Inside one London founder house rewriting the founder-house rules

走进伦敦一家正在改写“创业者之家”规则的公寓

Six twentysomethings in East London have built what they say is the anti-San Francisco hacker house. The goal is a “holistic improvement in life,” rather than “12 weeks, Demo Day is coming,” Rowan Aldean, 26, explained. 在伦敦东区，六位二十多岁的年轻人建立了一个他们称之为“反旧金山模式”的黑客之家（hacker house）。26岁的Rowan Aldean解释说，他们的目标是实现“生活的全面提升”，而不是那种“12周后演示日（Demo Day）就要到了”的紧迫感。

Intrigued, I spent an afternoon visiting the house, meeting its residents, and doing a vibe check. I arrived after Aldean escorted me through the clean sidewalks of a new East London development to where the six-story building stood facing the water. The house is called the London Island Founder House — or “Lift House” — and Aldean and his wife, Zahraa, 22, an upcoming pharmaceutical research PhD candidate, have lived there since May, just a few months after it officially launched in March. 出于好奇，我花了一个下午的时间拜访了这栋房子，见到了住户，并感受了这里的氛围。Aldean带着我穿过伦敦东区一个新开发项目干净的人行道，来到这栋临水而建的六层建筑前。这栋房子被称为“伦敦岛创业者之家”（London Island Founder House），简称“Lift House”。Aldean和他的妻子、22岁的准药学研究博士生Zahraa自五月起便住在这里，而该项目是在三月份正式启动的。

Aldean sold his previous company last year for millions, he said, and now runs an “applied AI” startup that helps companies learn how to deploy agents. Like all hacker houses, Lift House is part startup workspace, part co-living space. The house is named after both its lift — that is, its elevator — and its mission to uplift tech founders, Aldean said. Aldean说，他去年以数百万美元的价格卖掉了上一家公司，现在经营着一家“应用人工智能”初创公司，帮助企业学习如何部署AI智能体。和所有的黑客之家一样，Lift House既是初创公司的办公空间，也是共享居住空间。Aldean表示，这个名字既源于房子里的电梯（lift），也寓意着其提升（uplift）科技创业者的使命。

It’s one of the very few co-living hacker houses to exist in London (compared to San Francisco, where dozens — if not hundreds — are scattered around the city at any given time). Lift House is a bet that U.K. founders can build successful companies without mimicking the over-the-top hustle culture of Silicon Valley. 这是伦敦为数不多的共享居住型黑客之家之一（相比之下，旧金山随时都有几十甚至上百个这样的房子散布在城市各处）。Lift House是一场赌注，它试图证明英国的创业者无需模仿硅谷那种过度激进的“奋斗文化”，也能建立成功的公司。

Founders have described stories of San Francisco hacker houses illegally running in warehouses, throwing full-on galas, or setting up in a tent or espousing punishing, 72-hour sprints typical of the “996” work culture. “I don’t expect the performative and over-the-top events will be a thing here,” Aldean said, and pointed to one of London’s most successful AI companies, DeepMind. “They’ve won Nobel prizes and built frontier innovation without any song and dance.” 创业者们曾描述过旧金山黑客之家的种种故事：在仓库里非法运营、举办盛大的晚宴、在帐篷里办公，或是推崇那种典型的“996”式、令人精疲力竭的72小时冲刺工作法。“我不认为那种表演性质的、夸张的活动会在这里出现，”Aldean说，并指了指伦敦最成功的AI公司之一DeepMind，“他们赢得了诺贝尔奖，创造了前沿创新，却没有任何浮夸的作秀。”

Instead, Lift House is part of a trend called “Londonmaxxing,” in which founders attempt to optimize everything the London tech scene offers. The London ecosystem feels less showy and less startup bro-y than San Francisco, but its founders share similar ambitions: success, wealth, and market domination. 相反，Lift House是“伦敦最大化”（Londonmaxxing）趋势的一部分，创业者们试图优化伦敦科技圈所能提供的一切资源。伦敦的生态系统感觉比旧金山少了几分炫耀和“创业兄弟会”的气息，但这里的创业者有着相似的野心：成功、财富和市场主导地位。

London AI startups have raised $12 billion so far in 2026, out of $14.7 billion raised by all London startups, according to Dealroom. Six companies have raised more than $500 million: Wayve, Superintelligence, ElevenLabs, Recursive, Ineffable Intelligence, and Isomorphic Labs, the latter three of which were founded by DeepMind alumni. The excitement from AI has boosted the morale of the U.K. tech scene, inspiring a new generation of founders, like those in the Lift House, to take big swings. 根据Dealroom的数据，2026年至今，伦敦AI初创公司已筹集了120亿美元，占伦敦所有初创公司融资总额147亿美元的绝大部分。有六家公司融资超过5亿美元：Wayve、Superintelligence、ElevenLabs、Recursive、Ineffable Intelligence和Isomorphic Labs，后三家均由DeepMind校友创立。AI带来的兴奋感提振了英国科技界的士气，激励了像Lift House住户这样的一代新创业者去进行大胆的尝试。

