For Jake, it was all about the bills. 

 Don’t get him wrong, the Madison, Wisconsin resident can speak and read Hebrew fluently, but since he moved to Tel Aviv a few years ago, he found unraveling the intricacies of the fine print on, say, an internet contract, to be incredibly aggravating. “It’s a big headache,” he says.

For Luciana, it was dinner time. 

“I was looking for a studio apartment to live in by myself, but at the same time I really wanted to be around people,” says Kornblatt, a social justice entrepreneur who gets around Tel Aviv on bike. “So, I live in a building where I have a tiny studio— I’m a minimalist and it’s really all I need. But then when I leave this room, I go into the building, and I am friends with the people here. We all can hang out together in the communal space. It’s wonderful.”

Both Kornblatt and Castellano hardly lack for friends in their new city; the issue was that most of the people they knew were not in the neighborhoods they live in and love. In Kornblatt’s case, Shapira in south Tel Aviv and in Castellano’s, Midtown Kansas City. 

“Before Venn, I had never really interacted with any of my neighbors,” says Castellano. “Now, I’m getting to know not only people from my building, but also people from different buildings across the neighborhood. It’s fun!”

It’s also productive: both international transplants also use Venn’s co-working spaces to build out their professional profiles.

“Venn provides me with a co-working space that’s just a couple of blocks from my place and that is just so convenient,” says Kornblatt. “I get lots of work done there and I’ve made a lot of important connections there.”

Adds Castellano, “Venn has helped me and many of my neighbors grow in our careers by building a space to connect with other professionals. They have space where people can post job openings or job searches, which provides great opportunities for our community.”

The Venn experience is as unique as its Neighbors. Kornblatt, for example, rarely uses the Venn app. “I am just kind of a low-tech guy,” he says, sheepishly. He prefers to keep up-to-date on community events the old-fashioned way, by looking at his building bulletin boards.

“I just like the fact that these fun things are always going on,” says Kornblatt. “A lot of times I may not go, but even then, I like having the option.”

Castellano, on the other hand, is all in—with the Venn app and beyond.

“I’ve tried to attend pretty much all the activities that Venn organizes,” she says. “After meeting some of the Venn community managers at these events, I decided I wanted to be part of the community building efforts in our neighborhood, and I became a Building Ambassador.”

Meanwhile, Kornblatt has all of his utilities covered by his Venn fee, just the way he likes it. “Being an American, that just makes my life a lot easier,” he says. 

Now, if Venn could just figure out some way to keep those restaurants open later…