NYC's tech in-crowd is making this cold-plunge and sauna studio the hottest spot in town

Othership co-founders including CEO Robbie Bent (far right) sit on the benches next to one of the space's cold plunge pools.

Ian Patterson

• Othership, a sauna and ice bath space, has become a hotspot for NYC's tech scene.
• Founded in Toronto, Othership opened its first NYC location last year in the city's "Silicon Alley".
• Andrew Yeung, Rho, Northzone and other tech heavyhitters have hosted events at Otherspace.

As techies rush to manage stress through wellness routines, Othership, a sauna and cold plunge studio and social space in New York City, is picking up steam.

When Melissa Henderson, a content marketer for crypto and web3 companies, went to her first sauna class at Othership during the holiday season last year, the vibe shift was immediate.

"Something I've learned the hard way is that startup lifestyle is intense and can be all-consuming," she told Business Insider. "When we arrived, it was another universe. I felt so creative afterward."

Stress relief was a founding ethos of Othership, which is located in the Flatiron district — which is referred to as the city's "Silicon Alley." With this proximity, Othership has quickly become a hotspot for VCs, founders, and other health-obsessed members of New York's tech community.

Andrew Yeung, who organizes tech-focused networking events in New York, has hosted events there. Business-banking app Rho, New York Tech Week, consumer wellness startup Muse, and VC fund Northzone, Collision Conference, and legaltech darling Harvey AI have also held events at Othership.

For Muse, a meditation app backed by OMERS, Felecis, and BDC Capital, Othership was a no-brainer when the startup was looking for a space to host its launch party for its new EEG headband last month, explained chief marketing officer Nadia Kumentas.

"We'd been aware of Othership for a while and always admired the way they built a space where people could genuinely unplug and reset," she told Business Insider. "It was a natural match for what we're trying to do with brain health and mental clarity."

Muse, a sleep meditation startup that has built an EEG headband, hosted their launch event at Othership on March 5, 2025.

Muse

"It sounds cliche, but there's no other place in New York where you can just sit in solitude and escape from everything," Yeung told Business Insider. "I've never experienced anything like it."

Recreating bathhouse culture

Othership was founded in Toronto in 2020 by Robbie Bent, who formerly worked in ecosystem development at Ethereum, along with his wife, Emily, Amanda Laine, Myles Farmer, and Harry Taylor.

The group was searching for community and socialization without alcohol, and Bent wanted to re-create the bathhouse culture he enjoyed while living in Berlin years prior, where he would hit up saunas with VCs and founders.

The Bents built a cold plunge in their backyard and let friends come over to use it as they liked. Eventually, they converted their garage into a sauna and tea room and self-funded the first Othership location in Toronto, which opened in 2022. A second Toronto location opened a year later, and in 2024, Othership finally landed in New York.

The company also has an app, also called Othership, that offers guided breathwork sessions with music.

Every day, Othership offers a schedule of classes that guide participants into the facility's 90-person sauna, which is heated to 185 degrees. Throughout the class, instructors use aromatherapy snowballs to increase the sauna's heat and humidity to 200 degrees, and the room is lit in different colors based on the theme of the class.

Othership's sauna fits up to 90 people, making it one of the largest in North America, and reaches temperatures of up to 200 degrees.

Othership

After a period in the sauna, participants are guided to a dark, cave-like room, where they dip into one of eight ice baths, each able to accommodate up to four people. The baths are kept between 32 and 40 degrees, and depending on the class, participants might be encouraged to sit in the water for multiple minutes.

Different classes explore themes like happiness, unwinding, and acceptance, and many include multiple trips each to the sauna and cold plunge. All of the classes are 75 minutes long, which includes 15 minutes at the end for participants to gather in Othership's common area — an amphitheater-like space with rows of comfortable seating — to drink tea and socialize with other class-goers.

A drop-in class at Othership costs $64, and the company offers various packs and memberships at a discount to frequent visitors.

Othership's cold plunge room features eight ice baths that fit four people each, and the water hovers between 32 and 40 degrees.

Othership

While Othership isn't exclusive to tech workers — the space is open to anyone, and the company has built relationships with running clubs and other community organizations throughout the city — it was designed with the intense world of tech in mind, Bent told Business Insider.

The average Othership community member is a professional working a job where they're stressed, Bent said. They could also be a parent navigating work with kids in New York.

