TL;DR we bought a farm! 🚜 🌳 👩🏼🌾 🐑
As many in my network know, I left San Francisco a few years ago to return to Australia. I was living in SF during the peak of the on-demand tech startup bubble and the rental property market was insane. Many non-VC-funded creatives and founders were being pushed out – and not-to-forget the impact on long-term residents and non-tech workers.
After long days working on CloudPeeps, I would browse pages of real estate sites dreaming of being able to still work in tech and play big while living in a regional Australia. This was well before the days of the mainstreaming of remote work and COVID-19 so leaving Silicon Valley for a regional area seemed like a career end. My husband, Mat, and I decided to do it anyway and after some time in Brisbane, ended up picking the beautiful Macedon Ranges as our future home. 🍁
After chatting with some of the world’s biggest remote startups and bootstrapped CEOs, I started championing the #indieway pathway for company building – a philosophy that rejected the growth-at-all-costs model for startups and instead focused on mindful growth, profitable business models, and alt-funding options.
I also wanted to make entrepreneurship accessible to all no matter where they were located and if they had family commitments or even full-time jobs so started Atto Accelerator for female founders – one of the world’s first remote startup accelerators. Applications for the next batch open on July 1 so stay tuned. 🚀
After a few years working remotely in the country – we have decided to step it up and recently bought a hobby farm close to where we live now. We hope to host team retreats, founder events, and more once we’ve moved in and settled. Hillside camping anyone? 🏕
I grew up on a small farm in England with all kinds of animals, before moving to Australia, so can’t wait for my daughters Elizabeth and Grace to have a similar experience too. 👧🏼👶🏻
If you’ve made the switch to remote work or left a city recently, I’d love to hear your story in the comments below. 🙏
Kate Kendall 