he quit vc to build a city for australia's best founders ~ Akshat Agarwal

Akshat Agarwal dropped out of a civil engineering degree, spent four years at Antler watching hundreds of founders try to build companies, helped launch Antler's Middle East fund across Saudi and Dubai, and then walked away from VC entirely.His conclusion after all of it? The reason Australia's best founders keep leaving for San Francisco isn't money or talent. It's the environment.So he built one.Arrayah less than a year old. It's a network of hacker houses across Sydney and Perth where ambitious founders, researchers, artists and builders live together and create together. They already have more demand than homes. And the long term goal is to build a city.Yes, an actual city.We get into 👇★ Why Akshat walked away from VC after watching hundreds of founders up close★ The thesis that talent is equally distributed everywhere, capital and opportunity are not★ Testing hacker houses across Dubai, Saudi, London, Berlin and Vancouver before landing in Australia★ Why he skipped Melbourne and went straight to Perth★ What it actually takes to build a community that holds itself accountable★ Why the long term goal is to build a city the size of Canberra#startuppodcast #founderstory #australianstartups #buildinginpublic #hackerhouselifeFollow us on all platforms!Instagram ~ @fayltalesTiktok ~ @fayltales LinkedIn ~ @fayltales