"Our take is that if you want to have a spiritual experience, that's great, but we're not a traditional wellness company, and we're not prescriptive about health benefits and we're not a longevity club," he said. "This is a way to deal with stress in a fun environment."

New York's tech scene is jumping on the wellness train

Othership isn't the only wellness destination in New York. With locations in Flatiron and Williamsburg, Bathhouse offers saunas, steam rooms, pools, hot tubs, cold plunges, and spa services. Remedy Place, also in Flatiron, offers acupuncture, cryotherapy, IV, and various other treatments. And upscale gym chain Equinox remains a stalwart among many tech and finance professionals.

For Yeung, who has gained popularity in New York for hosting various tech parties and events and is now a VC investor, Othership brought something new to the table. He first learned about the company a few years ago, when he was living in Toronto. After he moved to New York, Yeung said that he would occasionally make trips back to Toronto just to visit Othership, and he thought New York was the perfect place for their eventual expansion into the U.S.

Compared to other gyms and wellness centers in the city, Yeung said Othership is special because it places a high value on community and getting people out of their comfort zones so they can form deeper relationships with one another.

"They have these classes that can make people scream or cry or laugh with joy, really just becoming their most vulnerable self," he said. "There's no hiding behind the mask. Compare that to most networking events, where you meet someone and don't really know who they are."

New York techies say that they like Othership both because the guided classes encourage them to be vulnerable and make deeper connections with others, and also because it's a community activity that doesn't involve alcohol.

Othership.

Yeung is a small angel investor in Othership. During its opening week last year, he hosted an event at the space as part of his popular Junto series. This is a smaller and more selective networking group that spans tech, finance, media, and other related industries. He said that out of all the Junto Club events he's hosted, the one at Othership was by far his most successful.

"You can't quite tell if it's a social or networking event, it's fun, everyone's in a swimsuit, so it's not completely corporate," he said. 'That forces people to bring the best version of themselves, where they're the most vulnerable."

Bent acknowledges that the vulnerability that comes with an Othership class — both emotionally as well as the thought of wearing a bathing suit next to a co-worker or investor — can seem daunting for some. The space offers amenities like rash guards and flip flops, and Bent added that the classes are designed to give each individual the choice of what they want to participate in. Each class includes a sharing portion, where participants are given the opportunity to share a thought or feeling that came up for them during the session.

"This is a golden time to connect," Bent said. In addition to partnering with various tech companies and startups across the city for corporate wellness events, Othership has also started a regular founder night, where members of New York's tech community can meet other founders, share the difficulties they're facing, and make connections.

Othership classes are 75 minutes long and build in time for participants to connect in the social commons room over tea and water.

Othership

Othership is also filling a void in New York's tech community for a social space other than a bar or club. Many New Yorkers and others in the tech community are craving healthier social and networking events that don't revolve around alcohol.

For Hendrickson, who visited Othership right before the holidays, this held true. As a content marketer who works in the crypto and web3 space, she says that it's difficult to find networking events that don't happen at a bar. When she was visiting New York from Miami on a business trip, and a colleague and friend recommended they go to Othership, she was game to skip the traditional happy hour.

"In general, we're experiencing a moment where people are redefining how to make professional connections and what that looks like," she said. "You can't do networking events all day every day, and drinking is bad."

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A boomer who lives off $1,547 in Social Security and has subsidized housing is still struggling to make ends meet: 'I'll be working until I die'

Lara got off the waitlist for her subsidized senior apartment in 2019.

Courtesy of Linda Lara

• Linda Lara, 72, was pushed out of her apartment of 30 years after a significant rent hike.
• She was able to move to a subsidized apartment in senior housing, which she calls a "miracle."
• But despite working part-time and receiving Social Security, Lara struggles with limited savings.

Linda Lara always wanted to become a homeowner. But being a single mother, taking care of her elderly parents, and helping raise her three granddaughters made it impossible to ever cobble together enough for a downpayment.

Nearly six years ago, Lara was lucky enough to get off the waitlist at a subsidized senior housing development in San Mateo, California, the city 30 minutes south of San Francisco that she's called home for decades. Despite her below-market-rate rent, Lara still has to work 20 hours a week to supplement her Social Security checks and pay her bills. Like many older Americans BI has spoken with, Lara doesn't think she'll ever be able to retire.

