Hi all,

It’s finally Friday. And you look great today!

If you’re new here, welcome to Afirmativo!, where I send updates about articles that I publish on my blog and share things that have been on my mind lately.

We are all Valencia

Musicians and other folks from the Music industry in Spain have put together a great line-up of live concerts to raise funds to help people affected by last week’s floods.

As of this writing, they’ve raised €315,000.

Tickets are selling fast. You should check it out → Som València

“Chi va piano, va sano e va lontano”

Working remotely has allowed me to travel in ways that weren’t possible before.

In 2021, Silvia and I rented an apartment by the beach in southern Spain and moved there for two months. No holidays, just trying out a different lifestyle. Because it was off-season, we could afford it.

A year later, a coworker from Barcelona stayed at our home and pet-sat Pepa while we were on a long trip to Vietnam.

After that, we swapped our Madrid home with a friend who lives in San Sebastian. Later that year, we did the same with our friends living in Paris.

The list of swaps with friends goes on…

More recently, while planning a trip to New York, we posted on Instagram and ended up staying at the apartment of a friend of a friend who would be out of town for a few weeks. I didn’t know her, but I felt the connection of being surrounded by books or furniture we could relate to.

Each time someone visited our place, I loved hosting—getting everything ready, preparing instructions, and giving tips on how to enjoy Madrid like a local. As a bonus, I had my home cared for, my plants watered, and sometimes even our dog looked after.

Each time someone visited our place, I loved hosting — getting everything ready, preparing instructions, and giving tips on how to enjoy Madrid like a local.

I thought this was better than the home swap platforms I was trying to use at the moment, where you need to seduce the host and play detective to trust your guest.

That’s how my idea for a different home swap app was born.

This is how it would work:

• Say you live in Barcelona. And that you have a friend in Berlin. Say your friend has a friend in Toronto.

• Now the three of you have trusted network of places to stay at.

• The app would bring visibility to that network.

• When/if you’re comfortable, you can share with (and gain access to) the rest of the network.

So, a few months ago, I started building it. Telling people about my idea. Getting feedback. Inviting those who were interested to get on a waiting list.

On October 10th (10/10), I started sending Lontano invites to the nice people who had signed up.

Lontano is invite-only home swap for friends (and friends of friends)

I set myself a goal to have 10 homes by the end of the month.

It’s been three weeks of bug fixing, applying feedback, and just doing whatever was in my hands to meet my goal.

The result? My friends on Lontano have access to over 10 homes in five different countries, including cities like Copenhagen, New York or Paris. 10/10.

My next goal, for the remainder of Q4, is to have members spending 10 nights on Lontano homes. All of that while I get ready to launch to the public.

If you want to be part of it, apply for a membership on lontano.app and I’ll do my best to get you in.

That’s all for now.

If you enjoyed reading, wouldn’t it be nice if you shared this email with your network?

Alberto