About
Who We Are
👋🏽
Zaratan Coliving was founded in 2020 to advance the art, science, and practice of shared living.
Our Vision
We see coliving as situated at the intersection of three key social challenges:
- the human need for connection
- the rising cost of housing
- the decline of democratic civil society
We see these challenges as linked, and believe that coliving can address them all, by enabling residents to co-create their own housing — building relationships, saving money, and cultivating skills in the process.
Zaratan works across three domains:
- building physical houses
- developing organizational tools
- cultivating new knowledge
To-date we have built two sites, Sage House and Cactus Cottage, on a shared lot in Los Angeles. We have developed a suite of pioneering organizational tools, called Chore Wheel. Lastly, we have been cultivating knowledge within our community of academics and practitioners. Zaratan has an expansive vision, and we are in it for the long haul.
What is a Zaratan?
A Zaratan is a mythical giant sea turtle, often mistaken for an island by sailors lost at sea. By naming ourselves after this creature, we evoke the way that organizational innovations can act as foundations for thriving communities. In addition, Zaratani are known for their slow movements and long life, which we evoke through our patient and intentional approach to growth.
Our Story
Over a ten-year career working across the fields of communal living, organizational design, and technology development, Zaratan founder Daniel Kronovet developed the concept for a certain kind of house — one that was accessible, appealing, and easy to live in.
In March of 2020, Daniel moved back to his hometown of Los Angeles to try and make this dream a reality. Within days, the pandemic hit. Undeterred, Daniel teamed up with his dad, Robert Kronovet, recruited architect Matt Manion, and started working on what would become Sage House. Over a period of two years they renovated what was then a run-down old house into a beautiful and functional new home. At the same time, Daniel worked with collaborators Seth Frey and Joseph DeSimone to develop Chore Wheel, the tool that would help Sage function.
Sage opened in September 2022, filling up quickly. An early resident of the house, Daniel helped build a culture of practice around Chore Wheel — one which could withstand the effects of turnover and interpersonal friction while supporting the residents' agency and personal growth.
After a year at Sage, Daniel moved out to focus on increasing the adoption of Chore Wheel by the larger housing ecosystem — where it is being actively used. Meanwhile, Sage has continued to thrive as a self-directed community, with minimal management and oversight.
About Daniel
Daniel was born and raised in Santa Monica, down the road from what would eventually become Sage House.
An energetic student, Daniel studied at UC Berkeley, pursuing a double-major in Political Economy and Cognitive Science. While at Cal, Daniel had his first experience of communal living through the Berkeley Student Cooperative. Connecting deeply with the co-op's mission, Daniel got involved in leadership, eventually becoming president — complementing his intellectual development with a rich experience of practice.
After graduating, Daniel spent a year abroad, with extended stays on a kibbutz in the north of Israel, a yeshiva in Jerusalem, and a monastery in Thailand. These experiences broadened his perspective, exposing him to a diversity of organizational structures and practices.
Returning to the United States, Daniel went to New York City and into technology, earning a master's degree in Quantitative Social Science at Columbia University, researching voting systems. Starting his career as a machine learning engineer, he soon pivoted to mechanism design, as a research engineer at the pioneering future-of-work project Colony (where he still actively contributes). In this role, Daniel gained a deeper understanding of the skills needed to design and implement complex systems.
Throughout this time, Daniel never forgot his passion for shared living, or the powerful experiences these models can provide. Eventually, Daniel moved back to Los Angeles to start Zaratan. The rest, as they say, is history.
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