ribot: 07:40 It’s funny because I never met him. Um, so how it worked at that time I was living, I had already moved to San Diego, so I was just traveling back and forth San Francisco, so, and Manuel was the guy that was basically there, um, at the accelerator full time.

Sean Tierney: 07:55 Cool. What is the mission of outside? What are you guys aiming to do? I mean, of course it’s a network of places and you have people staying there. But like is there more to it than that? I get the impression that there is.

Liz Ribot: 08:06 Yes there is. So our main goal is the community. Um, we want to have a community of people who are travelers who are like minded. Um, and if you like anywhere, any outside that you go to, we would like you to feel at home. The whole purpose of this was we created a place where we know that not only ourselves cause we like we all stay at outsides as well. Right? You come through the door and you already feel like you’re home. Like not only from a perspective of the actual accommodation itself, like high speed Wifi and a comfortable bed and things like that, but also of the people that you’re meeting, um, that, you know, um, if you talk to anyone, uh, that has stayed at an outside, you’ll probably hear that, that that’s the first thing that they feel is that when they get there, you already feel like you’ve been friends with these people forever. One, you’ve just met them a week ago.

Sean Tierney: 09:02 Yeah. I mean I can attest to that. Right. So I came to Y’alls, whatever that was, community kind of dinner gathering thing the other night and just drop right in. And sure enough, yeah, just felt right at home. So yeah, I would attest to that. How do you guys compare to spaces like Selena or Roam? I’m sure you get that comparison made, but w w w where do you fit in or how do you position against those?

Liz Ribot: 09:24 Mhm so for Roam at the time, the, I think they were our biggest competitor, um, but not so much anymore as we know. But, um, we basically had the Ba the same concept, like the same concept of co-living, of the sharing community and everything. Um, we were in locations that were not at, so that was our biggest competitive advantage. Um, and for Selena we consider them a hostile whiles. We’re more a co-living environment. Um, it’s just different in the sense that in outside you actually have a curated community of people that are staying there. We screen everyone who stays well, you know, we have a membership and in Selena it’s just whoever wants to stay there, um, party or so, I mean Selena does have a coworking space, but we actually curated the community. So everyone that say set outside is looking for a work life balance. So I would say those are the main differences.

Sean Tierney: 10:28 Yeah. So I mean people can’t see, but I’m gesturing like on a continuum of left to right where you have travel programs like remote year and Wifi tribe and those types of things on the left and on the right you have a Selena hostels and that it seems like you guys occupy some space, kind of middle ground to that where it’s, it does have an emphasis on community, but it is also this network of living situation,

Liz Ribot: 10:50 right? Right, correct. Yes.

Sean Tierney: 10:52 And so did Roam, maybe I didn’t get the memo, but are they no longer a competitor? Meaning like they’re no longer in business or are they

Liz Ribot: 10:59 as far as I know, yes, that’s correct. I don’t believe they’re in business anymore.

Sean Tierney: 11:04 So let’s talk about the rise of co-living. Like to, what do you attribute this? It sounds like you guys were at the very forefront of establishing it and we see it becoming kind of a, a trend at this point too. What do you attribute that rise?

Liz Ribot: 11:17 I think co-living came from coworking, um, because if there wasn’t any coworking, I don’t think that people would be doing co-living. Um, of course you had back in the day will you call your normal roommate? But that’s not what we’re about. We’re about, um, not only the community that you find in there, um, wherever you’re staying at, whichever outside you’re saying, but also the global community of all of the outsides, um, is, is what we’re aiming for. So for example, if you become a member of outside, you have access to what we have. We have like an internal slack group. Um, and there you can find all kinds of people from all over the world, uh, that are part or part of our community and the say in our different spaces. So you have not only the community that is in each location, but you also have that global community that we’re aiming for, which is like the outside community.

Sean Tierney: 12:12 Got It. Yeah. It’s just interesting kind of convergence of places that started as physical spaces and then places that are like just the travel programs and they seem to be kind of converging on this, this network of, you know, on what, not not like a timeshare, but the ability to hop around and be mobile and yet still retain that community and go kind of in and out of it globally. It’s a really interesting thing.

