Season Zero: a 28-day social residency. Working names: BETWEEN, RESPITE, ERA.

Season Zero — San Francisco

The residency between residencies.

The gap between two cohorts, held open.

Working names

For four weeks, an HF0 house that would otherwise sit quiet becomes San Francisco’s warmest, most interesting room.

HF0 optimized the house for focus.
What happens between residencies?

HF0 subtracts everything that interferes with building.

BETWEEN adds back everything that keeps us human.

HF0 was modeled on a monastery: remove every distraction so founders can build. BETWEEN is the other half of that vow. It provides everything else we need to be human: good food, real company, movement, rest and play.

Inside HF0Heads down. One company, no distractions, nothing but the work.

Inside BETWEENHeads up. Dinners, classes, long walks and new friends: the human work that makes founders healthier, and better at the building.

A social residency.

01 Social health

Physical. Mental. Social.

  1. I

    Physical health

    We’ve understood it for a century. Gyms, trainers, step counts, sleep scores.

  2. II

    Mental health

    Entered everyday conversation in the last ten to fifteen years. Therapy, meditation, a language for burnout.

  3. III

    Social health

    The one we haven’t named yet. How often you share a meal, meet someone new, laugh in a room. It’s a muscle, and most of us have stopped exercising it.

A front hall at dusk: wool coats and a rust scarf piled on the newel post, shoes kicked off by the door, and a warm room of people talking beyond.
Fig. 01 The front hall, 7:04 pm. Social health leaves evidence.

What if you could see your social health the way you see your steps?

A concept for later: a quiet weekly read on time spent with people. Not a feed or a score, just a nudge to book the dinner, call the friend, show up.

When people take social health seriously, restaurants fill, neighborhoods wake up and cities get healthier. It starts with one house for 28 days.

About half of U.S. adults say they at least sometimes feel isolated or lack companionship. APA, Stress in America 2026

Your social weekConcept
Time in person
6h 40m of 10h
New people
4 of 5
Shared meals
2 of 3

02 The gap is the product

The club that ends.

Most clubs fail by becoming permanent. They pile up programming, staff and unused amenities until they feel like expensive gyms.

BETWEEN disappears. 28 days. One house. One cohort. Then it’s over. The ending is what makes people show up every night.

HF0 residency
BETWEEN
HF0 residency
FocusDay 1 → Day 28Focus

The question isn’t “can I lease your building?” It’s this: what if the weeks this house goes quiet became an experiment that improves the house, brings the HF0 community back together and costs HF0 almost nothing to try?

03 A day at BETWEEN

The house changes personality through the day.

08:00
  1. Day 8am–4pm
  2. Dusk 4pm–7pm
  3. Night 7pm–10:30pm
  4. Late select nights

  1. The kettle is on before anyone arrives.

    Coffee, tea, functional tonics and a generous pantry. Breakfast you don’t have to order.

  2. Morning yoga.

    Twelve mats in the big room. Booked out by Tuesday.

  3. Quiet rooms.

    Reading, conversation, a little focused work. Laptops live in the library, not the living room.

  4. The window opens.

    Soup, salad, sandwich. One great version of each, made that morning.

  5. “Pair me.”

    Twenty minutes of tea or a walk with someone in the house you haven’t met.

  6. Laptops disappear.

    The social rooms close to screens. The music changes. People arrive specifically to unwind.

  7. A mixology class at the bar.

    Ten people learn to build a bitter, sparkling, alcohol-free aperitivo, then drink their homework.

  8. The Long Table.

    Twenty-four seats, assigned so nobody sits with who they already know.

  9. Salons, games, vinyl.

    A workshop a member offered. A record someone brought. An argument worth having.

  10. Late, on select nights.

    A small dinner, a screening, a conversation that runs too long.

  11. A chess board at midnight.

    A pot of late tea. Somebody barefoot on the couch, still reading.

04 Rituals

Communities form from beginnings, rituals and endings.

Nº 01

The Human API

One button in the member experience. It introduces you to someone currently in the house for a 20-minute tea, walk or conversation. No swiping. No follower counts. No networking profiles.

Illustrative · nobody here is real

Can teach
Wants to learn

Nº 02

Build Nothing Night

Every Wednesday, nobody may pitch, demo, recruit or ask for funding. The smartest people in the city, talking about literally anything else.

  • pitch
  • demo
  • recruit
  • raise

Nº 03

The Long Table

Tuesdays and Fridays, 20–30 people eat together. Seats are assigned so friends don’t cluster.

Candlelit long table mid-dinner: one hand passes a torn loaf of bread to another across roasted vegetables, rust linen napkins and short tumblers.
Fig. 02 Strangers an hour ago. Now passing the bread.

Nº 04

Don’t ask what they do.

Once a week, the first twenty minutes of the evening come with one house rule: no asking anyone what they do for work.

20:00 left until you may ask

Nº 05

Member Offers

Every profile has two fields. Members end up teaching each other, so the program grows from the room.

I can teachbread

I want to learnastrophotography

Nº 06

House Radio

Members take one-hour DJ slots. The soundtrack becomes something the community made.

On air · 21:00–22:00 · member slot

Nº 07

Sunday Without Screens

Optional, never preachy. Food, walking, games, chess, drawing, cooking, records, movement.

Nº 08

The Last Supper

Everyone knows Season Zero ends, so the final dinner on day 28 actually means something. Then the house disappears.

05 The calendar

Twenty-eight days that book themselves out.

Around the rituals runs a season of small, bookable experiences: cooking classes, non-alcoholic mixology, yoga, breathwork and more. Sessions are capped at ten to sixteen people, so they fill, and the calendar fills with the cohort.