When Lara's daughter was 12 years old, they moved into a one-bedroom apartment in San Mateo that Lara ended up calling home for almost 30 years. They loved the neighborhood, the old apartment's "charming" features, and, most importantly, the affordable rent. Lara never wanted to leave.

"It had hardwood floors, arches, it had an old Wedgewood stove. It had French doors that went out to a patio," Lara told BI. "It was a really sweet little apartment."

But in 2019, the apartment building was sold. The new owners informed Lara they were more than doubling her rent, which she couldn't afford.

Lara was able to move into subsidized senior housing in 2019, after spending several years on the waitlist.

Courtesy of Linda Lara

Luckily, Lara had entered herself into several lotteries for low-income senior apartments a few years earlier. Just as she faced being forced out of her home, she was informed she'd been selected for a 380-square-foot studio apartment in a subsidized building catering to older residents just a couple blocks away from her long-time home. She seized the opportunity and quickly moved in, relieved to pay less than $800 a month in rent.

"It was like a miracle, a gift from heaven that presented itself right when I needed it," Lara said.

But the rent rises every year. It's now about $1,000 a month. Lara works part-time as an office administrator for the county parks department, which pays her about $2,170 a month, and she collects $1,547 in monthly Social Security. Her Social Security payments are less than they otherwise would be because she took the benefit early, at 62, when she stopped working full-time to help take care of her granddaughters.

Lara worries that if she loses her job or is no longer able to work, she won't be able to afford even her subsidized home. With very little in savings, retirement is out of the question.

"I'll be working probably until I die," she said. "Unless I move somewhere far away that's much less expensive."

Are you struggling to afford your housing costs, or unable to find suitable housing to age in? Reach out to this reporter at erelman@businessinsider.com.

Scarce retirement housing

Lara is far from alone. One in five Americans 50 or older say they have no retirement savings, and more than half are concerned they don't have enough saved to last them through the end of their life, an AARP survey found last year.

Housing is a big part of the problem. Many baby boomers are struggling to find affordable and accessible homes to age in. Even those who own their home and have seen their home equity soar in recent years are having trouble finding smaller homes to downsize to.

A record number of homeowners 65 and older — about one-third of older households —are cost-burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on housing and utilities, a 2023 Harvard report found. This is particularly difficult for those on fixed incomes. As a result, older people are increasingly facing homelessness. Single adults 50 or older are now estimated to account for about half of the US homeless population, up from about 10% three decades ago.

Lara doesn't want to move far away. She has deep roots in her community, and her daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughters live nearby. She said she didn't fear being pushed out of San Mateo or the Bay Area when she was raising her daughter. But these days, she said, it feels like nothing is affordable.

"Apartment prices are out of control," she said. "I have to stay in this apartment until I probably can't afford this anymore, and then I don't know what I'll do."

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Spend more to avoid dying rich if you don't have kids, says this financial guru

Financial advice is not always tailored to people without kids.

DisobeyArt/Getty Images

• Childfree people may be saving too much and spending too little, one financial planner says.
• Childfree Wealth's Jay Zigmont said people without kids who don't want to pass on wealth should spend it.
• He recommended they help others early in life, keep a cash cushion, and plan for long-term care.

Many childfree people should be spending more and saving less, one financial guru says.

One reason they may be too frugal is conventional financial plans often assume people have kids or want them, meaning those without children get a lot of "bad advice," Jay Zigmont, the author of "The Childfree Guide to Life and Money," said on a recent episode of Morningstar's "The Long View" podcast.

While parents often set financial goals with the intention of leaving money to the next generation, that often isn't a priority for people without kids, Zigmont said. Focusing on how to maximize their health, their wealth, and their time is often a better option, he said.

The certified financial planner, who holds a PhD in adult learning, said he and his wife plan to give whatever they leave behind to their nephews. "If they get $10,000 or $100,000, that's fine. But if they get $1 million, we made a mistake," he quipped.

Moreover, many of Zigmont's childfree clients don't plan to retire fully but instead plan to "dial back on work rather than a complete cutout."

Zigmont said if they don't want a load of money to their names when they die, and they plan to work until late in life, that changes the calculus for their spending.

He simulated one client's wealth trajectory over their lifespan, and found they were on track to die with $100 million. The client laughed when he said they have a "$100 million problem," Zigmont recalled.

"If your goal is not to leave a whole lot of money to your estate or wherever else it is, you are saving money and investing it in a way it doesn't match your goals," he said.

