Full Transcript for Software founder life in NYC with Sam Selikoff

moved to Boston for four years. Patriots won the Red Sox one. The Celtics got into the finals and, uh, the Bruins won too. So I became like a Boston sports fan and it was awesome living in Boston because it's such an important part of the city. You know, it reminds me of probably cities like Philly, um, [00:06:00] or, you know, Minneapolis with the Vikings. Like those towns have such a, it's just an important part. You know, when the Red Sox are playing, cause you get on a T and everyone's wearing their, their Brian: Well, you're in New York now. I mean, where, where's the Knicks championship Sam: There, there's nothing in New York. There are no sports teams. I just want Brian: there, there's no Sam: we got, we got, we got KD coming to the nets and I'm like, finally, no, it didn't happen. He like broke his Brian: Yeah, but New Yorkers don't care about the Nets. Nobody Sam: I, they don't care. I know. I know. And, and, and the owner of the Knicks, the owner of the Knicks doesn't care about anything because the MSG will always sell out every single time. So you, Brian: I saw a list of like the, the highest, like the highest average ticket price in the NBA and like the Knicks are always in like the top Sam: It's ridiculous. The Knicks suck. They suck. Brian: Now they're, they're, they're getting there. Okay. Like right now, but the, um, but yeah. Sam: it's, it's painful, man. But, Brian: I'm not even a huge sports fan, but I am a big, uh, Knicks and Mets fan, like I'm, like, I feel like a lot of sports fans these days are like all sports and [00:07:00] they follow the whole league. They follow all these players across the NBA. I, I only watch Knicks games and Mets Sam: yeah, that's basically how I'm too. I watched a lot of NFL, but the Celtics, I will, I like watching the Celtics, um, because they're, they're my NBA team. But, um, Brian: So Sam: no, I mean, so, Working remotely in NYC --- Brian: um, cause the other thing about New York is when I lived there, it was like, it was before Uber. It was before, like, Probably the big rise of remote, although I did, I was working remotely, but it, it was, uh, before the whole like coworking scene. Um, where are you working most days? Are you working at home? Are you going out? Sam: So when me and Ryan started EmberMap, we got, uh, a WeWork, uh, near, like, uh, Ch North Chelsea Penn Station area. And that's where my, like, gym was that I was going. Um And uh, that was awesome. We work was awesome. Um, we had such a good time there. I miss having that space because, you know, I met friends there. I went on dates there, like there was a cop, it was just gorgeous. And that was fun [00:08:00] having that office space there. And you just do the whole like Midtown commute thing. And it was nice, you know? So that's kind of what we did for a few years. And then COVID happened and like we were the only company left. Like we would go into our office. And everything was just like empty glass windows. We were like, alright, this kind of sucks now. Um, because I love being in the office. I love talking to people. And so I miss that, working from, you know, for myself. Like, that was the thing I missed the most, was all my friends at TED. And so, um, now we work, we have like, we work at, we have like a, an office in my apartment here that he comes in. Because he lives over in Jersey now, his wife and kid. He lives in West New York, so he kind of comes over on the ferry. And, um, a couple days a week. Um, but Yeah, that was fun. I mean, I loved all that stuff and it's coming back in like the meetups and the events. I mean, a lot of that stuff is back now, but for during COVID, I stayed all during COVID in Manhattan, uh, in New York city and stuff. And it was definitely like different, but there was still plenty to do. You just had to know where to Brian: Yeah. Yeah, [00:09:00] for sure. I feel like there are all these, like all these services now that like make quality of life so much better in New York than when I lived there. I mean, Sam: Oh man. Brian: you know, when I was there, like there, there was like, you know, there's no Uber. There was, it was just like cabs and subways. Uh, I remember the subway had no wifi. And now I Sam: Dude, subways have Apple Pay now. You don't even have to buy a card anymore. You, I, I, I go on the subway, and I just, as I'm walking, in stride, I just do my, my Apple Brian: It is a Sam: on the thing, and it opens up. So, yeah, there's a lot of parts of the city that are Brian: the, the bikes, the, like all that was not there when Sam: City bike is amazing. I, my gym now is Chelsea Piers. Did you ever make it to Chelsea Piers? Brian: I've been down there. Yeah, Sam: They have a big gym complex Brian: the big complex. Yeah. Like the Sam: Yeah, and the golf range. Yeah, exactly. That gym is like, I think it's one of the best gyms in the world. They have like a boxing ring. They have like an indoor volleyball court. They have rock climbing wall. There's a track. There's like tons of gym equipment. [00:10:00] So that's been my like my latest favorite thing. And to get there, I have a city bike right outside my door and you just get on it, pop over. I'm right on the water. So I go to the West side highway. There's that little thing. So I either ride. Um, my longboard or a city bike up to the gym. And I'm there in like eight minutes. Everyone's on Twitter posting all this gym stuff that they're getting for Christmas. I'm like, I have a freaking pro sports complex eight minutes away. Like I wouldn't trade that for Brian: I got it all in my, in my garage, in my, here in the suburbs, you know? Um. But yeah, I lived in L. I. C. with my girlfriend, who's now my wife, um, and we had a subscription to, uh, what was it called, Zipcar. That was our Sam: Oh yeah, sure. Brian: how we escaped, you know, and it was like parked at our building, so we can just like, so you don't have a car there, right?

