Uneed Residency - Recap

The first edition of the Uneed Residency wrapped up 3 days ago now, and to be honest, I still haven't recovered, and I'm having a hard time writing this article 😅.

First off, I'm sorry I couldn't keep up my one-article-a-day streak. It was too much for me! I was way busier than I expected, and my number one priority was being there for the residents.

So this article will be a recap of everything that happened during the week: the good moments, the challenges, the behind-the-scenes stuff, etc. I hope you enjoy the read!

You can find the articles about days 1 and 2 here:

https://thomas-sanlis.com/p/uneed-residency-day-1

https://thomas-sanlis.com/p/uneed-residency-day-2

The bet

Before I tell you about the week, I want to show you something. This is the kick-off I did on the first night, to introduce the Residency to everyone:

If you read the whole thing, you're probably surprised by two things:

• There wasn't much planned.
• I told the residents not just to work, but to have fun.

Those 2 things were a huge bet for me.

When I did the Hacker Residency Group in Da Nang last year, I realized one thing: the times when I learned the most were the informal moments. The conversations with other entrepreneurs, the friendships I was able to form, the meals, and so on.

So I decided on one thing: the Uneed Residency would be focused on those informal moments. No pressure to work, no complex agenda, and a lot of freedom.

The risk, obviously, was that people would blame me for gathering 10 people to… organize nothing. That the residents would leave thinking they'd have been just as well off staying home to code.

Here are the moments that gave me my answer.

The moments that proved the bet

What emerged on its own

The craziest part is that the best content of the week was stuff I hadn't planned.

On day 3, Ryan gave us a short presentation of Fload, our sponsor. Fload offers AI agents that run, grow, and self-optimize your mobile app, in every market, every week. I was in the Hacker Residency Group with Hassan, the co-founder, and let me tell you something: it's fcking impressive. A few residents were mobile app founders, and there were many questions after the presentation; they were super interested in the product! And tbh, it made me want to create a mobile app 🥲.

And it wasn't just the planned stuff. What struck me most was how independent everyone was. Without anyone asking, residents started organizing board games, planning outings, setting up pétanque and cornhole tournaments, putting on music, cooking meals for the whole group… The manor basically ran itself.

Tbh I'd half-expected to spend the week playing host and filling silences 😂. But instead, people took ownership of the place and of each other. That alone told me something was working.

But the real moment I understood the bet was working was Monday. Without me planning any of it, the residents started running their own workshops:

• Emanuele walked us through TikTok, and it was more than interesting!! I know nothing about that social network, yet it made me want to give it a try (I created an account in the days that followed), and it even taught me things about other social networks! Thanks, Emanuele 🫶🏻
• Pauline followed up with a short talk about techniques that had helped her grow her business and get to where she is today!
• Benjamin took over to show us 2-3 super useful little shortcuts on Mac.
• That gave me ideas, and I kept the momentum going with a short Raycast workshop: we shared our tips, snippets, shortcuts, etc.
• Dmytro then explained a shift he had while being stuck at $2K MRR with his business. It was super interesting, and I'm sure you can understand a huge part of what he said by reading this whiteboard 😂👇🏻

Nobody put any of this on an agenda.It came out of the group's energy!

The PSG night

If there's one evening that sums up the spirit of the week, it's this one.

On Saturday, I could feel that a lot of people were starting to get tired. The good kind of tired, the kind that comes from spending several days meeting new people, working, talking, staying active. Add to that the fact thatit had been over 35°C since the start of the week, and I figured it was best to take it easy on everyone.

I suggested we head out to explore the city a bit, grab dinner, and have a drink. But there was one thing I hadn't anticipated:it was a football match night, PSG was playing, and in Nantes, that means a TON of action in the streets!

Early in the evening, it's actually pretty nice: the bars are packed, people are happy, and the energy in the air is super motivating, even if you don't care about football. But I didn't mention it to the residents at the time; I was a little worried about the post-match scene. In big French cities, football fans have an unfortunate tendency to turn violent and act recklessly after games. Realizing this, I figured it was best to eat fairly quickly and stay away from the riskier areas.

Since there were way too many of us to easily find a restaurant, we ended up splitting into two groups: a ramen group and a crêperie group.

Near the end of the meal, I started to get a bit nervous, as the final whistle was approaching 😅. I thought through a few places we could escape to without too much walking. We eventually made our way to a bar I'd been to a few times before, "Les Soeurs Carnage". It's a super original cocktail bar, with an atmosphere, decor, and menu that completely transform at exactly 9:30pm: quite a sight to see!

We spent maybe 2 hours there, before some decided to head back, and others to move on to another bar. Out of respect for the residents, the adventures and photos from later that evening won't be making it into this article 😎. But let's just say we had a great time!

The moments of pure life

And then there's everything else. The Friday Social, where we invited a bunch of people to the manor: no real plan, people just talked in the garden, eating cheese with nice music in the background. At some point, Annika from Creem did a cool presentation of their offer and gave free ice cream to everyone 🤩! Afterwards, a bunch of us went to finish the evening at the bar, to give the residents some privacy.

On Sunday, we headed out to explore Nantes with a good group. After a great meal at Magma, we went to see the Machines de l'Île. We walked a lot and had great conversations. And as usual, Dmytro treated us to his signature philosophical discussions 😂.

Not to mention the board games, the barbecues, the jacuzzi, the pétanque and cornhole tournaments… We packed a lot into that week.

And that's exactly where, in those moments, the bonds were formed.

The Goodbyes

The last day, the day of departures, was a bit chaotic. Which made things both easier and harder at the same time!

Everyone had their train or flight at a different time, so we never really had one big official goodbye moment.

I received a lot of thanks, kind words, and ideas for future editions. It got quite emotional at times! I don't handle an influx of emotions and gratitude very well, so I hope I didn't act too awkwardly 😅.

My conclusion

I obviously couldn't cover everything, because we packed a lot into that week 😊.

It's a human experience that's hard to put into words. If you've ever spent a week or more with strangers — at summer camp, on a boat, on a long hiking trip… you know exactly what I mean 😄.

In organizing this residency, I made a bet that one week would be enough to build strong bonds between the residents, and that the experience would be far richer, deeper, and more meaningful if we didn't spend all our time working.

Judging by the feedback from the residents, and the fact that every single one of them wants to come back for a second edition, I think it's safe to say the bet paid off 🙌🏻

What’s next?

That's the big question. I've been thinking about it for several days now.

One thing is certain: I'm going to keep running residencies. It might evolve, take different forms, grow internationally… I'm not sure yet. But the results have been too impressive, too meaningful for me to stop here.

I'm realizing that "Uneed Community" isn't actually the feed built into the site,it's what we experienced together this week.

And finally, I've received a lot of messages asking when registrations for the next edition would open, how it would work, etc. Here are a few answers:

• Registrations will open as soon as I've secured the next 2 sponsors.
• The 2nd edition will probably take place at the end of October, at the same manor in Nantes.
• 10 spots will be available: 5 for returning residents, and 5 for new people. To be honest, I'm not sure I'll open public registrations for this second edition. I don't know exactly how I'll handle it yet, but I'll likely just send out personal invitations this time around. I'll keep you posted!

See you soon 👋🏻 Thomas