How do nomads live after having founded a family? In the digital age, they can entrust their getaway plans to a turnkey service like that of Boundless Life, a young Montreal company that is positioning itself as a kind of Airbnb for long-term family trips.
Boundless Life will announce in the coming days that it has secured $2 million in seed funding from Canadian and US investors, which will help it accelerate the development of its unique hosting service. kind.
The start-up has its eye on young families who wish to go into exile for three, six, nine or twelve months in destinations that are not necessarily touristic, but still exotic enough to allow them to live an exotic experience. The online service identifies accommodation in attractive neighborhoods, provides access to a shared workspace with wifi and coffee machine and suggests some tourist activities once there.
Above all, Boundless Life offers a whole school curriculum that covers the equivalent of six years of primary school. The children can go back to the neighborhood school on their return. The program is inspired by the Finnish curriculum, says Marcos Carvalho, one of the four co-founders of Boundless Life, who is currently staying in Sintra, Portugal.
Like many business founders, Marcos Carvalho and his three partners are probably their own best clients. “Humanity is a species that has been nomadic 98% of the time,” he says. It is only since industrialization that we have adopted a more sedentary lifestyle, and this comes with some challenges, including health issues. »
It can be argued that most humans are living longer and more comfortably than two hundred years ago… but there will always be a part of people ready to cast off and immerse themselves in a new cultural experience in the space of a season or a year. Telecommuting has jumped over the past two years, and many employers have given up on the idea of bringing everyone together in the same workspace, however user-friendly it may be…
“We have identified a hundred places where the quality of life is higher. We discovered that people lived happier there. We want to help create a better world by teaching the richness of diversity to our customers,” explains Marcos Carvalho.
This better world is currently reserved for a clientele capable of paying up to 7,000 euros per month for housing, workspace and school. “Traveling the same way from Airbnb would cost 15 to 20% more,” says Carvalho. Customers pay an average of 4000 euros per month for digital nomad family life.
Double every month
The $2 million that Boundless Life has just raised comes from renowned investors, including executives from Lightspeed, the Anges Québec network and the American firm Sequoia Capital. It took a year and a half for the young Montreal shoot to take shape and reach this first milestone. The next step could come sooner rather than later, as some investors are already urging Boundless Life to think about its next round of funding.
” It goes quickly. We are doubling in size every month and this month we expect to generate revenues of $150,000,” explains Marcos Carvalho. When booking, customers leave a deposit equivalent to one month’s rental. This makes it possible to anticipate growth, which appeals to donors.
The young shoot, which is close to fifty employees, will have to quickly add staff to support this growth. It currently only offers three destinations (Portugal, Greece and Italy), but plans to offer three more this fall. Members of his team travel the planet in accelerated to add more as quickly as possible. The objective is to have around thirty destinations in the catalog in three years and a total of one hundred within five years.
It goes quickly. We are doubling in size every month and this month we expect to generate $150,000 in revenue.
Industrialization is still good if it has led to the creation of tools that allow easier access than ever to these exotic places, must concede Marcos Carvalho. “It is thanks to technology if we can return to a more nomadic lifestyle. »