Two pairs of flour-dusted hands kneading one loaf of dough together on a scarred oak counter, a linen proofing basket and a terracotta cup by the window.
Fig. 03 Bread, Saturday 11:00. One teaching, one learning.

0 of 0 sessions booked out

    • MoveMorning yoga, run club, Pilates, mobility and stretch
    • TasteCooking classes, NA mixology, tea tastings, cacao
    • MakeBread and fermentation, drawing night, member-taught workshops
    • RestoreBreathwork, sound baths, guided meditation
    • GatherLong Table dinners, Build Nothing Night, vinyl night, screenings

    Someone barefoot, reading on a couch,

    in no hurry at all.

    A quiet bay-window sitting room in afternoon light. Someone sits barefoot on a linen couch, face hidden behind a paperback, a terracotta cup cooling on the sill.

    06 The technology thesis

    AI-native backstage.
    Human-native frontstage.

    Backstage: software runs the boring part

    • Access & guest passes
    • RSVPs & class bookings
    • Inventory & food demand
    • Member matching
    • Staff schedules
    • Concierge & house questions
    • Introductions

    Frontstage: when you walk in, it disappears

    • No feed.
    • No engagement points.
    • No leaderboard.
    • No giant app download.
    • No screens telling you you’re the future.

    Just warm, excellent hospitality.

    07 The pour

    The future is functional.

    People don’t gather over water. The drink in your hand is the prop, and the connection happens whether or not there’s alcohol in the glass. So we make the glass worth holding.

    Adaptogens

    For a body under stress

    • Ashwagandha
    • Reishi
    • Rhodiola
    • Tulsi

    Nootropics

    Herbs for the mind

    • Lion’s mane
    • L-theanine
    • Gotu kola
    • Yerba mate

    Nervines

    Nervous-system maintenance

    • Chamomile
    • Lemon balm
    • Passionflower
    • Lavender

    Poured as pour-over and tea service by day, NA aperitivo and Zeronimo spritz at dusk, and built cocktails and late-night tea after dark. Traditional botanicals, served as drinks, not medicine.

    Still life on raw linen by a window: a brass scale, reishi, lion’s mane, chamomile, lavender, tulsi, ashwagandha root, a steaming stoneware pour-over and a glass of ember-red tonic.
    Fig. 04 The bar, before service. Botanicals, not medicine.

    We are not opening a restaurant.

    1. All day A generous pantry, breakfast and snacks.
    2. Midday One great soup, salad and sandwich window.
    3. Twice weekly Communal dinners at the Long Table.
    4. On the calendar Cooking classes and chef-led evenings.

    Mostly made ahead, so it stays simple. Self-serve through the day, a staffed bar during social hours. The whole experience is designed to run on one house lead and one kitchen lead.

    08 What a seat is

    Not a month at a club.
    One seat in a four-week residency.

    A San Francisco club month sells for a few hundred dollars. This is a different product: four weeks with a hand-picked cohort, a full calendar and every drink included. No auto-renew. You buy Season Zero, and then it’s done.

    Season Member

    $800

    Full house access, the rituals, the pour, and open booking on the calendar.

    House Member

    $1,250

    First pick of classes and Long Table seats, plus guest passes for friends.

    The cohort comes by application, nomination and invitation: HF0 alumni, founders, designers, artists, scientists, investors, chefs, filmmakers, operators and a handful of wild cards. The value is the room, not the real estate.

    09 Economics

    There is enough oxygen here.

    An illustrative model, not a budget. Move the cohort. Most costs are fixed, so the plan is simple: fill the room before spending money.

    Paid commitments100Full
    • 60–70 greenlight
    • 80 viable
    • 90 healthy
    • 100 full

    Remaining after every cost

    $28,460

    Assumptions: house team $24k, classes and facilitators $6k, software and consumables $3k (all fixed); food and drink $140 per member; payments 3%, House Improvement Fund 15% and contingency 5% of revenue. Operating break-even: — members at the current mix.

    Sell the cohort first. Nothing is spent until the room is committed.

    10 The pilot

    A Season Zero joint pilot.

    1. JoshuaDesigns Season Zero and leads a small, hand-picked team that runs it day to day.
    2. HF0Provides the house for a window when it would otherwise sit quiet.
    3. The cohortPays for the season. Membership revenue funds everything.
    4. The houseGets a defined share back for improvements and deferred work.

    Little or no upfront cash from HF0. If it doesn’t work, it disappears after 28 days. If it does, there are other HF0 houses and a model that repeats.

    The core residency stays sacred. BETWEEN only lives in the white space between cohorts.

    What HF0 gets

    More than a check. A reason for the community to come home between cohorts.

    1. Alumni back in the house
    2. Future founders discovered
    3. Portfolio companies meeting
    4. Cultural moments
    5. Rested founders
    6. A denser community
    7. A house that works all year

    11 Your questions

    The first 48 hours are questions.

    This is a living list. Add a question whenever one comes up, as many as you like, and it goes straight to Joshua. Nothing is too small.

    Topic

    Asked from this device0

      Your first question will appear here.

      — The bigger question

      What is the social infrastructure for an AI-native city?

      AI increasingly handles research, code, administration and creation. That doesn’t make gathering in person less valuable. It makes good gathering scarcer.

      The next version of coworking may have very little work in it. The computer is already wherever you are. What people need somewhere else for is people.

      1. NowSeason Zero
      2. NextA second HF0 house
      3. ThenA three-house network
      4. LaterPop-up residencies in underused hotels and houses

      Not a quirky club. A new hospitality format: temporary social hospitality. HF0 is the right laboratory to prove it.

      12 The entire ask

      One house.
      Twenty-eight days.
      Then it disappears.

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