Liz Ribot: 12:33 Yeah. And um, it’s super interesting too with our guests. Like you see them like, uh, they, they are in each location, but you know, they know each other. They’re asking each other and which location are you going next? So which location are you now? So that interaction is super cool to see how people just, um, traveled together and, and become friends just out of being part of the community.

Sean Tierney: 12:57 What is the glue? Do you guys have a slack, right? That, that unites all of them?

Liz Ribot: 13:02 We do. We do, we have a slack group for our members, basically that kind of glues together the whole community.

Sean Tierney: 13:09 Can you talk about the model in terms of subscription versus like I didn’t pay a subscription. I’m gonna maybe staying there for a few days. I’m leaving my current lease and then there’ll be a gap of like three days before I actually go on my next nomadic stint. So I’m staying outside. I would get to experience it firsthand, but I didn’t actually sign up for a subscription. Can you talk about like what the benefits are there, how that works?

Liz Ribot: 13:31 Yeah, so the membership gives you, you know, how the airlines do, you have the loyalty program. So it basically works with discounts and a, it’s basically a loyalty program. So the more you stay, the more credits you get. Um, we have like this, uh, this three different levels. You can go from like nomad to travel or to like, uh, I don’t remember what the third level is, but the more you travel, the more credits you get in a different law, you get a different level. So that’s really cool. And then of course we accept guests and we accept, um, not, not what you would call non-members. Um, but now we just launched this month a members only houses. Uh, so some of our locations that we have, we will have a members only location, which means if you want to stay in that location, you would have to become a member.

Sean Tierney: 14:19 But there’s none of those yet every, every place. [inaudible] not members at this point are there are some of them.

Liz Ribot: 14:23 Yeah, there’s already some, yeah. So some of our locations are already members only.

Sean Tierney: 14:28 Cool. Yeah. And what are your locations? Where do you, where do you guys exist?

Liz Ribot: 14:32 Yes. So we have right now 23 locations. Let me see if I remember all of them from, uh, uh, from memory. So of course we’re right now we’re in Lisbon. So, uh, we have one here in Lisbon. Uh, we’re about to open one in 80 CEDA. Uh, we’re about to open one and be a Ritz France. Uh, we have one in the Swiss Alps and that’s Europe. Um, in the U s we have Austin, we have San Francisco, San Diego. Uh, Hawaii in New York and, uh, Venice beach. Yeah. And in some of these we have multiple locations. So say for example, in Venice beach we have like four different locations. So cool. That’s why it’s 23.

Sean Tierney: 15:15 It seems very surface influence, like beer. It ‘s, and then Eddie say it a, I like these places in Hawaii, these are all very much catering towards the surf crowd. So it’s, yeah.

Liz Ribot: 15:24 Yeah. Well we always look for really nice locations. Of course, we started in California, so we’re very much a, we have a big presence in California. Yeah. I mean, we started, like when we first started, we were really focused on like locations that were away from the city. Um, that’s actually how the concept started because we wanted a place that was away from the city where you can enjoy a, have a more like a balanced lifestyle. And we would have everyone from San Francisco come to Santa Cruz for like the week whenever they could work remotely. But that quickly transitioned into something else. Um, because we got the more guests we got the more we got asked like when are you gonna open in New York, when are you going to open in Austin? And so we saw the opportunity and it actually worked out really well. I am like super happy that we have locations in the cities because it just creates a nice network of locations where people can just jump from one to the other.

Sean Tierney: 16:20 Yeah. It seems like if you’re fully nomadic and you’re a full time travel, this type of thing would be like a really nice, like you always know what to expect. You always know you’re going to get roughly the same, you know, wifi quality and access and bed type and all that. So it seems like it’s a really nice to kind of way to have stability when your environment is changing so often.

Liz Ribot: 16:40 Yes. Yes. And that’s, that is our goal that you can have some consistency. Um, not only the community but of course the consistency when you go from one outside to the other.

Sean Tierney: 16:50 Cool. I mean, so this is a big space, right? This is this whole area. It seems like it’s just growing feverously and it’s cool that you guys are at the forefront of it, but it also seems like there is enough space for all these different types to coexist.

