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founders

Living Smart —
James Bryan Graves

Co-founder James Bryan Graves explains how at THE EMBASSIES you don’t need your iPhone to live smart.

Thinking technologically is what motivated James Bryan Graves to build Hackers & Founders Amsterdam, the largest entrepreneurial tech community in the Netherlands with its own co-working space. But applying that way of thinking to everyday living is what led him to become a co-founder of THE EMBASSIES. To James, living smart doesn’t mean having technology front and centre. Here he explains how programming and hospitality really have the same goal, and how THE EMBASSIES is harnessing that knowledge to change our perceptions on tech.

A colleague stopped by my office last week to catch up over a drink. I was excited to share a bit of our progress on THE EMBASSIES. While I was showing him through a polished pitch deck, potential locations, and even some stubbed-out floor plans, he asked, “But where’s the tech?” A reasonable question, given my tech start-up background. “Tech is dead,” I replied, “Long live tech.”

My answer was hinting at a bigger question: hasn't every company, in a sense, become a technology company? Tech is now behind everything. Logistics and customer experience companies, like AirBnB, Uber and even WeWork, all need tech to do what they do. At THE EMBASSIES, we are no different. We aim to create the highest level of care and comfort with the softest touch possible. And we do this, of course, with technology. How else would an individual or staff member understand all the preferences and needs of a constantly moving, ever-changing population? Take Frank, one of our ambassadors. No matter which city he happens to be living in, we should know his dietary needs and what time his dog is walked. We want each and every resident, guest, and visitor to feel at once part of something bigger while maintaining a sense of intimacy and privacy.

People often think of tech as something intimidating and sterile, but it’s not actually that cold or inhuman. Engineers imagine how people will interact with software, just like architects think about how people will interact with buildings. Thinking technologically is really just thinking as part of a community. At THE EMBASSIES, we truly want to bring this line of thinking to life. That means, making sure that our guests and residents have all the convenience of tech but none of the impersonal sterility. We’ll never ask our guests to communicate with us via a screen. Instead we want to be there in person. So, although our brand of hospitality might be informed and assisted by technology, the user interface is still our people.

A couple of years back, I got into the concept of the quantified self. That means being able to track and measure your physical, mental and emotional performance – how many calories you burn, how many steps you’ve walked, how fast your heart is beating, etc. It’s exhausting just explaining it. Imagine doing it! But what if you could make quantified living easier for everyone who wants to use that data to become the best version of themselves? That’s our goal at THE EMBASSIES. Like I said, we don’t do it by giving everyone iPads and Fitbits and sending them on their merry way to ‘be well’. Instead, this kind of tech is one tool out of many our staff use to help our interested residents and guests achieve their best life and feel taken care of.

And that decision to give tech a human face has nothing to do with age or technological ability. We just think its cosier and more enjoyable when people interact with each other instead of through tech. Our guests and residents should be busy living life instead of monitoring it. So, while we fundamentally believe in technology, we know it should never become the core interface. We’re not about smart living or smart home technology. We’re about living smart.

So, when people ask: where’s the tech? I can genuinely say, it’s everywhere and nowhere.