Journaling vs. demo day

写日记 vs. 演示日

The timeline for living on Lift House is flexible — some people have stayed for a month; others intend to stay for at least six months. They buy their own groceries, Aldean said, although they often cook together and share ingredients. Cleaning is split among the group. Everyone declined to share information about the rent they pay. 在Lift House居住的时间很灵活——有些人住了一个月，另一些人打算至少住半年。Aldean说，他们自己买菜，尽管经常一起做饭并分享食材。清洁工作由大家分担。所有人都拒绝透露租金信息。

The residents of Lift House aim for a balanced approach toward ambition, each one of them tells me — an almost unheard-of idea by San Francisco startup standards. On Sundays, the group will journal together, a practice introduced by David Amor, 28, who runs a brain coaching and training company, helping founders and business leaders understand more about their brain and how it can help optimize business performance. Lift House的住户们告诉我，他们追求一种平衡的雄心——这在旧金山的创业标准中几乎是闻所未闻的。每周日，大家会聚在一起写日记，这一习惯是由28岁的David Amor引入的。他经营着一家大脑辅导和训练公司，帮助创业者和商业领袖了解自己的大脑，并利用这些知识优化业务表现。

The idea of journaling is to help everyone track how much time they spent in nature that week, how well they ate, and how much they moved their bodies. “I’m eating healthier, working out more, and sleeping more,” Luke, 27, who runs an AI-marketing company, said about living in the house. “I always make sure to have lunch now, which is something that is simple, but I wasn’t doing before I lived here.” (Luke asked that his last name be withheld.) 写日记的目的是帮助每个人记录那一周在户外待了多久、饮食状况如何以及运动量多少。“我吃得更健康了，锻炼更多了，睡眠也更充足了，”27岁的Luke在谈到居住体验时说，他经营着一家AI营销公司，“我现在一定会吃午饭，这虽然简单，但在住进这里之前我根本做不到。”（Luke要求隐去他的姓氏。）

Tuesdays evenings are for volleyball, where the founders play on the house team in a local league. After dinner on other evenings, Wan Ying L, 25, who just left an AI startup and is working on a new idea, might play the piano in the living room. Sometimes the group plays Catan or visits art exhibitions together. 周二晚上是排球时间，创业者们会以公寓的名义参加当地联赛。其他晚上的晚餐后，25岁的Wan Ying L（她刚离开一家AI初创公司，正在构思新项目）可能会在客厅弹钢琴。有时大家会一起玩《卡坦岛》桌游或参观艺术展。

Presence Plumb, 25, is a tech strategist. She likes to host rooftop dinner parties, serving dishes that reflect the different nationalities in the house — from Iraqi to Spanish — while invited founders, researchers, investors, and operators chat about tech trends and investments. “It’s a bit calmer, balanced, authentic in a way,” she said of people in the London ecosystem. “They don’t want too much of that only startup tech bro vibe. They want a bit of balance.” 25岁的Presence Plumb是一位科技战略家。她喜欢举办屋顶晚宴，提供反映公寓内不同国籍背景的菜肴——从伊拉克菜到西班牙菜——同时邀请创业者、研究人员、投资者和运营人员畅谈科技趋势和投资。“这里更平静、更平衡，也更真实，”她在谈到伦敦生态系统中的人们时说，“他们不想要那种纯粹的‘科技兄弟会’氛围，他们想要一点平衡。”

Each founder follows their own schedules for a typical workday. Amor, for example, is up by 8 a.m. and gives himself exactly 30 seconds after waking up before jumping into his morning work. “I have a clear objective of ‘this is what I want to do in the first half of the day, when there’s no distractions.’” After his morning work routine, he takes a cold shower, “because it increases your dopamine by 250% and that gives me that motivation, that spark,” he said. 每位创业者都有自己的工作日程。例如，Amor早上8点起床，醒来后只给自己30秒时间，然后就开始投入早间工作。“我有一个明确的目标：‘这就是我在没有干扰的情况下，上午想要完成的事情。’”在完成早间工作后，他会洗个冷水澡，“因为这能让多巴胺水平提高250%，这给了我动力和灵感，”他说。

Luke, meanwhile, is up at around 8:30. His co-founder, Varun, 27 (who asked that his last name be withheld), typically travels to the Lift House to co-work, and the duo starts work at around 9 a.m. with a team call. Aldean rarely wakes before 10 a.m. unless something big is happening, like a “crazy angel [investor] call,” he said. 与此同时，Luke大约8:30起床。他的联合创始人、27岁的Varun（要求隐去姓氏）通常会来到Lift House共同办公，两人在上午9点左右通过团队电话开始工作。Aldean说，除非有大事发生，比如“疯狂的天使投资人电话”，否则他很少在上午10点前起床。

When asked what makes this house uniquely British rather than a wellness-focused Silicon Valley founder house, Aldean joked: “Well, we drink tea together like Brits, and in SF folks just drink filtered coffee.” More seriously, he spoke of how British founders face a different kind of pressure than those in the U.S. They must navigate a cultural… 当被问及是什么让这栋房子具有独特的英伦特色，而不是硅谷那种专注于养生的创业者之家时，Aldean开玩笑说：“嗯，我们像英国人一样一起喝茶，而在旧金山，人们只喝过滤咖啡。”更严肃地说，他谈到了英国创业者与美国创业者面临的压力截然不同。他们必须应对一种文化……