Liz Ribot: 17:04 Yeah, I believe so. Um, especially in the last couple of years, I feel like it has exploded a little bit. Like all of a sudden you start hearing of names that you never heard of before. But I think there’s definitely room for it because there was nothing before. So we all still have a little bit of a different concept that your usual co-living. Um, so there are a lot of places out there that say they’re co-living and it’s true, they’re co-living, but they’re more longterm. So they go from three months, well, from a month to three months to six months. Um, while it’s, we still do short term. So I think if, as far as flexibility, we’re, our competitive advantage is that we’re super flexible for being a cool living space. But there’s definitely room for, for growth. Yes. Cool.

Sean Tierney: 17:50 So the flexibility, that was gonna be my next question is what differentiates you guys? So the flexibility, the community focus, it sounds like any other differentiators, if someone’s investigating this, you know, the, the options out there and they’re trying to determine whether they should stay outside, what should they be thinking about?

Liz Ribot: 18:07 you know, it’s funny because this is a question that we get all the time, like so much that we created an infographic. Like if you go on our website, you can see that, why did she do shoes outside to Airbnb? Why should you choose? So it depends what your, uh, what, you know, whoever’s looking on there, what they’re looking at. Like if they’re looking at airbnb for example, airbnb is a great option. Um, but you don’t always get consistency. Um, you don’t know what kind of Wifi you’re going to get and you don’t know who your host is going to be. You don’t know what kind of situation you’re going to be in. And most of the time it’s fine, but a lot of the times is not. Um, not only to mention that, of course you’re by yourself.

Sean Tierney: 18:44 Yeah, I was gonna say like the absence of community.

Liz Ribot: 18:46 Right, right. So yeah, you’re by yourself. You don’t have anyone else. So that, that’s basically the difference from an Airbnb a from a hotel standpoint is also the same. Of course you don’t have a community in the hotel or so price points if you’re going to stay longterm somewhere. It just makes sense to go to a cool living space rather than a hotel. And then from a cold leaving, uh, if you’re comparing us to just a normal cold leaving space is definitely the flexibility because most co living spaces have a minimum, at least have one month to three months. Some of them even have six month, uh, minimum stays. So with us you can say I may need, it also depends on the location. But most locations have a minimum two nights stay. Of course our average of, uh, our average guest stays two weeks because I feel like the average traveler doesn’t stay somewhere for just two nights. Um, but if you want it to stay for two nights, you could,

Sean Tierney: 19:41 yeah, I mean that’s what I’m doing and I’m just using it as kind of a stopover before I leave. Um, okay, great. And so, where are you guys going next?

Liz Ribot: 19:52 Good question. So our next location, it’s going to be, you know, I don’t want to put too much pressure on our expansion team, but we’re going to hopefully do outside to loon. So our next location will be Mexico. Nice. Yes. Very nice.

Sean Tierney: 20:15 It’s a loom. I Dunno. I have a love hate, like it was amazing 10 years ago and I feel like it’s, it’s so just full at this point. I mean, that’s a great, it’s an amazing location. Like definitely it’s beautiful. The snow days, the just the landscape, the ruins, everything around there. But it just seems like it’s also kind of jumped the shark in some sense. Like there’s a lot, uh, it’s become really, really popular lately, but it’s still beautiful.

Liz Ribot: 20:41 Well, you could say the same thing. Oh, Bali. No,

Sean Tierney: 20:43 I’ve never been to Bali, but I, I get the same impression that Bali is kind in that same state. Right.

Liz Ribot: 20:48 Um, so we’ve always wanted it to be Mexico and we just got this opportunity to be in them. So we’re definitely gonna go to to them or I mean we, we all love Mexico and um, we’re super excited about it. And also we do like this little survey that we sent out to our members to see where they want to, to see our next location. Um, and to loon what’s one of the highest ones. So that’s also good for our members that will have a, an outside location there now.

Sean Tierney: 21:17 And how do you make that decision about where to go next? Is it driven by the community that the survey surveys, the thing that dictates it or what, what is your decision making process look like?

