Silicon Valley's infamous 'Startup Castle' is getting evicted

Last month, we brought you news of the “Startup Castle,” a group home near Stanford’s campus where a group of tech workers were establishing a “community of excellence” while discouraging people who had multiple tattoos, owned “clothing, shoes, watches, or handbags costing over $500,” or who had “ever been prescribed anything by a psychiatrist more than once” from applying to live there. We subsequently heard from several former residents of the Startup Castle, who described it as “a quasi-military situation” run by a former Chippendales dancer turned reality TV pirate, and compared it to “living in the Hotel California, except we can’t even drink wine here.”

But now, the Startup Castle (motto: “Educate. Liberate. Disrupt.”) is shutting down. An email sent to the house’s members by Katie Fritsch, the Startup Castle’s house manager, and obtained by Fusion tells the sad story:

Hi Everyone

Sorry to bear the bad news. We’ve been working hard to avoid this, but Startup Castle has to end.

Our landlord served us with a 3 day notice due to the media storm and the town of Woodside is now in deliberations to decide what to do with the situation. Sounds like a bad thing to get everyone here involved with, so today we told the town that we will be out of here this weekend. Thus, we have secured another house in Los Altos to move everyone to, and we all have to be out of here on Saturday.

What does this mean?

If everybody gets out in time, everybody gets a week free in a shared room. For private rooms, we’ll have to see what’s available. If you want to part ways amicably, you will be refunded for all remaining days. You’re also welcome to stay as we settle into a smaller community.

We are holding a fire sale starting today and going through Sunday. If you or anyone you know is interested in buying furniture please let us know.

The new house is definitely not as epic as this house, but it is more private and it has a nice organic garden. We are also going to set up the pool, and get a hot tub. Basically, we do whatever we want and don’t have to worry much about neighbors, the landlord, the town etc.

Relax, regroup, enjoy the peace of a much lower profile, and work on epic ideas.

Thank you!
Katie

It’s not known what, exactly, transpired between the Startup Castle, its landlord, and Woodside officials, nor is the location of the Los Altos house where some of the group’s members will be moving. (Fritsch did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)

But where Startup Castle 2.0 is, let’s hope the new landlord is more tolerant of “excellence” and “epic ideas” than the current one. And, Bay Area residents: if you’re in the market for a Tudor-style castle with a history of paramilitary tech weirdness, you might want to call your broker.