
How To Find Awesome Startup Roommates - jasonshen
http://www.jasonshen.com/2011/how-to-find-awesome-startup-roommates/
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edw519

      Enjoys similar food and drink.  Good.
      Washes dishes when the sink is full.  Good.
      Uses headphones after 11:00.  Good.
      Cleans bathroom when it's his turn.  Good.
      Pays bills on time.  Very good.
      Doesn't use semicolons at the end of the line.  Reject.

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alabut
It's an amazing experience to live with others that are passionate about
similar interests, especially when you're early in your career and it's
impossible to burn out. I've never had that with startups, I did live with
other athletes in college though. A year with the crew guys (they got me into
weights) and about two years with other soccer nuts like me. That was heaven,
playing as many games a week as we could, whether pickup, organized or
anything in between.

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jasonshen
Thanks Al. I wouldn't say it's impossible to burn out - but youth and passion
and lack of spouse/children help.

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alabut
Funny, I feel like having a spouse actually helps me avoid burnout because I
know there's a block of time every day that's devoted to someone other than
myself and with different non-nerdy interests.

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dotBen
Ok so I'm being a negative ninny and pedant but California has numerous fair-
housing laws that they are bumping up against here.

For example, it is illegal to discriminate a tenant based on "source of
income" - so if one potential tenant works for a startup and the other works
for an investment bank, you can't choose the tenant who works for a startup
over the other simply because of where they work. Nor can you legally
advertise as such.

([http://www.aroundthecapitol.com/code/getcode.html?file=./gov...](http://www.aroundthecapitol.com/code/getcode.html?file=./gov/12001-13000/12955-12956.2))

I _totally_ get the desire to have an all-startup household, but I'm also
raising this because I think we would be outraged if other fair-housing laws
were being flouted, like discrimination based on ethnicitity or sexual
orientation, and so I'm minded that it is important to respect the CA fair
housing laws in their totality.

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fido
My guess is that this applies to property owners/landlords looking for
tenants. The article talks about finding roommates, which I'm pretty sure is
ok to pick and choose...

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seiji
<http://www.craigslist.org/about/FHA#roommates>

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jasonshen
Thanks seji. Looks like we're in the clear. We didn't say the person had to be
anything, but we did pick based on certain qualities / characteristics.

"in a situation in which a landlord owns less than four rental units, and
lives in one of the units, it is legal for the owner to discriminate in the
selection process based on the aforementioned categories, but it is illegal
for that owner to advertise or otherwise make a statement expressing that
discriminatory preference."

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seiji
No problem, jasohen.

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jasonshen
Was that a dig on my spelling your name wrong? Sorry about that.

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shalmanese
Required related reading: [http://kalv.in/how-borderline-douchebaggery-helps-
you-land-a...](http://kalv.in/how-borderline-douchebaggery-helps-you-land-a-
great-roommate/)

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juiceandjuice
Shared interest != living compatibility.

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jasonshen
Good point dude. We didn't just pick the "most startupy" person as our
roommate. We had a number of factors that we considered (and took notes on in
a spreadsheet) that helped us figure out if we'd be compatible.