Liz Ribot: 21:26 Yeah, it’s, I mean it’s a, we do look at the survey and we say, okay, so this is where like at least a top five, like this is where we should go next because this is where our community’s like pointing towards. And of course from a monetary perspective, we also have our financials to look God. So that’s also going to be something we look at and whatever opportunity we get there. But we always have, um, we’re always looking for spaces. We also get people contacting us like, hey, we do like an outside in Romaine.

Sean Tierney: 21:58 Yeah.

Liz Ribot: 21:58 So we also get a lot of people contacting us. So sometimes it’s opportunistic. Like if we see like, oh, maybe this is a location that we wouldn’t have done here, we wouldn’t have done now if, uh, like we wouldn’t maybe look for it now, but if we got our great opportunity we will take it because maybe it’s somewhere where we would have been somewhere in the future, but we do have a list of locations where we want to go next. Um, like for example, we know that one of the locations where we want to go next is definitely London, but we’re not there yet, but we definitely want to be there soon.

Sean Tierney: 22:28 What is your process look like for scouting? Like once you know that you want to be in London, then you’ve got this expansion team. And are they just basically looking up properties via the mls or like, or via whatever systems are available to, to find properties or how you, how do you decide on a, on a location?

Liz Ribot: 22:46 Yeah, so a little bit of everything that that’s one. Um, [inaudible] we will have local people looking, um, that have connections. Um, and of course of whatever location we choose, we’ll have to meet the requirements of the amount of bedrooms. Um, is it walking distance too? Cause all of our locations we try that they’re walking distance to a neighborhood that it’s popular or that we know our guests would like. For example, here in Lisbon is sky to Sadra, which is super close to everything. You have, supermarkets, restaurants, bars, et cetera. Um, so we always try to look for that. Uh, we would never get a location that’s super remote anywhere, uh, just because our concept is basically to be somewhere where you’re, where you’re walking distance and have places to go. Um, you, you don’t need a car to go anywhere. Um, but all of those factors are basically play into what location we choose. Nice.

Sean Tierney: 23:39 Yeah. I haven’t had a car this entire time that I’d been living in Lisbon. It’s amazing. Yeah. That’s great quality of life you can make, I feel like. Cool. All right, well I want to shift gears. So you’re from Puerto Rico? Yes. And I don’t know if you saw the news, I try to not read it, but I just happened to read it this morning. Apparently yesterday Trump joked about trading Puerto Rico for Greenland. What is your feeling towards this current administration? I wouldn’t mind. Um,

Liz Ribot: 24:08 so yeah, and even Puerto Rico itself is going through his, its own hard times, you know, I dunno if you’ve heard about the governor and the corruption and yeah. You know, last year, well not last year with like two years ago you got Hurricane Maria. Then if feels like it’s like one thing after another, after another. Um, political situation is not good. Uh, but, and my family’s still there. I go visit. And you, you just don’t even feel it. Like you’re, I feel at home still. Like, it’s not like you go there and you’re like skew like I remember because we also, I forgot to mention this, but we also have our location in Puerto Rico. That’s the one I forgot. Oh, and Costa Rica. I forgot about that one too. Uh, so, uh, we actually had some guests that were gonna uh, come to Puerto Rico during when we had the big protest to get the governor out and they were like, oh, we’re not sure.

Liz Ribot: 25:01 There’s like a lot of protests going on, but you know, for us there, it was funny because the media really overreacted to the whole situation. Like my sister was there and everything and she’s like, yeah, it’s just, there’s a lot of people protesting but it’s also not dangerous. Um, there were peaceful protests. It wasn’t really like anyone was in danger at the time. So, um, as far as the political situation, yes. Is Bod, but it is still safe to travel there. Like you, if you go there, you’re still be fine. They’re still high speed wise.

Sean Tierney: 25:36 Yeah. Yeah. I know that like when I went to Columbia, I got nothing. But you know, when I posted that on Facebook, all my friends were immediately like, oh, how can you go there? It’s so unsafe and Pablo Escobar this and drugs that, and I, it, it just, it, there are such negative stigmas it seems like. And so, you know, it’s a shame because these are some of the most beautiful places I feel like, and they’re the places that people are going to go because they just believe what they read in the media.

