Looking for Business Partner (w/ stellar Finance & Negotiation Skills) in Toronto/Montreal/BC Canada, Taitung Taiwan or Portugal

Hey guys!

I'm looking for (an ideal/unicorn) business partner to combine our strengths (see below what they are), finances, passion, and commitment to run a hostel together.

You are someone who is past the 'dreaming' stage, is already into the action-taking stage -- have already done ample research, number-crunching, and serious discussions with potential real estate agents, lawyers, investors, etc.

Location: hostel can be in Toronto, Montreal, somewhere in BC; or Taitung/Tainan/east coast of Taiwan, or Portugal. I can be flexible, this can be discussed further after we think we'll be a great fit.

Having a business partner is probably like having a marriage, we should go on a few (a lot) dates, spend some (a lot) time with each other, to see if we can make this work, long term. I hope we're like a Venn diagram and that we're greater than the sum of our parts :)

Please only connect when you've finished reading the entire post. If you're going to do something (even if it's just leaving a comment), please do it well.

YOU & YOUR STRENGTHS:

- Amazing with finance: numbers, estimates, budgeting, projections, cash flows, ...

- Negotiating deals, fierce yet non-asshole-y

- Smart, confident, humble

- Know what you want, know yourself (what you're great at, what you dislike, values, morals, priorities in life)

- Genuine and authentic, no bullshit, waste no time

- Prioritization skills, business acumen (know timelines, urgency, ...)

- Entrepreneurial

- Decisive

- Valuable things/skills I don't have (see below) that you can bring to the table, convince me ;)

ME:

- A Canadian with a dream to run a hostel, some day in a perpetually warm place, but willing to consider TO/MTL in the near future to start

- Travelled/backpacked a cumulative ~3 years in 30+ countries and 100+ places (valuing quality > quantity, time spent in a place > checking bucketlist)

- Stayed in ~150 hostels/hotels/guesthouses/Airbnb/homestays

- Had my own Airbnbs (3-5 listings) from 2011 to 2017, was an Airbnb Ambassador / Community Leader Host in partnership with Airbnb Canadian team on pilot projects

- 9 months (August 2017 to May 2018) of market research in 5 countries and 50 of world's top-rated hostels (Hoscars; and 1-3 month old newborn hostels)

- Documenting, reflecting and condensing the research in: https://www.instagram.com/thehosteljourney/

- Stalk the captions of my IG photos and you'll know if we're a great fit

- B.Sc in Neuroscience from McGill University, intrinsically motivated; spends some of my free time on: cooking, yoga, painting acrylic on canvas, photography, gardening/planting, writing, dreaming, trying to make dreams come true, and of course traveling!

MY STRENGTHS:

- Vision, ideas, design, decor, atmosphere, value, tone-setting, what I want the hostel to be

- Operations, strategy, connective thinking, problem-solving

- Human connections, networks, deep and wide international friendships

- Passionate, curious; unsettling for good-enoughs (but self-aware that I'm a somewhat perfectionist in a bad way)

- Chinese language: Mandarin is my second mother tongue, I can read and write in both traditional and simplified Chinese and translate bidirectionally in working proficciency 

- 9 years of full-time professional work experience in Canadian startup and corporate companies in Project Management, Information Design, Communications, Ecommerce, Operations, Process Improvement, Digital Marketing, Sales Copywriting, SEO optimization, UI/UX Design, and Client Relationship Management

- Experience, knowledge, and information on traveling, backpacking, hospitality, hostels, what travellers want, how they travel, what hostels need/should have; I've volunteered, worked, and consulted in hostels on 7 projects / hostels in the last 12 months

TIMELINE/SCOPE:

- For the first hostel I'm looking at a 2-3 story house with 3-5 bedrooms at 10-30 beds max., with 2-3 common areas

- Aiming at get the ball rolling together as of August 2018; deep dive in fall/winter to finding a place and starting physical work on building

- Thinking of leasing/renting the first hostel, but open to join-buy or consider investors etc.

- Potentially opening a 2nd hostel in a warm place in a few years, boutique hostel/suites catering to the need of that time and its people

HOW TO CONNECT:

- If you're still reading and nodding, please send a short summary on why you're the partner I'm looking for/what you can bring, what you've already done for a hostel (or hostel dream), why we might be a good fit, to [email protected]. Subject line: HOSTEL BUSINESS PARTNER