start.city— update for Future Citizens

what we're building and how you'll be a part of it (soon!)

Hey! You're getting this email because you signed up to be a part of start.city (formerly No Cap). I really, genuinely appreciate the fact that something I said resonated with you and that you want to be part of this community. You can read our announcement thread here. If you want to view this post as a Notion page, click here.

I'm working as hard as I possibly can to ensure that our City can flourish as a thoughtful & intentional space on the internet for young people to navigate their journeys in technology and form meaningful, intentional relationships with each other.

This won't be another Slack group where no one talks and a few people just plug their shit— unfortunately, that means slow growth is key, which means a short wait. I'm working on it. Fortunately, we don't have a Slack!

We're slowly trickling people into start.city each week to ensure a great onboarding experience, first week and consistent engagement. We had an insanely unexpected amount of interest around our launch— I'm ecstatic at the prospect of what we can build here.

Something worth noting is that the vision for start.city can only be realized if Citizens take ownership over this shared space and contribute openly and positively in line with our values.

In talking to Citizens and mulling over this idea for the past week, what makes sense to me is to have an enforced set of habits & expectations for Citizens to ensure sustainable, high quality experience. Realistically, meeting these requirements should take about 10-15 minutes of your time a week, and beyond that, I anticipate you'll get out of The City what you put in.

For now, start.city is structured as an online community with dedicated spaces for different discussion topics. As our city grows, here are some of the future parts of our City that you can have a hand in building:

• a library where Citizens can compile the best resources on how to navigate tech (kinda like this!);

• a town hall where we bring in mentors (30+ mentors have already expressed interest!) to share their experiences broadly and/or commit to 1:1/small group time with individual Citizens; (Alexis Ohanian and Kim-Mai Cutler from Initialized have expressed interest in helping out!)

• a school where Citizens teach each other about their passions;

• a laboratory where Citizens work together on side-projects and build together;

• and more! The world and Internet are our oyster. Send me any feedback or suggestions at trip@hey.com or DM me.

If reading this has changed your mind about your interest in start.city, feel free to unsubscribe. We'll be here if you change your mind!

A couple of housekeeping notes:

• We're prioritizing bringing underrepresented voices into start.city first to give these folks a hand in shaping our culture early, and to show that our city is for everyone in tech. If you have friends from underrepresented backgrounds in tech, please direct them to landing.start.city or have them shoot @startdotcity a DM and we will work to bring them in ASAP.

• start.city aspires to be an environment where people feel comfortable sharing their struggles, successes, and everything inbetween, while being open, disagreeing respectfully at times, and having a ton of fun along the way. It's incredibly important that you be interested in this vision and commit to participating consistently and respectfully. We have no tolerance for jerks.

As always, if you have any questions, comments, or feedback on your experience thus far (or if you're interested in being a more involved member of the community (e.g. moderator, content queen)), don't hesitate to reach out.

I really believe that this space can become a special experience for those willing to make it one, and hope you join us on this mission!

With love,
Rishi