Prospera: The Soul of the Rebellion.
I started to write a blog post about my trip to Prospera a few times, and I haven’t been able to get it right. I've written the clear bullet points of what I am attempting to accomplish with the blog post now
It’s different but very real
They raised the bar on what is “normal”
The regulatory environment allows for moving quickly
The longer part of the story is this, my Dad and I went to Prospera on a business trip, here’s a picture of my Dad “Monkeying” around. We were there for a few reaasons — Boost VC is an investor, and I wanted to experience it, and additionally we had an episode of “Meet The Drapers” to film in Prospera, and we weren’t sure what the expect.
For those of you who have not heard anything about Prospera, it is a developer of Freedom zones. They have one of these Economic Freedom Zones on 300 acres, on Roatan, in Honduras.
First thing that happened is that we drive in and there’s a building at the top of the hill that has a Bitcoin class going on. This building is the “Bitcoin education center”, so we are obviously interested. They have come here to do an “adoption of Bitcoin” lecture for people. My Dad immediately starts to lecture these people on what Bitcoin is and how to spread the word.
So the other thing, I haven’t mentioned yet is that Roatan is gorgious. After we leave the Bitcoin Education Center, we drive to the resort, past a pool, tennis courts and a golf course… weird - not what you were expecting in a “Freedom Zone?” Us either!
Suddenly my brain was going “am I on vacation, or working?”
Picture of my Dad lecturing at the Bitcoin Education Center.
We get to the resort, where we are staying, and the view is incredible. Houses 55 people for vacations. We drove by tennis courts and a beach club on the way down.
Up to this point, Bitcoin had been a sign around town, but other than that — Its just a great vacation place. If you swim out a couple hundred yards, you are at the second largest coral reef in the world.
… But I’m in Roatan to see deals. So I was trying to remedy this issue with haste… and I didn’t have to wait long.
They take us out to dinner, 30 min drive away, where they have set up pitches for 13 startups. 3 minutes each before dinner.
Here is a taste:
Replace body, but moving head onto cyborg, for longevity.
Replace body, by moving head onto other body for longevity.
Dissect human brain (dead person) for ML training data.
My Dad and I went through the 13 pitches. My Dad leaned over to me and whispered:
“8 out of 13 of these are investable… I think we are in the right place.” I would take a second and digest that, my Dad and I traveled to Central America, and more than 50% of the pitches, we felt were investable. The density of talent was next level, and they were all thinking different than I had seen in a long time.
I should also explain that Prospera is the special economic zone, and Infinita is the bio hacking District of the zone, where they have compiled freethinkers and doers to make the world a better place in the field of Biology. It’s pulled talented people from all over the world who have been stifled by regulations. So the startups were largely recruited through Infinita - a Boost VC Portfolio company led by Niklas Anzinger, a great free thinker and leader.
We headed back to the resort and talked about the pitches, they were awesome, they were future looking and extremely taboo concepts. They were the edge of the rebellion, which is what I am on a constant search for.
So we wake up the next day, and Erick Brimen the founder of Prospera boats us 200 meters to another pier.
They drive us in a golf cart up to a first building in the middle of a jungle:
“This is our first attempt! You asked what I did with the Series A money… this is it! With our economic zone, were able to build here 10x faster due to our permitting process.” The first building was more like a small apartment complex, maybe 12 rooms, but overlooking an amazing view of the ocean.
Erick, was born in Venezuela and schooled in the United States. This is going to be his life’s work. As I’ve gotten to know Erick, I become more and more impressed with what he has accomplished.
We go a little further and see another building that is for carpentry, they highlight the robots that they use in order to accelerate their building process. And then at the end of the road you see a huge building.
“We permitted to do this in 3 weeks.”
“Duna”, their landmark building, is 10 stories high and gorgeous. At the top there’s a drone landing pad, and inside there are “Districts” of startups, including Infinita.
At Boost VC, I’ve always been obsessed with finding what I call “the soul of the rebellion”, where are the greatest minds focused on harder problems? I believe I found it in Prospera, I found something more different than I had seen in any other places. It felt foreign in a way that Bitcoin felt foreign 10 years ago.
Boost VC invested in Prospera alongside Coinbase Ventures recently. I think this is the beginning of something that the world needs. Free thinkers becoming free doers and I’m here for it. I believe Bio startups that spend time in Prospera, will have an edge against any that don’t. I believe that the same will become true in any industry that has high regulations and stifled innovation.
This Freedom Zone is real and free. Its early, but it’s going to be exciting to watch.
I relocated from USA to go all in on Prospera. I felt the same way as you did and I we are still early.
I spent a month in Roatan as part of Infinita's pop-up and I'm really excited to build a world-class lab there