Liz Ribot: 26:04 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know it, it’s, um, it’s good and bad because you create awareness of what’s going on. But then at the same time, um, I feel like more than creating awareness, you’re like scaring people. And Puerto Rico is an island that lives off of tourism. Oh, we really don’t have much else, unfortunately. So if you don’t, if you actually scare people from coming there, it’s like you’re creating even a bigger problem.

Sean Tierney: 26:33 Right. What would you do? I mean, if you were in charge, what, what do you see the solution being for Puerto Rico?

Liz Ribot: 26:39 Oh, that’s, yeah. Um, I’ve actually thought about this a lot.

Sean Tierney: 26:44 Perfect.

Liz Ribot: 26:46 Um, I believe I’m a very big believer in education. Um, I think that if we invested in education, Puerto Rico would be, um, on a whole nother different level. Unfortunately. Um, I dunno if you’ve seen the news, but even like, uh, people that are in education are corrupt. Like, I mean, like the high ups, I’m like, uh, so a big investment in dedication, not only monetarily but also like someone that actually, um, puts the hard work into making sure that all the schools have the right supplies, that all the schools are, have the right schooling, that um, everyone is actually going to school. That, um, all the public schools are, you know, have all their programs like music and art. And I know this is the case for some, but I don’t think that we’ve put enough effort and emphasis into it. And I think that to me it’s like a huge, would make such a huge difference.

Sean Tierney: 27:43 Yup. Cool.

Sean Tierney: 27:49 [Speaks Spanish]

Liz Ribot: 28:02 [Speaks Spanish]

Sean Tierney: 28:05 Bueno, uh, what keeps you up at night? About outside. Are there any challenges that you guys are facing? What w what are the things that

Sean Tierney: 28:12 you,

Sean Tierney: 28:14 like the obstacles or the things that worry you about the business?

Liz Ribot: 28:18 You know, what keeps me up at night is bad feedback. I am a perfectionist, so whenever we get any kind of bad feedback, I’m like, how can we improve this? Like how can we make sure this doesn’t happen again? Um, so yeah, it’s like people are like, oh, but don’t take it personal. It’s fine. It’s like outside is basically my life. Like I live on Brita outside, so whenever I get feedback that I’m like, man, like we need to work on this, like we need to improve this process or whatever it is that, um, it’s not working and that keeps me up at night.

Sean Tierney: 28:52 What are the things that you guys are working on improving right now?

Liz Ribot: 28:56 Um, so we are improving, um, a lot of things. Uh, we, as you know, we, we’re like a startup, but like, we were like a young company. So there’s lots of different internal processes that we’re working on. We’re working on hiring more people. Um, I think that’s our biggest, um, our biggest thing right now is just hiring more people because, for example, me, I’m super overwhelmed. I have so many things to do. I am do basically a little bit of everything and we’re growing so fast that we’re at this point where it’s like, okay, we need to hire a whole bunch of people or we’re going to be like super, super overwhelmed. So I think that’s our biggest challenge right now. Just making sure that we’re hiring, uh, more people and we’re hiring the right people of course, because when I, I think like it makes such a difference when you have like a good team behind a company that is working towards the same goal. Um, so yeah, then we will, uh, I will be working on that, uh, this month for sure.

Sean Tierney: 29:57 What some, I mean there might be someone listening right now who has like what types of traits, who are you looking for who, who is an ideal candidate to work for you guys?

Liz Ribot: 30:06 Yeah. So you know, we will be having, um, a lot of different open positions, but as of right now, um, we’ll be looking for someone for operations like what I’m doing. So there’ll be working with me. Um, we’ll be looking for someone for our FMB, uh, here in Lisbon cause we’re opening a cafe as well.

Sean Tierney: 30:25 What does FMB, I’m not familiar?

