Justin Davis

Founder | @elevendunbar

[Justin Davis @_JustinDavis]

Today, we officially opened 20 spots to @elevendunbar.

You previously registered to be notified for the early bird round opening - today is the

Exactly three months ago, we announced 11D and called for founding members. After one month, we exceeded our target number and spent the last two months working with them to refine the mission, vision, values, programming & content, as well as both digital and IRL experiences.

It's been such a joy getting to know the founding members and watching them evolve in this unique environment where curiosity, play, imagination, vulnerability, and bringing ideas to life intersect.

Really great people in the right space quickly develop genuine comfort & vulnerability with one another.

That comfort plants the necessary conditions for creativity, play and imagination to flourish.

...And community interdependence & reinforcement of the above helps us increase confidence.

If this resonates with you, come check us out and apply while this round is still open. We're excited to bring in the first wave of non-founding members to 11D and see where it goes from here 👾 🚀

[Justin Davis @_JustinDavis]

Lack of creativity isn't a talent problem, it's an environment problem.

People don’t lack ideas. They lack the conditions that allow ideas and connections to flourish.

Here are a few of the biggest blockers I keep hearing from folks that reach out to us at @elevendunbar:

🧠 Optimization Brain
We’ve trained ourselves to focus on efficiency, output, and utility. Creativity requires wandering, play, curiosity, and room for the unexpected. Most adults haven’t felt psychologically free enough to explore in years.

👨‍⚖️ Fear of Judgment
People are terrified of sounding naive, weird, unfinished, or wrong. So instead of sharing early ideas, they polish them into lifelessness or never share them at all.

🤑 Transactional Relationships
Most modern networking feels extractive. People enter conversations asking:
“What can this person do for me?” Real creativity and collaboration emerge from trust, resonance, and genuine curiosity instead.

‼️ Fragmented Attention
Constant notifications, feeds, and algorithmic stimulation leave almost no room for depth. Creativity often arrives after stillness, reflection, boredom, or deep conversation which are all things modern life actively disrupts.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👧 Lack of Belonging
People become more imaginative when they feel emotionally safe. When someone feels accepted, seen, and valued, they take more creative risks and show more of themselves.

This is a huge part of why we’re building @ElevenDunbar.

A human only internet intentionally designed to help people reconnect with curiosity, imagination, and each other.

[Justin Davis @_JustinDavis]

https://t.co/hrxqJir5j0

[Justin Davis @_JustinDavis]

Congrats to Gerhard for his 100th episode of "The Unreasonable Art of Living" and for having me on his podcast to jam on all things @elevendunbar.

This week, we talk about building a Human Only Internet, designed to do two things:

1)help us connect with each other and ourselves
2)help us create

We all face resistance in making new friends, breaking old habits, and bringing our ideas to life whether it's for business or just for fun.

Reach out and learn how our community helps folks Kool-Aid man through that resistance.

If you're curious about what it's like on the inside, flick us a note. Or apply, the process itself is fun, free, and designed to get you thinking.

[Justin Davis @_JustinDavis]

We're building the Human Only Internet.

So what does this mean, exactly?

Well first let's take stock of what today's Internet facilitates, promotes, and the impact it has on us.

Shallow processing, cognitive offloading, and the attention economy has many of us consuming more than we create, exposes us to harmful content & behavioral loops, and makes us more anxious than nourished.

It's not all bad of course, but it's clear with AI that there's an opportunity to carve out a pocket of this digital world that is only for humans, and is shielded from the toxicity, the comparing, and the hollow social graph dynamics.

A place for genuine connection, creativity, and authenticity.

This is @elevendunbar. An adult Roblox if you will. A place where we can come together for unique experiences with other like minded individuals looking to laugh, play, build, and grow.

A Human Only Internet is designed to be free of likes, toxicity, and self promotion.

We'll be talking more about what we've built to facilitate this in the coming weeks, where we going, and the experiences our members are designing and enjoying together to just have fun, learn, grow and be little kids again.

And of course this helps bring our folks together IRL, too. And it's an instant familiarity when we do.

Come join us before we hit the cap of 150 people. It's full of founders, creators, deep-thinkers, digital nomads, executives, etc who just want to connect and create together.