Sam: I don't have a car. No. And it's one of my favorite things. Oh no. And it's, I love it. I mean, I walk everywhere. I just use bike or longboard. And then, well, now there's Turo, which is really cool. You can like, I can pop [00:11:00] over to Hoboken and Brian: even know what that Sam: gets. Turo is like Airbnb for cars. So, people have their Maseratis, their Teslas, you know, their 4Runner, whatever you want. And, uh, you just pull it up and then sometimes they can deliver it to your apartment or you, I can just hop on like the path or something. And, uh, pick up their car and shoot out the city, which is nice. Don't have to even sit in Manhattan traffic. City life vs. Suburb life --- Sam: Um, it's funny. People moved to New York and this took me a while. It's both like the most convenient place to live and also the most difficult. And if you're not willing to Spend money to make your life easier. You're gonna hate New York City. You're gonna hate living in Manhattan or New York City. Uh, but if you are, it can be like, the easiest Brian: How do you make New Sam: Getting people to do your laundry. Getting a maid to come. I don't even own a vacuum cleaner because my, my cleaning lady comes with a vacuum cleaner. You know what I Brian: You're delivering groceries, like you're getting the groceries Sam: oh, totally. Oh, I get factor meals delivered once a week. They're all made by a chef. I just put them right in my fridge and I, you know, that, and so that's what I do at home. And then [00:12:00] I eat out a bunch with my friends and stuff. Um, there's so many little things you pick up that make life a lot easier here. Um, and if you try to like do a burb, like I lived in Vermont for a year. If I tried to live like I did in Vermont, in New York City, I'd be, I would not like it Brian: You know, I'll be honest, like, it might be some of this like quality of life stuff, all these different services and stuff that that's around now. But I think for both my wife and I. The lifestyle here in the suburbs, like really kind of suits us better. Like, and I love Sam: you have kids too, Brian: now, now we have kids, but we moved, we moved out here before kids too, um, but the, um, the, for, for us, like a lot of the lifestyle stuff, like, I dunno, like, like just coming here and having so much space. Sam: Yeah, that's what everyone Brian: and, and being able to like Sam: my first. Brian: and we drive, like we do so many trips and like, we, we take vacations and stuff, but we also just drive all the time and just being able to get out and drive and, and like, Sam: It's funny [00:13:00] because whenever I visit my friends, like I have a buddy in San Diego, I visit, I just saw him. He had a kid and it's like, let's go get some tacos. And like we go out and get in a car. I'm like, I hate this. Getting into a car and then driving 10 minutes and getting out. I like my body hurts. You know, I just walk NY energy (crazy and all!) ---

Brian: I mean, you can't get, you can't beat like the energy of walking around New York city and it's, and it's, it's really, I feel like so many cities in the world. Are exactly the same like you like you can you can go between like, I don't know philadelphia and like Sam: Chicago or, you Brian: Chicago's I love Chicago too, Sam: Chicago's Brian: but they, but like a lot of these cities, you know, like Denver or like wherever it's like you could be in any of them, Atlanta, like Starbucks, you know, McDonald's, like, it's all the same. And even like the way that like the, the city blocks are laid out, but New York is different. There's just something like you're walking around and [00:14:00] it's different. There's a Sam: seeing crazy stuff, you know? Brian: see an old, there's all the, all the new fancy stuff, like mixed right in with like the old, Sam: totally to busted backward civilization, you know, . Absolutely. Um, no, it's, it, it's, it's, it's true, man. It's like, I remember one trip I was coming back and I was exhausted. It was a week somewhere, and I was like so tired. It was like Sunday night. I can't wait to get home and go to bed. And it's like the plane, you kind of see the skyline and I'm like, Ooh, I like literally get tingles. The plane's coming down. My friend's like Coldplay is having a pop up concert in Williamsburg. Get over here. I'm like, all right, I'm going there. I'm, I'm, I'm back, you know, but I think it is a season of life thing for sure. I mean, you know, living in a city, I could see myself living here for the rest of my life for sure, but I can also understand. If I get married and had kids and wanted them to grow up around nature, you