Minimum spending goals

Another client still buys frozen blueberries because they're a "dollar cheaper" than the fresh ones, and a third with tens of millions of dollars to their name is "still cutting coupons," Zigmont said, underscoring how hard it can be to break a saving habit.

He works with clients to set minimum rather than maximum annual spending goals to help them bend their net-worth curves and avoid accumulating wealth they don't want.

"I had a client the other day, like 'You'd be proud of us. Last year we spent double what we did the year before!' And I'm like, 'Yes, and we're celebrating it,'" Zigmont said.

The personal finance guru also touched on a mid-life crisis that many childfree people have where they've hit many of their life goals in their 30s and 40s and begin wondering what they're going to do with the rest of their lives.

"Those are the tough questions that we as childfree people are answering much earlier that often parents don't answer until the empty nest phase," Zigmont said.

Lend a hand early

He addresses the problem by asking people, "What's the second line of your obituary say?" That helps them to figure out what's meaningful to them, and where they should devote their time and energy.

Zigmont offered a raft of advice for childfree people, such as helping others early in life instead of waiting until you die, maintaining a cash cushion to avoid going broke, and taking out a long-term care policy in the absence of family care. He also recommended writing a will, appointing an executor, and allocating financial and medical power of attorney to ensure one's affairs are handled after death.

Shrewd planning can help those without children make the most of their freedom when young while ensuring they're set for old age and beyond.

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Airbus is predicting a 'gloves-off' competition to build the next generation of planes. This is the tech it's planning.

Airbus unveiled early sketches of a future aircraft with open-fan engines.

Courtesy of Airbus

• Airbus engineers shared plans for its next aircraft, planned for the second half of next decade.
• They're aiming to increase fuel efficiency — reducing emissions and making operations cheaper.
• Innovations include open-fan engines, folding wings, and automatic taxiing.

While Airbus has pushed back plans for a hydrogen-powered plane, it plans to build a high-tech plane that is cheaper and more environmentally friendly.

Business Insider got a look at the tech that might drive it.

At its recent summit in at its headquarters Toulouse, France, CEO Guillaume Faury told reporters it was developing a new single-aisle aircraft to succeed its A320 family and enter service in the second half of the 2030s.

He said the hydrogen-powered plane was canceled as it risked being "a Concorde of hydrogen" and not commercially viable at scale.

He said a next-generation plane would not come with "incremental optimization" but "clean sheet designs." He also predicted a "gloves-off" competition to build a next-generation airplane with Airbus' US rival Boeing.

This is the new tech it's developing.

Open-fan engines

Airbus and CFM are planning open-fan engine flight tests on the A380 by 2030.

Pete Syme/BI

Higher fuel efficiency is a major discussion point in aviation, but making it happen will require "a fundamental change in the shape of the engine," said Mohamed Ali, GE Aerospace's chief technology and operations officer.

Turbofan jet engines work by taking in air. Some of this air enters the engine core where it is mixed with fuel and combusts to drive the turbines. The rest of the air is accelerated by the fan and bypasses the core.

Engines which have a higher proportion of bypassed air are more fuel efficient. However, this ratio is limited by the size of the intake duct.

"Here is the solution, and that's the beauty of physics. You can remove that duct and go to open fan," Ali said.

While today's engines have a bypass ratio of up to 12:1, Ali said current designs for an open-fan engine would improve that to 60:1.

Airbus and CFM — a joint venture between GE and Safran — plan to test open-fan engines on an Airbus A380 by the end of the decade.

They are also planning for the new engines to be able to operate entirely with sustainable aviation fuel. This can be produced from plants and cooking oil, but its takeup has so far been hindered by high costs and a lack of availability.

Folding wings

A Wing of Tomorrow model on display at the Airbus Summit.

Pete Syme/BI

Airbus engineers are looking to longer wings to create more lift and reduce drag, which in turn means using less fuel. However, the size of a plane's wings is limited by the size of airport gates.

Yet if the wingtips can fold, planes can still have longer wings in flight and fit into airport gates on the ground.

If this sounds familiar, you might've seen something similar on the coming Boeing 777X, although Airbus is planning to first use it on narrow-body planes.

"If you think about the next generation of single-aisle aircraft, it will fly many times a day, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week," said Sue Partridge, head of the Wing of Tomorrow program. "That folding wing system needs to work reliably."

New materials and some automation

Another step forward in fuel efficiency could be found in new composite materials.