[Justin Davis @_JustinDavis]

I started playing the handpan about 9 months ago during my sabbatical year. It transformed the way I think about creative expression, getting into flow state beyond work, and helped me better connect to myself and others.

I've been fortunate to play for friends, breath work sessions, and even an hour long set at a creative retreat.

Upon reflecting, I realized that every few years since high school, I've picked up a new hobby or interest.

In my 20s - it was HIIT classes, playing guitar, and snowboarding.

In my 30s - it was muay thai training (even became an instructor) and reconnecting with video games

In my 40s - it's been playing the handpan, padel, meditation & breathwork, creating with AI

What's consistent across all of these - are the many hours of practice, frustration, hitting & subsequently breaking through the wall (OH YEAHHH), and the joy each gives me in their respective ways.

Now... am I a muay thai fighter? A handpan musician? A founder & CEO?

I don't really put a label on myself anymore because none of those things define me. And when they did, I found that my sanity, peace of mind, and happiness would rise and fall along with the successes and failures of any given one of those buckets.

If anything, the labels that really matter are the ones I wrote in my grandmother's eulogy many years ago - she was a mother, a wife, a friend, confident, space holder, visitor, and Nana. Everyone's Nana.

What labels define you?

(And don't worry, the video rotates after a few seconds 😅)

[Justin Davis @_JustinDavis]

@AmiFromIndia @elevendunbar You're the best ☀️

[Justin Davis @_JustinDavis]

On last week's founding member @elevendunbar podcast, we had the pleasure of chatting with @AmiFromIndia and Sumitro Chatterjee, close friends since childhood.

Every day, we (our members and us) try to create some moment of cognitive awe within our community. And it begs the question - can a global digital-first community be fun and profound at the same time?

Ilan Belehssen, one of our founding members, thinks so. When we asked them about their vision for Eleven Dunbar, he said exactly that: fun and profound.

Our latest founding member episode captures this spirit so well.

Ami and Sumo are unbelievably amazing and interesting humans in the Eleven Dunbar universe, building meaningful lives and spreading joy everywhere they go.

Dancing, childhood dreams, healing journeys, manifestation, and somehow Google Sheets all made it in.

[Justin Davis @_JustinDavis]

Watch / Listen:
https://t.co/mjn5bU26bp

Apply / 11D:
https://t.co/ZL2G6GM6Rn

[Justin Davis @_JustinDavis]

In this fourth and final installment of the @elevendunbar founding member series, we chat with Chad Hammock - an entrepreneur, dad, musician, world traveler, and so much more.

Also, please do check out his silky smooth baseball announcer voice that is perfect for podcasts.

We have a few slots left open in this round as we make our way to the 150 person max for this community.

This conversation highlights what we're all about - fun and profound experiences, both in the digital space as well as IRL.

We have shared spaces for games, connecting, creativity (writing or building), and more. Come check us out and learn more about this awesome dude Chad in the comments below.

[Justin Davis @_JustinDavis]

https://t.co/ARohBWe8Kh

[Justin Davis @_JustinDavis]

Read / 11D Manifesto Part 1-3:
https://t.co/nnXdGaLjiV

Apply / 11D:
https://t.co/ZL2G6GM6Rn

[Justin Davis @_JustinDavis]

In the words of Alan Watts, around 40 years old is often when the game of hiding from yourself finally ends, and the game of finding yourself begins.

Carl Jung also writes extensively about this process, which is more of an unveiling than a crisis.

In part two of our @elevendunbar manifesto, we cover a time period that many feel nostalgic towards - the 90s. Before iPhones and social media. Before things went viral. We played outside and used our imagination in all sorts of creative ways.

Perhaps the last era where we collectively created more than we consumed as a society. Does that create a special magic about that time period for many of us? Is it something else?

I suppose it's the nostalgia that makes us feel like a kid again, it reminds us what it was like to play & create, use our imagination and the feeling that it gave us.

Part of the journey of finding yourself as Watts describes involves getting back to those roots, and folks either experience that as a waking up or a remembering.

Curious what y'all feel - for me it's most certainly a remembering.

Check it out and let us know what you think. Parts 1 & 2 found below.

[Justin Davis @_JustinDavis]

Enter the expert generalist - the "adaptivist."

