Ella Plank

exp. design @traunstudio @akatoshouse

[Ella Plank @elzpl]

@ftnabeelah @akatoshouse we’ve also found a special spot for the @cursor_ai coffee bags✨ always here for you 🫶🏻 come by soon!

[Ella Plank @elzpl]

A cafe is not a feature.

It's its own product - people first have to decide to spend time in your space before any network effect happens.

When I designed @akatoshouse, every piece of decor had a purpose. Every flow of movement was considered.
Now it's called the most beautiful hacker house and our results still speak for themselves.

Good design is never just the one big thing but the accumulation of care, intention, and knowing exactly what feelings you want someone to walk away with.

@nico_laqua your beta test was successful. Now let's take corgi cafe to its full potential with the right "interior design".

[nico laqua @nico_laqua]

The point of the corgi cafe isn’t the interior design, although that’s something we’re improving (and there’s a lot more coming soon with the cafe). The point of the corgi cafe is it’s the only place where I am 100% certain that there are billion dollar companies being founded, probably several per month. So many people have told me they met a vc who gave them a term sheet in the cafe, or applied to yc and got in there, or met their cofounder, or got their dream job, etc. Critiquing the aesthetics is missing the point, it’s like me saying youtube isn’t good because the like button design isn’t very pretty. The corgi cafe is a network effect product.

[Ella Plank @elzpl]

@librendaa072 means a lot 🫶🏻 crazy to see how fast the space evolved

[Ella Plank @elzpl]

Cafés have historically been places where relationships are built - e.g British afternoon tea, Austrian coffeehouse culture.

Nowadays, people are distracted by everything. Cafés provide an impartial space, relaxing white noise, sweet treats, and a subtle sense of community, even if you go there alone.

How cool would it be to create your own nook in the world that leaves an impact in the local culture and community?

[Ella Plank @elzpl]

great ads make people feel sth - not just shout at you through a big bold font above the sidewalk

your ROI shows up in how the city felt for a day

thank you for adding back some whimsy!

[Max Brodeur-Urbas @MaxBrodeurUrbas]

"what if we spent our marketing budget on musicians instead"

[Ella Plank @elzpl]

beautiful

[Ideogram @ideogram_ai]

Introducing Ideogram 4.0: the best open image model in the world.

Think it. Make it. Own it.

Download the weights, fine-tune on your own data, and run it on your hardware. Live on every Ideogram plan and the API today.

[Ella Plank @elzpl]

the beauty of milan🪞

[Ella Plank @elzpl]

🚨 I’m looking for private event spaces in SF to add to my repertoire

Any recommendations?

[Ella Plank @elzpl]

@realfigmafiend ✌🏻

[Ella Plank @elzpl]

@NotionHQ’s whimsy 🪑💕

[Ella Plank @elzpl]

good reminder:

[Brad @BradleyKellard]

In 2023, Stanford professor Graham Weaver gave his last lecture on how to destroy fear & live a wildly ambitious life.

His frameworks:

- Suffering is inevitable
- Signup for "10 years" test
- "Not me" & "Not now" traps

13 lessons on how to build an asymmetric life:

[Ella Plank @elzpl]

need some urgency in your life?

nothing motivates like $$$ staring you in the face.

I built a timer that calculates how much procrastination costs you: https://t.co/QSgdAMaLd7

[Ella Plank @elzpl]

why are people afraid to take a step toward their dreams?

it’s a perfect win-win situation - you either:

- achieve your dream
- realize it’s not what you wanted.

either way, you free yourself to move on with the assurance that there won’t be regret..

like how could you lose?

[Ella Plank @elzpl]

Every week there's a new tool that's going to make building easier.

And every week you save it, try it, get excited… and ship nothing.

There will never be a perfect moment, a perfect stack, a perfect time to start.

So start now!

[Jerry Jiang @TheMingjie]

We’re starting a builder bootcamp.

Many people call themselves founders, but end up flounders: much talk, but no output, no walk.

So we’re gathering builders of all kinds - engineers, designers, creators, and more - to turn their thoughts into real, tangible output across two weeks of deep, hard work.

You can be in school or have a job. But every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evening, you will have one minute to update fellow builders with:

•⁠ ⁠what you're working on
•⁠ ⁠⁠what did you get done
•⁠ ⁠⁠what’s your goal by the next update

Too many great ideas are just languishing around. We want to get people going, sooner, faster.

Hosted by @akatoshouse and @jrodgers at @TheBarnWaterloo in Waterloo, Canada, the world’s greatest city of makers.

If you’re interested, reply “bootcamp” and we’ll send you an application link.

[Ella Plank @elzpl]

@_tenZdhon_ @TheMingjie sent!

[akatos. @akatoshouse]

How are Waterloo builders so cracked?

They just f’in build.

Introducing the Bootcamp: a two week bootcamp for builders and makers to finish projects and bring ideas to life.

Brought to you by @akatoshouse and @TheBarnWaterloo

[akatos. @akatoshouse]

we're looking for summer ’26 residents!

if you're sick of being told you're unrealistic or that things move too slow around you...

we've got a home for you.

apply now ⤵

[akatos. @akatoshouse]

Huge thank you to everyone who came to the
@akatoshouse Symposium Showcase!

We welcomed 110+ founders/builders from all over. Shoutout to our 20 demoers who shipped like crazy, the 30+ VCs who joined us, and our amazing volunteer team.

The energy was unreal. We saw a non‑invasive headset aimed at human super-intelligence, an evaluation framework for neural organoids, and an engine that turns real‑world data into robot‑training simulations - all built out of Waterloo.

Special thanks to @Communitech for hosting us in their space, and our incredible sponsors: @convex, Forge and @interfaze_ai.

If you missed it (or want to relive it), you can watch all the demos here 👇

[Ella Plank @elzpl]

@akatoshouse @TheMingjie Plus the awesome demo from @interfaze_ai’s @yoeven 🫶🏻🧩

[Socratica @socraticainfo]

LESS THAN 2 WEEKS TO SYMPOSIUM

shot by @elzpl