Hola, hola! Welcome to Casa Cinco, a weekly newsletter curating connection.

Are you building or investing in human connection? See the bottom of this email and connect with Casa Cinco.

This time I decided to skip (nearly) a week and publish a slightly meatier piece instead. But - what really matters is what you want.

Here’s to connecting,

Andy

NOT LONELY? YOU’RE NOT NECESSARILY CONNECTED

Casa Cinco was initially born out of the global loneliness epidemic. After living in N.Y. and London, I noticed people seemed… disconnected. Disconnected from themselves, each other, and the planet.

Calling this an epidemic remains bold and controversial considering loneliness is a subjective state and ‘disconnection’ is not a medical term. However, growing data and anecdotal evidence already look concerning. In the U.S. alone:

• 👨‍🦰60%+ of adults report feeling lonely or isolated (in other words, only c. 40% feel socially connected), making this more widespread than obesity (c. 42% of adults), diabetes (c. 15%), and smoking (c. 13%).

• ❤️‍🩹Despite its prevalence, fewer than 20% of adults who feel lonely or isolated recognize it as a major problem. This is concerning, considering loneliness and isolation increase the risk for premature death by c. 30% and poor or insufficient social connection is associated with a c. 30% increased risk of heart disease and stroke, besides increased risk for anxiety, depression, and dementia.

• 🤑And, health costs money. Stress-related absenteeism attributed to loneliness costs U.S. employers an estimated $154 billion annually.

In short, loneliness is a major (and expensive) health risk. Not only for individual mental and physical health, but also for our collective social health.

The cause? Extensively debated and impossible to pinpoint to a single factor. Social media. Remote working. Decrease in church participation. $20 smoothies.

The antidote? Human connection. Social connection. Community. Sense of belonging. Call it what you will – you know what this feels like. And yet… do you seek it out, nourish it, and enable it?

The aim of Casa Cinco is to grow our understanding, awareness, and normalization of human connection through content, conversations, and, one day, investments.

A venture capital firm exclusively investing in and supporting entrepreneurs enabling human connection. What a dream!

This not only requires that I share resources, anecdotes, and tools for human connection, but also that I flag out the contradictions and complications behind it. Partly so that I can better understand them myself, but also so that we all acknowledge that one size doesn’t fit all.

In my year researching and socializing disconnection, I’ve come across 4 nuances worth exposing for the purposes of today:

1. Terminology is nascent: Loneliness, disconnection, community, belonging, human connection, social health, social fitness… all terms are used and misused, known and unknown. The ambiguity inevitably raises questions: What are we really getting to here? What do people really need?

2. Loneliness is… taboo: Loneliness is part of mental (and physical) health. Despite this, the conversation around loneliness lags about a decade behind broader health discussions. To put this in perspective: there are currently fewer than 100 start-ups openly tackling loneliness, compared to 10,000 focused on fitness according to Crunchbase.

3.  Not lonely? You’re not necessarily connected: Just like the absence of disease does not equate to health, the absence of loneliness does not equate to connection. Nearly 60% of people in the U.S. report feeling lonely, vs. fewer than 25% in Colombia. Yet, both populations significantly lack in human connection.

4. The solution is easy… and hard: We established the antidote to loneliness was human connection. But what does human connection look like? It can be a sense of peace, a good group of friends, a spouse, a safe neighborhood, a fun workplace, a walk in the park, a sense of belonging… human connection is as literal as it is figurative, which makes my job all the harder. And more exciting.

Human connection sounds simple because it is part of human nature. However, it is in the attempt to recreate nature that we realize just how complex and magical it is… until it becomes simple again.

The inspiration for you is: connection starts with each one of us. Reflect on how connected you feel to yourself, others, and the planet. What needs improving? How can you help others find connection?

While I continue working on Casa Cinco, feel free to share any resources, thoughts, or experiences that can help build a more connected world. Hit reply or see the bottom of this email for a link to my calendar. I’d love to chat!

SOURCES

WEEKLY CURATION

PEOPLE

• 💃Richard Bartlett on what the magic of a good gathering is. Can we engineer a pandemic of hospitality? Related to: Will Guidara’s ‘hospitality economy’

• 👴Having a sense of purpose could protect you against memory loss

• 📰Connective Tissue: A newsletter on the connections, communities, and commitments that bind us together

• 👔Being CEO can be lonely - and here’s what you can do about it. Note: this applies to anyone in business, not just those at the top!

PRODUCTS & SERVICES

• 🌍The experiences market is increasingly important to travelers, but it remains highly fragmented and largely analog

• 👯Ostique: How this start up went from making ostomy bag covers to providing a community for ‘ostomates’. We live for this

• 📋What do we think of personal CRMs? Tools like Covve help systematically cultivate authenticity, leading to deeper connections

• 🛍️Instead of producing high-quality stimuli (i.e. TikTok videos), how about producing high-quality experiences? Note: I don’t fully agree with this article as it equates experiences with the use of AR, but you get the point

PLACES

• ♣️The One Thousand Club: A community of curious minds in Lisbon intentional about creating meaningful connections to people, ideas, and perspectives. It. Can. Be. Done. Thanks to Mel at Wandering for sharing!

• ☕Redemption Roasters is reducing reoffending through coffee and opening it’s 12th store in London. Talk about doing well and doing good

• 🌲Getaway: The cabin company arguing that rest is a basic human right

CONNECT WITH CASA CINCO

Are you building or investing in human connection?

Join others like you by replying to this email with the subject line “MEMBER” and connect with the Casa Cinco network.

We’ll talk soon. Thank you for joining me at Casa Cinco.

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