The latest generation of airliners, like the Airbus A350 and Boeing 787, use carbon fiber-reinforced polymers in the wings and fuselage. These are stronger and lighter than aluminum, but more advances could be made.

"We are working on the next generation of composite materials, with our material suppliers working as partners with us," Partridge told the summit.

Just before the summit began, Reuters reported that both planemakers are looking at thermoplastics for future aircraft.

Single-aisle planes are more popular than widebodies, with Airbus eyeing a target of producing 75 a month.

"We need to be able to make our aircraft and our wings at high rate and at a cost that's actually sustainable for our business," Partridge said.

She added that the Wing of Tomorrow program was looking at robotic and automation technologies to see how they could speed up manufacturing.

Automation won't just take place in the factories, however.

At the summit, BI rode in a self-driving van testing Airbus' new autonomous technology, Optimate.

It's been testing cameras, radar, and lidar to help follow airport lines for autonomous taxiing and to avoid potential collisions. Near misses have been growing more common in recent years, and Airbus also predicts there will be twice the number of aircraft in 20 years.

AI could also be used to predict traffic and help pilots reroute around turbulence or bad weather.

Airbus' Optimate van uses lidar and cameras.

Pete Syme/BI

There are still more than 10 years before Airbus sees its next generation of planes taking to the skies.

Faury, the CEO, compared the process to "a caterpillar in a cocoon becoming a butterfly."

"In this transition, there's a bit of paralysis," he said. "There's a lot of forces at stake, it's painful, and then the butterfly takes off. We don't know what it looks like until we're there."

"We remain committed to our purpose, which is to pioneer sustainable aerospace for a safe and united world," he added. "We think it's a beautiful purpose, but it's not an easy one."

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A CPA flags a tax strategy that saved one commercial real estate investor $1.8 million

Kristel Espinosa, CPA, is a partner at JLK Rosenberger.

Courtesy of Kristel Espinosa

• Rental property owners can leverage tax deductions to lower taxable income significantly.
• Depreciation and cost segregation studies can maximize tax benefits and increase cash flow.
• One CPA says that her high-income clients regularly save seven figures in taxes from cost seg studies.

There are tax advantages that come with owning rental properties — most notably, deductions that will lower your taxable income.

Investors can deduct any expense associated with managing and maintaining their properties, from homeowner's insurance and mortgage interest to business equipment and travel.

One major deduction worth strategizing around is depreciation, CPA Kristel Espinosa told Business Insider — and there's an "easy strategy to maximize that depreciation deduction," she added.

Depreciation is the loss of an asset's value, and investors can claim the value of depreciation as a tax deduction for the entire expected life of the property, which the IRS has determined is 27.5 years for residential buildings and 39 years for commercial buildings. To calculate the annual depreciation on a rental, you divide the value of the property (not including the value of the land) by 27.5 or 39, depending on the property type.

A cost segregation study can help investors accelerate depreciation deductions and, as a result, increase cash flow. It reviews all of a building's external and internal components, some of which can be written off much quicker than the building structure.

"An architectural engineer actually goes out to the property or reviews the blueprints and basically says: 'You could break this building down into smaller components. There are partitions, there's flooring, there's electrical,'" explained Espinosa.

Some of those components can have tax lives that are much shorter — either five, seven, or 15 years — than the standard 27.5 or 39-year timelines. The cost segregation study may find that $100,000 of interior fixtures can be depreciated over five years, for example, and another $100,000 can be depreciated over seven.

"There's a rule out there for tax purposes that says, if you have property that is less than 20 years in depreciable life then you can go ahead and take an immediate write-off of that depreciation expense up to 60%," said Espinosa, referring to allowable deductions for bonus depreciation, which is 60% for 2024.

"That percentage changes every year but, as you can see, you can now take this huge depreciation deduction instead of having to wait the whole 39 years to get that depreciation," she said. "You can take a big chunk in those first couple of years and basically put yourself into a loss position because the deduction is so large, and not have to pay any tax — and that loss generally carries over. If you don't need all of the loss in the current year, that loss carries over into subsequent years, so those losses could shelter the rental income from this property for years to come."

Timing is important, she added: "Act before bonus depreciation phases out completely, post-2026."

How investors are saving seven figures in taxes doing 'cost segs'

Hiring a professional to perform a cost segregation study will cost thousands of dollars, but the tax savings can easily outweigh the cost.

