About
Investors: investors@conara.life
We offer investments in residential real estate and investment in our company. To learn more reach out at the email above or to Andrew Escher, andrew@conara.life.
Team: team@conara.life
We’re growing our team. If you believe in the mission and have a strong work ethic we’ll find a place for you. Let’s go!
The Name
When we started developing the idea and and financial model for this company, we sought a name that would reflect our goals and values. Conara means “shared hearth”. Historically, the hearth is the part of the home where we share food, stories, and wisdom. It’s the center point, the focus, the fireplace of the home. Today the part or parts of our homes that serve these purposes are varied, but the purposes of the hearth remain the most integral of the home and of the community.
The Mission
To preserve the balance of power on the side of liberty and public virtue.
President, diplomat, and admirable husband John Adams observed that “the balance of power in a society accompanies the balance of property in land.” As such, he suggested, “The only possible way, then, of preserving the balance of power on the side of liberty and public virtue is to make the acquisition of land easy to every member of society.... If the multitude is possessed of the balance of real estate, the multitude will have the balance of power, and in that case the multitude will take care of the liberty, virtue, and interest of the multitude in all acts of government.”
Learning about credit and debt is hard, it is something few are introduced to properly, and fewer still fully understand at the age where it can make the most difference. The average understanding of debt mixed with the incredible degree of debt we all find ourselves in is a tremendous burden in and weight on our imagining and framing of our future. Doing away with this structure for the majority and housing it under a single institution that eases this mental weight could have tremendous benefits to the average persons ability to imagine a brighter future.
It will increase the individual and collective capacity for hope.
We create paths to ownership through creative, fair solutions and grow by educating and empowering Stewards in their local communities toward responsibility and engagement.
We work with investors interested in sustainable, profitable community investment.
We seek open-minded, hard-working and future-forward co-workers.
The future will be different than the present.
“To live as a free person… one must accept a lot more personal responsibility… one must learn the general systemic rules… one must start thinking creatively about how to solve problems.” - Jacob Lund Fisker
Values
Authenticity
Authenticity is hard to pin down, especially for a company, and even more so during growth. To ensure Conara remains authentic, we have a goal of ensuring 1/3 of all staff are residents and stewards and 2/3 of all staff are either residents or were referred to the company by residents.
Transparency
Whether within the company, among residents and investors, or public facing, transparency is a core value to us at Conara. As we grow, we will ensure direct lines of contact with stewards and openness to the public.
Accountability
As a benefit corporation, we vow to prioritize the well-being of our community above profits. We are not entering the real estate market to line our pockets. We are here to make an impact. Our contracts with stewards focus on their rights and privileges, not ours.
Environment
Conara homes will be sustainable. The Conara home network will strive to ensure that 100% of energy usage is sourced from renewable energy. Long term, as we engage in building, we are devoted to increasing the sustainability of structures new to our network.
The Crew
Kyle Moser
Consummate doer and renaissance man, Kyle is always busy putting his many talents to use. His diverse skills in engineering and film give him unique big picture insight, and his background in construction and real estate management give him the mastery and focus to actually get things done.
As property owner, property manager, and builder, Kyle knows the ins and outs of all things housing. When not busy disrupting the real estate market, Kyle is writing, making art, and bringing people together.
Benjamin Garcia
Determinate pragmatic, an observant autodidact, Benjamin looks to a future where one’s place of birth is not the single most impactful factor in their personal trajectory. He knows that our actions today determine the future and he thrives working in the minutiae that bring a more equitable society incrementally closer.
As a founding member of a small British events business in 2011, Benjamin invested 8 years growing what is now the largest peer-to-peer marketplace for experiences in Europe and North America. In his spare time, he’s experimented with sustainably purposeful home building and intentional communities. At Conara, his spare-time hobbies have become his full-time focus, as he draws on his extensive experience in scaling businesses to bring our collective vision to life.
Andrew Escher
Infectiously positive, natural trader and networker, Andrew has never encountered a problem too big for him to tackle. After a successful stint selling high-end real estate, Andrew recently refocused on what he does best: consulting small businesses on how to exponentially grow.
As a long term contributor to the greater startup community and a finance wiz, Andrew brings the know-how and experience to build and scale a company from scratch.
Katrina Burka
Katrina is a world class facilitator of conversation and community. She led groups of hundreds of students through courses on having difficult conversations and is passionate about creating fun and open spaces for growth. Her inspiration knows few bounds. She’s also a social media guru and storytelling facilitator.
Kat’s goal at Conara is to promote the best-lived experiences for stewards, optimizing their passions, developing the importance and benefit of community, and bolstering their own paths toward self-exploration.
Language Matters
The words we use to describe our world shape our mindset and the way we think about and move through the world and our communities. So… it’s critically important we choose our words wisely. A lot of the language used in the real estate business currently leans unabashedly into feudal societal structures regardless of the government or culture they’re operating in.
Steward
Terms like rent and tenant build a wall between the individual and ownership mentality. Steward means caretaker and responsible party. These terms are specifically used to refer to people paying to live in a property without a claim to ownership and they carry with them an impermanence. When we identify people as renters we diminish their impetus to improve and invest in the space. They’re what God called his people to be in the first book of the Bible. When we are not invested in our land we more easily excuse ourselves from investing energies in improving our neighborhood and community. Stewards are residents, and residents can be stewards.
Investment
Presently, investment is largely focused on the prospect of a financial return. However, investment, from its very root word “Vesta” - the goddess of the hearth - and its secondary definition of “focus or devotion (one’s time, effort, or energy) to a particular undertaking with the expectation of a worthwhile result” implies something much beyond finance. We’ve built a system where investors get credit for investing in futures that make the world better alongside a financial return.
Home
We use a lot of words to refer to our pieces of and places on Earth; Land, property, real estate. Property means things owned and has a connotation of exclusivity and harkens to hoarding. You only use the term to describe your space if you’re a grumpy hermit. Land is a fine word from old english, meaning "portion of earth surface", or "ground/soil". It’s 2D though, no structure, no shelter. Real estate is a distant term implying status. Home on the other hand is simple and personal, it feels good to say and it’s exactly where we want to be.
the balance of power in a society accompanies the balance of property in land
