“We should do something awesome,” one of the bros says, while the night has come rolling in after having spent an entire day at the beach------------.

  They were both in the same predicament: they had been travelling for a few months in a far-away country that had it all: lush tropical rain-forests, a vast desert, beautiful beaches as far as the eye can see, a moderate climate year round. And most of all, friendly folks who were welcoming to anyone who had come to their shores.

  “Totally,” the other bro says, while taking a sip from yet another cold beer, “I ain’t ready to go home yet.”

  “And make some money in the process,” Nick says.

  “I don’t think it’s gonna be that easy,” Donald says, “It looks to me like they’re all hustling here to make a living.”

  “That’s the ones that we see,” Nick says, “Those are the ones that we deal with------------.”

  “Traveling on a budget,” Donald says, “Traveling on the cheap.”

  “You can’t squeeze much from a skinny chicken,” Nick says.

  “I ain’t no hustler,” Donald says, “I wouldn’t be able to deal with having no money come in when I ain’t working.”

  “That’s why this here ain’t your market,” Nick says, “This here is the product.”

  “Aha,” Donald says, “Why not build a cheap crypto-server on solar?”

  “Too risky,” Nick says, “I looked into it.”

  “You mean because you constantly need to buy the latest tech,” Donald says, “At inflated prices-----------not to mention that you need to have reliable internet.”

  “Not to mention that it can get banned, or the house of cards falls apart when there’s a general market downturn,” Nick says, “That’s why it should be a product or service that’s at a high-price, high-margin and such that only we can offer it.”

  “Not another channel-------------,” Donald says, taking another sip from his beer, adding a handful of beer nuts.

  “Not a channel,” Nick says, “An experience.”

  “Like what we did for 200 usd a month, and then we charge like 2k or 3k?” Donald says, “Who will fall for that?”

  “The same folks who will pay 25 usd for a chair on the beach,” Nick says, “The beach was initially free, but by putting down real-estate it becomes property that can be rented out.”

  “So then the real-estate is us organizing the experience,” Donald says, this sounds lame, “So we just get them a beat-down old car and a stack of food?”

  “We put together a simple site,” Nick says, “A few photos of the lay of the land--------the desert, the tropical rainforest, the ocean and the vastness of the distances between all of those.”

  “ ‘We all dream of doing great things. We all want to claim our rank among the truly great. But it’s only a handful of us who actually have the time to do so. That’s where x comes in to make it so.’, ” Donald says, “So we do that and a bit more of the wishy-washy stuff, but then comes the hardest part-----to get eyes on it.”

  “And that’s exactly my lane,” Nick says, “Most of all it’s about being hardcore about being persistent. And it’s about being all over. Photos and inspiring quotes on one platform, videos with a voice over and dramatic music on another and then we just give it time.”

  “At least a year,” Donald says.

  “Up to two,” Nick says, “Unless we get lucky and the whole thing takes off early.”

  “You don’t want to put your name behind it?” Donald asks.

  “No, not initially,” Nick says, “I got some 10k following me, but it’s just a bro-channel------.”

  “Well, I’m a bro and I would totally be down for something like that,” Donald says, “Had I heard of it I might have even have done something like that--------.”

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  “You’re not like most bro’s,” Nick says, “Most bro’s I know are perfectly happy chasing the green, going out most nights of the week and hopping from one lady to the next.”

  “I would totally post it,” Donald says.

  “I need some street creds first,” Nick says, “Let’s say we do this, we get some traction and that’s where I can mix in my bro’s to boost this thing.”

  “So you’re not opposed to squeezing when needed?”

  “Anything to make more money,” Nick says, “But it’s a play that needs to be executed at the right time.”

  - 2 -

  The two tech-bros didn’t build their company in a day. In fact, they let the idea sit for a couple of days, when it was Donald who brought it back up. These were the boozie days and boozie nights when they were down to their last 1k.