"Last year we helped one of our clients save probably $1.8 million in taxes just by doing a cost seg — and the cost seg only cost them about $10,000," said Espinosa, whose firm operates out of Irvine, California. That wasn't an extreme case for her client base, which includes high-income earners in top tax brackets who typically own large portfolios and commercial buildings.

The savings from a cost seg study can vary significantly depending on a property's purchase price, type, and depreciation reallocation. As a general rule of thumb, "a cost segregation study typically allows 20% to 40% of a building's cost to be reclassified into shorter depreciation periods," said Espinosa. "This can generate first-year tax savings of $50,000 to $150,000+ per $1 million in building cost, depending on the study results and your tax situation."

She gives the example of a $15 million commercial building. A cost seg may reclassify $3 million to $5 million into five-, seven-, or 15-year assets, she said. Assuming $5 million is eligible for bonus depreciation, multiply that by 60% to get $3 million in depreciation deductions.

"Take the $3 million in deductions and multiply it by their tax rate of 37% and that's $1.11 million in federal tax savings alone," said Espinosa. "There is even more benefit if you live in a state with high-income taxes."

Smaller investors can also see big tax savings, she added: "Even a $2 million property can yield $100,000 to $300,000 in federal deductions.

Not every property will benefit from doing a cost seg. The strategy typically works best with commercial properties, as there are more components than a residential home.

While there is no IRS rule limiting the number of cost segregation studies you can do, you'll want to use them strategically, said Espinosa: "Focus on new properties or major renovations. Avoid double-dipping on already classified assets."

She advised retaining engineering reports and tax filings to defend against audits and work with CPAs and cost segregation specialists for accurate studies.

"Cost segregation is powerful but requires careful execution."

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I make a living on YouTube playing an anime character. Here's how I built my career and what my day is like.

Mint Fantôme is a virtual influencer who streams for hours a day on YouTube.

Maid Mint Fantome/YouTube

• Mint Fantôme is a virtual, anime-style influencer, with 347,000 YouTube subscribers.
• The virtual YouTuber, or VTuber for short, appears as a digital avatar online.
• The creator behind Mint took an untraditional pathway into the entertainment industry.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with the creator behind YouTuber Mint Fantôme, a virtual influencer who appears as an anime character. Like other virtual YouTubers, the creator is anonymous online, but their identity is known to Business Insider. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

I play a 19-year-old ghost online.

My anime-style digital avatar goes by many names: Mint, Maid Mint, or Mint Fantôme. I have 347,000 subscribers on YouTube where I livestream my avatar chatting, singing, and playing video games.

This is my full-time career, and it has become all that I do. I'm part of a growing trend of virtual influencers, called VTubers. Like many others, my identity is anonymous.

I recently joked with a friend that our jobs are like the TV show "Severance." The virtual characters we play online are like our "innies," which are the separate workplace identities of the show's characters.

This character I created allows me to have a public persona online without fully sharing my personal self.

I discovered virtual YouTubers several years ago. Many of those I followed were from a Japanese company called Cover Corporation, which owns one of the top VTuber agencies, Hololive.

I found their content really fun to consume. Living in the US, it wasn't until Hololive put out auditions for English-speaking creators that I realized this could be really cool for me to try.

I auditioned, but I didn't get the role. However, through the audition process, I met some independent VTubers who inspired me. I realized you don't have to work with a huge corporation to do this work.

When I started in 2020, I wanted my avatar to be completely separate from my normal self. I told no one, not even friends or family.

Then, as I started to become more popular, some of my friends came across my videos and recognized my voice.

I later told my mom. She still doesn't quite understand it. But she knows I've always loved Japanese culture and anime. She can't believe what she thought was a phase has evolved into my career.

How I make money as a virtual influencer

Most of my income comes from donations on YouTube. That's just out of people's generosity, and it's how I've been able to maintain this as a career. I also sell merchandise and promote brands through sponsorships.

More and more, VTubers are infiltrating Western culture. For example, Hololive's VTubers collaborated with the Los Angeles Dodgers. I've seen other independent VTubers work with hockey teams and at other events where you maybe wouldn't expect to see an anime girl.

I've performed at a couple of live concerts, and I want to do more. At these shows, I'll dance and sing with other VTubers. Online, everybody is just a number and a username in the chat box. But with live events, I can feel a true connection.

What an average day looks like

I typically try to stream for two to four hours a day on YouTube.