I sure feel like I've been adapting lately. Left Miami to explore nature and possible other places to live. Only to return to South Beach last week after spending almost two months away. I still see it as moving forward, even if the trip did include two 14hr roadtrips, falling down some stairs, and deciding to leave early from an Airbnb and eat the cost.

In part 3 of the @elevendunbar manifesto, we name the type of person that is emerging in this new era - the adaptivist.

Many of you know these folks already... you likely know them as the best sales people, executives, founders or your favorite friends and/or family members. They are exceptional conversationalists who just happen to know a little bit about everything in a way that helps them connect better with the world around them & other people, creative expression, and giving life to new ideas.

With AI, knowing a little bit about all parts of the tech stack, operations, GTM, eng, etc will help you better orchestrate all of these new tools, become a systems thinker.

In life, these adaptivists are typically highly curious people who thrive on learning new things from other like minded individuals.

Check out part 3 below and within you can find the first two parts as well if you missed those.

Eleven Dunbar will only ever be 150 people, apply within to meet & connect with more fellow adaptivsts.

[Justin Davis @_JustinDavis]

11D Part 1 / Read:
https://t.co/PfEBIY3q5O

11D Part 2 / Read:
https://t.co/g5BFvqSwQq

11D / Apply:
https://t.co/ZL2G6GM6Rn

[Justin Davis @_JustinDavis]

Excited to be back in South Beach today ☀️

[Justin Davis @_JustinDavis]

@PasiJoronen Listen / Spotify:
https://t.co/N8idnqMMkO

Read / Substack:
https://t.co/8oFKBaMyCu

Watch / Youtube:
https://t.co/rUkkDTdBf7

Apply / 11D:
https://t.co/KeEUHcg9PK

[Justin Davis @_JustinDavis]

An Icelandic volcano. Apollo astronauts. And somehow, a direct line between them.

We didn't see it coming either, but that's what happens when you sit down with @PasiJoronen .

Pasi is an incredible human - full of heart, soul, wisdom, humor, musical talent and arguably my favorite thing about him - his vulnerability. These past few months of getting to know Pasi, create with him, and have all sorts of meaningful chats are an absolute joy and have helped created the core experience(s) at Eleven Dunbar. A powerful antidote to intellectual loneliness.

This week's @elevendunbar episode with Gerhard Molin, Pasi Joronen, and me is a bit of everything: laughter, wisdom, some genuinely unhinged ideas, and more than a few moments that created cognitive awe.

This is exactly the kind of conversation Eleven Dunbar was built around: no agenda, no posturing -> just people actually talking, listening, and co-creating.

[Justin Davis @_JustinDavis]

Substack / Read Manifesto:

https://t.co/08qAa7r3rD

[Justin Davis @_JustinDavis]

We spent six months creating our manifesto, the why behind building @elevendunbar and poured our own personal mission, vision, and values into it. My co-founder Gerhard did a beautiful job in penning it from the heart.

Our community now helps people better connect with themselves and others through play & imagination, in order to bring our ideas to life, together.

Comfort with great people >>>

Brings out creativity, vulnerability, and expression >>>

Regular practice of the above within a supportive and authentic community builds confidence and helps you expand in all areas of your life.

We didn't invent this formula, we merely observed it, and created our own version of it that is a unique combination of our collective experiences in life as people, entrepreneurs, creators, and naturally curious Adaptivists (expert generalist).

This manifesto has historically been locked behind the member's area and/or behind a series of escape room style puzzles within the application & website experience.

But we're releasing it now in a four part series to give folks a better idea into how we got here.

Check it out in the comments below.

[Justin Davis @_JustinDavis]

Watch / Youtube:
https://t.co/MgJN3QAi8c

Listen / Spotify:
https://t.co/of6CI2xyeV

Apply to join 11D, limited spots available in May round:
https://t.co/KeEUHcg9PK

[Justin Davis @_JustinDavis]

Emily Cabrera, an @elevendunbar founding member, lawyer-turned-AI-agent-builder, and certified adaptivist, joins us for the first-ever member episode of
The Unreasonable Art of Living Eleven Dunbar series.

We go deep on the renaissance of the human as ever-evolving adaptivist, why safety is the precondition for creativity, and what it means to stop explaining yourself to the world.

This one’s warm, funny, and genuinely hard to stop listening to.