  Another fact of the matter was that they only spend about 20 usd to sustain themselves. In the tropics near the ocean this is actually possible, because they just put up their hammock under some trees. It wasn’t exactly living large, but it wasn’t exactly stasis either because they had enough time on their hands to work out a new online enterprise.

  Nick had been at the helm a couple of times already, and by now building a business had become the sort of skill that he always had in his back pocket. And that was just the thing: he had done it so many times that he started out looking for the next new thing to pour his time and resources into.

  What he hadn’t told Donald was that he had built a stock-portfolio that had been valued at 1.8 mln at its peak. There was no need for any of this, but there was just something about grinding this hard. It was almost how things were when he had started his first business and he had just 2k in the bank.

  “We need a catchy name,” Donald says, “Something about survival.”

  “Yes we need to decide on that early on,” Nick says, “It should be obvious what it’s all about----------.”

  “It ain’t hardcore,” Donald says, “But should we go softcore and basically pamper whoever signs up?”

  “Too much work, and it ain’t exactly cool,” Nick says, “So let’s go hardcore-mild.”

  “So how do we do that?” Donald says, “Drop folks with limited supplies by themselves in remote locations.”

  “Now that sounds like something that’s actually awesome,” Nick says, “It’s an experience, not a test of endurance like we did.”

  “You know that I never hit my breaking point,” Donald says, for a moment thinking back at his last coding job where he was locked up behind a screen for 8-12 hours a day. For the first few weeks it was tolerable and mildly fun, but after that it slowly turned him into an anxious wreck that seemed unable of human communication.

  Then one day, he woke up, had enough, considered writing an email to his manager with just the words FU, but even that seemed like too much work. He basically never returned, and never received his last paycheck either. With 100k in the bank he bought a ticket to this far-away country to just travel and basically figure out what to do next.

  He quickly figured out that the key to prolonged travel was to connect with other folks. This is what he started to enjoy more than anything else, and his anxiety slowly disappeared over the course of the next few months.

  “I thought that’s what I went for,” Donald says, “To hit rock bottom in some way, but it turned out that I bounced back before I had even reached it. The bottom and the whole pit: they just disappeared.”

  “True,” Nick says, “Besides, rock-bottom is more the stuff of country music and folk songs----------.”

  “There’s that subtle nobility about it-------that it’s heroic and that you will always bounce back,” Donald says, “But that might actually be a rare occasion.”

  “It’s the bottom of a dry well,” Nick says, “Only way out of that is a rising tide or some such shit. Considering that you still have some good bones from your fall all the way down.”

  “But what it definitely has been is this----------” Donald says, “A nice experience.”

  “Same here,” Nick says, “Although I don’t think that it has been as profound for me. I was just bored, and in need of something new. Some new perspective.”

  “….”

  “But the experience-----totally,” Nick says, and then it hit him that what he was doing here was more for Donald than it was for himself. For Donald a bizz like this would be a True Ticket to a new life-------, “So that’s a perfect name: Survival exp.”

  - 3 -

  The next month they spend shooting footage, going through all the footage that they had acquired over the last year, turning it into content and uploading it all for a trickle-release over the next few months.

  For this time Nick was footing the bill, telling Donald that he was still able to access a line of business-credit from his old life. The expenses were minimal though: online platforms were free, the only thing that cost money was to pay a few designers to create a logo, a site and a set of jingles. There was a subscription for music and stock-footage, and finally the registration of a .com.

  “So what do we do now?” Donald asks.

  “Most of it is moderation,” Nick says, “We just use the analytics to see how new content is doing, we adjust it if needed and if necessary we post a short message in between to spark more interest.”

  “We shouldn’t reach out to folks?” Donald says, “Tell them what we’re all about?”

  “Be patient,” Nick says, “If you’re too eager you will create doubt, because then people will start thinking why you don’t have any momentum yet. It’s like an empty restaurant: you will just have to win people over one by one until it fills up.”

  “Word of mouth?”

  “Before that: the algorithm,” Nick says, “And besides that, the willingness to persist without any major returns for at least 1-2 years.”