Filming is simpler than people think. I use a phone, and there are programs like VTube Studio and VSeeFace that VTubers use to generate their avatars.

I went to school for filmography, so I have some experience. But I also watch a lot of YouTube tutorials.

When I first started, I streamed in my closet. It was a small walk-in closet with good sound insulation. Now, I have my own dedicated streaming room.

When I'm not streaming, I create my own graphics and thumbnails. I scroll through X, where I'll post and check hashtags. I also take notes on my phone on ideas for livestreams or merchandise.

It's hard for me to turn the switch off. Some creators can say they don't go online or on social media at certain times. I don't have strict boundaries like that.

Instead, I log off from my job by browsing my personal Instagram and TikTok accounts, which are centered on my hobbies and interests, such as anime and Japanese culture.

An alternative pathway to entertainment

This passion for anime helped me break into the entertainment industry, which I consider virtual YouTubers part of. As in any aspect of entertainment, so much success is the luck of the draw.

When I'm streaming, I'll see a number on the screen of how many people are watching. Maybe the number says 3,000, but I can't fully comprehend that 3,000 people are watching me. I know that they are people, and I know that their usernames represent a person. But even after all these years, I feel so ordinary. I don't feel like an influencer.

The anonymity that comes with being a VTuber has been really great for me.

I'm not a very public person. I'm very shy, and I have a lot of social anxieties. But chatting for hours a day online has really helped me come out of my comfort zone. I'm so grateful I get to do this job.

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Entrepreneurial young people flock to 'mini private equity' as the job market stagnates

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• Young people are flocking to search funds, which seek to buy and grow small businesses.
• The model is popular with MBAs and young professionals looking to test their entrepreneurial mettle.
• The trend comes amid growing job insecurity for white-collar workers.

Just two weeks ago, Adam Froendt was a vice president of private equity and junior capital at Churchill Asset Management, a private capital affiliate of insurance giant TIAA's asset manager Nuveen.

Not yet 30, he had been promoted three times in his eight years in the industry, closing more than 60 middle-market private equity deals and 30 fund investments.

Last month, he quit that promising job to run a business. Now, he just needs to find one to run.

Froendt is one of a growing number of young people looking to test their entrepreneurial mettle through the world of so-called search funds. Sometimes described as mini-private equity or entrepreneurship through acquisition, a search fund is a small investment fund run by one or two people established to buy an existing small business. Once the business is purchased, the "searchers" run it with an eye toward creating value by streamlining operations and growing in size.

A 2024 Stanford Business School study found that search fund creation hit an all-time high in 2023, the latest year with data, with more than 90 first-time search funds raised. The strategy is particularly hot among young people, with Stanford finding that nearly 80% of first-time fundraisers in 2023 clocked in at 35 or younger, including many freshly graduated MBAs.

Some searchers, like Froendt, are so eager to be their own boss that they forgo outside investments — using their personal savings or their spouse's income to fund their entrepreneurial ambitions.

The boom in search funds is partly a response to a more complicated job market. White-collar jobs, once the obvious pathway to success, feel less stable. The dream of entrepreneurship is still alive and well, but tech startups can feel out of reach given the enormous shadow tech giants like Google and Amazon now cast over the economy.

Search funds and their various cousins offer a more realistic path to entrepreneurship.

"It's an alternative to the romantic entrepreneurial belief that you can only succeed by starting a company," Newton Campos, professor of entrepreneurship at IE University in Madrid and the founding partner of Newton Equity Partners, a recently launched fund that invests in search funds, told BI.

Froendt, who was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug running a car wash in high school, calls it "betting on himself."

"Traditionally entrepreneurship is thought of as "zero-to-one," involving brand new ideas starting at the ground floor," Froendt said. "When my eyes opened to the thought of being an entrepreneur in the context of an existing business, it immediately resonated with me."

Here's why some of the brightest young people are choosing to buy and operate unglamorous businesses like porta-potty rentals (yes, really) instead of climbing the corporate ladder.

Adam Froendt

Adam Froendt

How search funds work

The original search fund model, created in the 1980s, begins with an entrepreneur finding investors to fund their salary and expenses during a multi-year search for a business worth buying.

Froendt is taking a higher-risk and higher-reward path by self-funding his search, which takes, on average, two years. This model offers more flexibility over the businesses targeted, as well as more control and, eventually, more equity. As the founder of TrueGrit Capital, Froendt will be living off his "own personal balance sheet" (his savings) for up to two years.