Liz Ribot: 30:27 Oh, the food and beverage. Sorry, I’m just so used to the lingo. I’m like okay. I actually just came from there and we were coffee tasting today, so I am pretty up in caffeine. But um, yeah, so our food and beverage w what we’re doing is that we’re turning our outside co-work a space into an outside co-work cafe. So we’ll also be serving coffee and selling like lights knocks and things like that. Um, I think that it’s going to be like a really cool addition because everyone that’s sitting there can just go get a coffee right there. Uh,

Sean Tierney: 30:59 that’s going to bring in out people that aren’t staying outside. It will be able to hang out at the cafe. Yes.

Liz Ribot: 31:04 Yeah. And that’s one where that’s going to be one of my challenges actually figuring all of that out. But so far, yes, people from the outside will come only to the front part of the cafe and people, uh, from the cool living space will be using the back of the cafe. Uh, that’s gonna be basically private and exclusive access to our guests. Okay. Yeah. Cool. And we’re thinking of maybe giving a free coffee to our guests, like one free coffee for your stay. I don’t know. We’ll see.

Sean Tierney: 31:32 I don’t actually drink coffee. I need to learn it like it. I know, I know, but this is one of these things where I struggle with it because I feel like I’m missing out on the culture. Like everyone talks about going and getting coffee and I just, I don’t like it. I don’t like the taste of it,

Liz Ribot: 31:45 you know, I’m not super into coffee. You know, that you can get super into coffee. Like it tastes like peach or it smells like this or you can really get into it. I’m not that much into it, but I do need my coffee when I wake up for sure to function. Um, yeah.

Sean Tierney: 32:01 Well I’m glad we got you on a complimented high right now and I think this is a good point to transition. So I have a, just a kind of a rapid fire around, I call it the breakdown. Are you ready for the breakdown?

Liz Ribot: 32:11 Oh, maybe. I don’t know. Let’s see.

Sean Tierney: 32:13 Break down baby. All right. What is one book that has profoundly affected you?

Liz Ribot: 32:20 Oh, I don’t have time to read books anymore. You know, I always like, they always say like, oh, the CEO of, I dunno, whatever company reads this many books. I’m like, how do they have time? Literally I go to bed with my laptop. Yeah. So at this point, very sad. But I haven’t had the chance to read any books lately.

Sean Tierney: 32:40 Yeah. Is there any book that you read over the course of your whole existence that would stands out though?

Liz Ribot: 32:45 You know, I’m really into wine. Okay. Not about work at all. I didn’t know what you were hoping with this question. Um, so this, there’s this book called wine and war and it relates, um, wine to World War II and how the course of like a wine went through, uh, the beginning of World War II to the end of World War II. And I found that super interesting, um, because it basically went from the smallest details to the general of how wine kept people happy, basically. That’s a very general overview of the whole book. But, um, yeah, super interesting. I love wine. Yes, I do.

Sean Tierney: 33:27 Okay. We’ll put that one on the list as well. I do love Warren. I don’t love coffee.

Liz Ribot: 33:33 Well, yeah, that’s a really good book if you like. I love everything that has to do with World War II and I love wine. So those two go together really well.

Sean Tierney: 33:41 Perfect. What about, what is one person that you would love to have dinner with?

Liz Ribot: 33:46 Uh, one person that I would love to have dinner with my mom. Oh, do you have this have to be dead?

Sean Tierney: 33:52 No, no, no, no. Absolutely not.

Liz Ribot: 33:54 Yes. So, um, I don’t get to see my family very often. As you know, I travel a lot. So if I would say like, I would have like one less dinner or I would have someone for dinner, I would say my mom. Okay,

Sean Tierney: 34:05 perfect. What about, what is one tool or hack that you use to save time, money,

Liz Ribot: 34:11 a tool or hock to save money or, um, let me see. Hmm. Oh, I know. I don’t go to the gym. I don’t pay for the gym. Um, I think traveling, a lot of people always ask like, what do you do to stay fit or what do you do to stay healthy? I used to be really bad about that at the beginning and I’ve learned to make space for that. Um, but I don’t pay for gyms. I don’t pay for class because I don’t do any of that. Um, I just go on youtube and look up classes for free and bring my mat with me everywhere. And that’s basically my exercise and I think that’s a good hock because a lot of people wonder like, oh, but how do you stay fit while traveling? And I don’t have money to go to the dam or the like, I love the people that stay here in Lisbon always ask like for a gym membership, like, oh, but it’s 30 days. I’m only staying for two. So yeah.