know, but I have a friend who's raised their kids that he lives up in Chelsea. We go to the gym together. His kids are awesome. Brian: One of my best friends growing up there, they still live in the Upper West Side with, with their kid and everything. Sam: yeah. So I [00:15:00] love that idea, but that, it gets more complicated with kids. You have to have more money for sure. But, uh, people make, people thread Cost of living --- Brian: I mean, that's actually what I was going to ask you to even, you know, you don't have kids, but like the, just the cost of New York, like how, how is that? Yeah. Sam: You just close your eyes. You just close your eyes Brian: Yeah. Sam: you swipe your credit card. You wake up and you sneeze and it's a hundred dollars. So you just, that's it. You just accept it. It's just, it's the price of admission. Brian: I mean, do you, how about like just getting back to business a little bit? Do you ever feel like the, your cost of living is like, uh, like a hamper on like, Sam: like there's tension between my lifestyle and like, yeah, of course there is, but I love my life. So Brian: yeah. It's worth Sam: a balance. It makes me want to make more money. So that I can enjoy, you know, and, and not, yeah, I could, people will tell me that sometimes at business conferences, you can move to Kansas and live in like a box for 500 Brian: live in Bali. Sam: proper. I was like, I don't want to live in Kansas. I don't want to live, I want to live where I live, you know? Um, but, but no, definitely you have [00:16:00] to, it's something you have to be aware of, of course, but fortunately we've, we've been able to make it work so far. And, um, and yeah, so. It's, it's ridiculously expensive. Of course it is. It's, it's ridiculous, but you don't move to Brian: honestly, like a lot of stuff is too, like even, even living here and like, you know, like we wanted to get out of the city and like, so then the questions were like Long Island, Jersey, Westchester, and like all three of those. And I grew up in Long Island. I was like, I do not want to live in my, I, I really think that I actually think that Long Island, New York is the worst value for your Sam: It's like the worst trade set of trade offs from all Brian: It's, it's, it's, it's, it's insanely expensive Sam: Right. Brian: for, for like, super cramped and crowded and a lot, and a lot of places pretty old and run down, but still super expensive and like, it's just, and you're stuck in traffic everywhere to get out anywhere. It's, it's the Sam: Yeah, screw Brian: but, [00:17:00] um, so that, so then we, but we, we went to Sam: you save money. Brian: so we went to Connecticut and, Now we're a little bit further out, but we used to live in Norwalk, Connecticut, which is a 45 minute train ride into Midtown Manhattan. And, and we're like, now we're about 40 minutes from the border of New York. Sam: Mm hmm. Brian: And we have friends who live just across the border in Westchester. Sam: Mm Brian: the difference in value, not only taxes, but the property values is unbelievable. You know? Sam: Yeah, that's the other sick thing because I live in Manhattan. Not only do I get the New York state tax There's a New York City tax. So me and Ryan have always split everything straight down the middle He lives 30 minutes across the Hudson River in West New York and the difference in what we earn every year is I just again Close your eyes. You don't Brian: friends who have a house that is like half the size of ours. They're paying triple our taxes and triple the property tax, you know, the property price, you know, it's crazy, but, Sam: But it's nice not to have a car. That's the one savings. I'm always like, that's the [00:18:00] consolation. I don't have any car payments or car insurance. It is Brian: yeah, Sam: Again, you don't move to Manhattan to save money. It's, it's, you know, it's a consumption good, right? So it's, it's something I value and find worth spending my money on. Yeah. Brian: it's, uh, I mean, it's, it's fun. Now, like every time we go into the city, cause I feel like a tourist again, you know, we do Sam: come down next time you come. You better let me know, man. I'll show you a great time in my hood. There's so many good places to eat around here, go out to drink. I'm gonna go to Small's tonight. Um, uh, for a date and we're going to go get some dinner. So see some jazz music. It's a, I'll show you a good time. So I'll Brian: great. Yeah. We got to do it. Sam: Absolutely. Brian: Sam, this was, this was fun. Great to, uh, great to connect again. And, uh, yeah, I'll talk to you soon. Sam: Awesome, man. Thanks so much.