The next step is to buy a successful small business, often from an owner-operator looking to retire. Froendt is looking for a company with between $3 million and $12 million in yearly revenue located between Maryland and South Carolina and in the healthcare services (think home health or care management), financial services (think insurance or accounting), or knowledge (think training or certification) industries.

The searchers' goals are to streamline operations, grow revenue, and create value for themselves and their shareholders. Most searchers plan to exit after five or more years, though some plan to hold indefinitely, which is what Froendt hopes to do.

The payout can be massive. According to the Stanford study, the average return on investment across the search funds studied was four and a half times invested capital, much higher than that of a traditional private equity firm.

There are many similarities to private equity, causing some to call the model "mini private equity." But Peter Kelly, a lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business who conducts the biannual survey and who ran a successful search fund business in home health care, said the terminology is inaccurate.

Kelly, who prefers the phrase entrepreneurship through acquisition, said that the model borrows from private equity financing but is fueled by the entrepreneur's desire to become an owner-manager.

The manager of a private equity fund gets paid through fees, incentivizing them to grow their assets under management, he said. A searcher is a direct investor (usually the largest) and gets paid by growing the business.

A.J. Wasserstein, a senior lecturer at the Yale School of Business put it this way: "Search is about jumping into a CEO role and leading and building. Private equity is about providing capital."

Why it's growing

Search funds were developed in the MBA world, and some of its popularity can be traced to an ever-growing list of courses about the model.

Campos counts 25 schools that teach it worldwide but said he expects the number to reach 100 in just a few years.

As interest in search funds grows, more firms, including Pacific Lake Partners and Relay Investments, have raised funds to invest in them. Campos founded his own investment fund earlier this year to help institutional investors find search funds in Europe and beyond.

Campos, who said he sold a rental apartment to invest, has made 18 personal investments in search funds, which have netted him a nice return.

Websites like SearchFunder, which connects investors with prospective searchers, and a series of how-to guides have made "searching" easier than ever.

"A Primer on Search Funds," updated every few years by Kelly and his Stanford colleagues, offers a very granular guide to the process, including sample legal documents to help close a deal. Campos called the document the "Bible" for the business model.

Harvard professors and entrepreneurs Rocye Yudkoff and Richard Ruback have published the "HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business," another essential read for anyone interested in the industry.

They've even turned it into a podcast, recently discussing how buying a successful small business can be less risky than betting on a career with a large corporation.

"That institution might be around forever, but that doesn't mean you're going to be around forever inside that institution," Yudkoff said.

Interest in search funds is only expected to continue as tech and consulting firms cut jobs and Wall Street hiring slows amid fears of an economic downturn.

Some 15% of the Harvard Business School's 2024 class that were looking for jobs did not receive any job offers after graduation, compared to only 4% in 2021.

Search funds have even become the target of online jokers. They are a recurring theme of Search Fund Stu, a financial meme maker on Instagram whose page is full of jokes about unsexy businesses like port-a-potty rentals and social media influencers promoting the model.

Search Fund Stu told BI that he is operating a business that he bought through a search fund, and asked to remain anonymous so he can post freely. One of his posts shows a photo of an uncomfortable-looking dog, labeled "MBA without a full-time offer" and riding a mini-horse labeled "a $500k search fund."

Alongside the jokers, there are lively discussions on "SMB Twitter/X," where current operators commiserate and gloat about the highs and lows of the model, spawning some bonafide influencer stars, like Codie Sanchez, with more than half a million X followers and 2 million Instagram followers.

Sanchez left a career as a private equity investor to buy and sell small businesses and teach the model to others through her media brand, Contrarian Thinking.

Froendt recently quit social media but said that Walker Deibel, another influencer and author of the guide "Buy Then Build," played a big part in his decision to try out the model.

Kelly warns, however, that people shouldn't jump into search funds because they see it online. They are still quite risky compared to climbing the corporate hierarchy, with 37% of funds raised failing to acquire a company and 31% of companies acquired either still operating or having exited at a loss, according to the Stanford survey.

"We try not to promote it in the classroom, and I don't care if my students do it, I just want them to learn about it," Kelly said.

"If no Stanford business school graduates did it one year, I might say, 'That's too bad,'" he said, adding: "If 30 graduates did it, that would make me nervous."

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