Landing

Meet Our Members: Daniel Oppong

By Daniel Oppong | Nov 12, 2020
Landing member Daniel Oppong

After five years of living in Nashville, I found myself ready for a change.

It was January of 2020, before the peak of our ever-present global pandemic. Can you believe that we used to exist in a world sans face masks and social distancing? Yea, me neither.

I’d recently left my job at a local venture capital fund and was now working fully-remote for a Seattle based tech company. I was also jammin’ on my entrepreneurial side hustles, which didn’t require me to be any place in particular. As long as I had my laptop and access to wifi, I was gucci.

I didn’t exactly know where I wanted to be next, but knew for damn sure I didn’t want to sign another 12 month lease. This got my wheels spinning.

One day, I got to chatting with a buddy of mine who had recently started a Van Conversion business. He, too, was intrigued by the idea of freedom and flexibility, and together, we were determined to find a way to make it happen.

“Bro — what if you rented a place in San Francisco and I rented a place in Nashville and we just switched out whenever we wanted to be in a new city?” I said. “Wouldn’t it be cool if we could just live anywhere?!”

“I’m down!” He replied. “If we could find a way to have that flexibility, we should do it!”

And with that, our research was underway.

I didn’t exactly know what to type into google, but somehow, I entered the right combination of words and stumbled upon my soon-to-be soulmate, Landing. I know… I found love in the 21st century without apps and without swiping! Wild, right? I couldn’t believe it either.

It almost seemed too good to be true, so I immediately called their office to learn more.

“Wait… so you’re saying once I pay this membership fee, all I have to pay is the monthly rent and I can have access to fully-furnished units in any of these cities?!” I asked.

“That’s right!” The gem of a CS rep replied.

Not sure if she knew that she was making my dreams come true, but alas, I was definitely feeling some cloud nine, “I’m going to Disneyland” type energy.

Given that I’d had a similar idea, I had to look into Landing and see which genius had beat me to the punch. In my research, I discovered that Landing’s Founder & CEO sold his last company, Shipt, to Target for a measly sum of… well… hundreds of millions of dollars… which… low key made him a little better capitalized than my buddy and I ?… So instead of starting my own version of Landing, I decided to give his concept a whirl, and I’m so grateful I did.

Landing met me in a place that truly aligned with my personal values. I’m infinitely enamored by meaningful and memorable experiences, and have long had an affinity for “untraditional” things. After pursuing and becoming excruciatingly disillusioned by the faux “American Dream” ladder of life experiences in my 20s — you know the one: go to college, get a job, buy a house, get hitched, happy wife, happy life… — I’ve since been determined to create a life I love, even if it requires ingenuity and doesn’t fall within traditional constructs.

Admittedly, when considering living through Landing, I had a few hurdles to jump like: getting rid of my “stuff”, figuring out what to do with my mail, and making sure all of my remaining possessions could fit in the back of my car, but that wasn’t even the most difficult part.

The truth is, what living through Landing really did was it challenged me to confront my relationship with the things that I’d formerly relied on to provide some semblance of security. It empowered me to feel free by reimagining a lifestyle where I owned my assets, but my assets didn’t own me.

Landing has given my transience a home. And while I know this idea may seem counterintuitive to some, for me, it feels incredibly well-aligned.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the privilege and means required to utilize a service like Landing, but I’m excited about the ways in which they’re aiming to make this lifestyle more accessible to more people in the future.

So far, my experience has been great! I started in Nashville, spent some time in Seattle, and am headed to Washington D.C. at the end of the month — which could be great or terrible, given that it’s an election year, *gulp*… but hey, might as well be there and find out for myself! ? Hoping to add Dallas, Miami, San Diego, San Francisco, and Austin to the list in the coming months as well, but we’ll see!

I’ll leave you with this thought: if life in its simplest form is nothing more than a collection of experiences, why not invest in pursuing and creating uniquely memorable ones, instead of cruising on autopilot or living by a predetermined set of societal norms that may not be well suited for you?

It might mean letting go of the life you or someone else imagined (for you), to create the life you really want, but I think it’s a risk worth taking, and my life is certainly much better for it.

Landing is part of what makes that life possible, and for that, I’m grateful.

So with that, I’m off… probably Landing in a city near you. Here’s to more meaningful experiences, more memories made, and the incredibly beautiful people I’ll meet along the way.

Daniel Oppong