What is SOTI?
SOTI creates temporary homes for people who are building seriously. For one week, a selected group lives together, works on their own projects, shares meals, opens doors for each other, and builds the kind of trust that is hard to manufacture online. The house is small on purpose: enough people to create density, not so many that the room becomes anonymous.
There are no badge scans, sponsor booths or generic networking rooms. The value comes from repeated time together: focused work blocks, dinners, walks, demos, late conversations and small moments that compound because everyone keeps bumping into each other.
Residents do not join SOTI to pause their life. They keep building their company, product, research, craft or next chapter while surrounded by people who understand the pace. Calls still happen, deadlines still exist, laptops stay open.
The internet makes it easy to find impressive people and strangely difficult to know them. SOTI turns online signal into offline trust: shared context, repeated exposure, more honest feedback and introductions that come from actually understanding what someone is building.
Accepted members receive a pre-house operating pack with cohort context, useful links, draft agenda, house norms and the opportunities being shaped around the city. The goal is to arrive with context, not cold-start every conversation on day one.
A good SOTI week mixes internal rhythm with outside rooms: work time in the house, dinners, small sessions, office visits, local builders, investors or operators when they genuinely add signal, and enough unstructured time for the useful weird stuff to happen.
Founders, builders, operators, researchers, creators and investors can all fit when they bring agency, taste, curiosity and generosity. The common thread is not a job title. It is momentum plus the willingness to make the room better for other people too.
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FAQ
You have to come to one of the houses to find out.
No. SOTI does not run a fixed curriculum, does not take equity and does not make the company the only unit of progress. The house helps people already moving get closer to sharper peers, useful rooms and better context.
Not really. Retreats often optimize for pause. SOTI optimizes for proximity around real work. People keep building, taking calls and shipping; the difference is that the edges of the day become much more alive.
Yes. The format assumes people have real obligations. The house should support work, not replace it. The strongest weeks usually protect daytime focus and use dinners, sessions and city moments for connection.
No. Founders are central to many houses, but operators, technical builders, researchers, creators and investors can be strong fits when they raise the quality of the room and are actively building or helping things become real.
No. Requesting a spot starts the conversation. Each house is selective because the value depends on fit, contribution and the shape of the group. Acceptance depends on the edition and the room being built.