Sean Tierney: 34:59 Is it yoga or what exercises specifically do you do?

Liz Ribot: 35:03 Um, I do yoga and Pilatos. Um, I think that’s the, keeps me sane. Like it’s always what helps me at the end of the day. Cool. Alright,

Sean Tierney: 35:12 good luck. Uh, what about, what is one piece of music that speeds speaks to you lately? We know your shot got for music, so I can’t wait to,

Liz Ribot: 35:20 oh no, I’m so, I love everything that has a beat. Um, just because I just love dancing, so it’s like anything that has a beat, I just put my Spotify and basically that I let it play, play meal list of songs. But

Sean Tierney: 35:37 is there anything on repeat

Liz Ribot: 35:38 right now or any particular song? Um, I really like Lizzo. I Dunno if as l a Z z. O Liza. Okay. I Dunno if you’re familiar with her. She’s like a new artist, but she has really good music if you’d like to done so I would recommend her.

Sean Tierney: 35:52 How do you feel about desk seat though?

Liz Ribot: 35:55 Overplayed no into too much. I would not go for this by Sita. Not at this point.

Sean Tierney: 36:03 Okay. What is it an important truth that very few people agree with you on?

Liz Ribot: 36:08 Uh, common sense. I feel like I’m, uh, I am a big believer in common sentence. Like A, a lot of people are like, oh no, but this is the process. We have to follow the process or you know, it needs to be, um, you need to write the process out and give it to them written in paper. But I’m a big believer in common sense, like what feels right to you, um, is what you should do. You know, I, there’s a lot of people that I work with and I always tell them like, you know, these are the procedures, these are the processes, but at the end of the day, the common sense,

Sean Tierney: 36:47 right? So overriding whatever scripted procedure, if you’re common sense goes against that. Just use your common sense and listen to what that’s yes. Yes, yes. Cool. All right, last question. If you could have a time machine to go back to your 20 year old self and tell yourself anything, what advice would you give yourself?

Liz Ribot: 37:07 I would say, um, pay attention in college. Don’t party so much. I really wish I would have taken advantage more of my college days because I wasn’t that focus in stood ist in studying. I was, you know, like I was young, I was just, I still had good grades, but I would do it just for the grade. I wouldn’t do it because I was so keen to learn. And I feel like now that I’m older, I’m not going to say how old. Um, the one thing that I wish was that I would have leasurly been there for like the learning part of it. And you know, it’s not like I didn’t learn anything or that I still wasn’t there to learn some days. But just to appreciate it a little bit more. It goes by really fast and it’s not only about good grades. Um, if you have a bad grade and you still feel like you’re learning, I think that’s fine.

Sean Tierney: 38:00 Yeah, I think that’s great advice. Cool. Well, Liz, thank you so much for your time. Wha how can people get ahold of you or connect with you on social media?

Liz Ribot: 38:09 Um, well only if you go to the website and go on the contact outside. I want to speak to least. Um, no, I have, um, you know, my email go to the website and outside. Um, I’m there, um, everywhere. [inaudible]

Sean Tierney: 38:24 yeah, I know. I know Ben said that you were just like popping up in all the emails and

Liz Ribot: 38:28 yeah. Yeah. It’s not that I send them, but they, they do come from me.

Sean Tierney: 38:33 And if someone’s listening and they want to with you guys, if it sounds

Liz Ribot: 38:36 like you’re hiring for a lot of positions, what’s the best place for them to go about finding those? Yeah, it’s the same thing. So I have, they go to the website and we do have a contact form at the bottom of the page. So, you know, we use that for any kind of general inquiries. But, um, we get those. So if you’re interested in working with us or have any questions about outside in general, feel free to reach out there. Cool. All right. Awesome. Thank you so much, Liz. Yeah, thank you for having me.