What It's Like to Live in Silicon Valley's Startup Castle

• May 22nd 2015

by Lark Turner

It turns out that life in Silicon Valley’s now-infamous Startup Castle, which we wrote about last week, is about as appealing as it sounded. Which is to say: Not appealing at all.

The bizarre advertisement for roommates at the Castle included strictures against consuming more than three drinks of alcohol a week, wearing make-up more than twice a week or eating a complex diet that “requires lots of refrigerator space.” Now, former roommates have written about what it’s really like to live there on the crowdsourced question-and-answer site Quora.

The house is run by landlords Katie and John, and nobody had too many nice things to say about John, who sounds like a dictatorial guy who’s very particular about his mansionmates.

On Quora, former Startup Castle resident Christopher Taylor reported a conversation between himself and John:

“John, can I just keep a beer for myself in the fridge?”
“No. Absolutely not. Never.”

Taylor said he lived in the house for three months before jumping ship.

“The whole time I was there it was hilarious,” he writes. “The house was functioning fine, and John just kept getting more and more upset about how poorly everything was running. John is very…interesting. He’s not crazy, and not a bad guy. But I just don’t understand why a person with his…unique…personality and skills is so determined to manage a community.”

Another former resident, anonymous on the site, said they had also lived at the Castle. The resident reports that a house manager hired by Katie and John summed up the house this way:

“This place is a prison. It’s like living in the Hotel California, except we can’t even drink wine here.”

If you’re still curious about the Castle, they are looking for roommates. Rent is $1,000 for a shared room and $1,750 for a private one. You can view the ad here.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/what_its_like_to_live_in_silicon_valleys_startup_castle/9920.