In the minds of Rafi Museri and Daniel Rudasevski, Selina is a 29-year-old Latin American world traveler. Museri describes her as “honest, humble, beautiful. She hosts you, she hugs you. You want to be with her.” It was Daniel's wife Natalie Rudasevski who came up with the name Selina, and this fictitious Millennial traveler was the inspiration for Selina, Rudasevski and Museri’s enormously successful chain of nomad-focused hostel/hotel/coworking spaces. In 2015 the pair opened the first Selina in Pedasi, a then-sleepy fishing village in Panama. Today Selina is in eight countries in Latin America, across 25 destinations urban and rural, and it’s coming to the US and Europe: Selina Porto opens this month and Miami in December.
Museri has been preparing for Selina all his life. When he was 13 years old he decided to go live on a kibbutz, a collective community in Israel. “You have to work after school, and there’s no summer vacation. But you’re living with your friends in a very beautiful community, and I fell in love with this community thing.” Living in Tel Aviv’s now ultra-trendy Jaffa neighborhood, Museri says he saw 300% real estate appreciation, realized how community-building impacts real estate prices, and learned about the value of community-sharing social life. He spent 11 years in the army, “learning about management, prioritization, loyalty”—skills he and Rudasevski bring to Selina—and says he loved it because he had amazing friends with whom he’d travel the world.
Daniel Rudasevski went backpacking when he finished his military service, like so many young Israelis. He ended up in a surfing village in Costa Rica, and a couple of years later he met Museri, whose best mate was friends with Daniel’s brother. Selina was a global brand right from the start: its founders are Israeli but it started and is now headquartered in Panama, where its staff are from around the globe. Selina practices exactly what it preaches: a fun, international, creative working (and living) environment. Museri and Rudasevski wanted Selina to be Latin American. “Even though Selina is going global, we’re very happy the brand was born in Latin America,” Museri says. “I see Selina as forever 29. The values of the brand are her values. We wanted to know what her experiences were around the world. When we’re coming to a new place we think what would Selina choose to do here?" And that leads to the menu of tours at Selina—like biking with cycling company Equipo in Medellin, Colombia; surfing lessons through Selina Surf Club, whale watching, sailing; and, at its urban locations, loads of city tours.
Selina takes disused spaces, like a chocolate factory (Budapest), school and asylum (Bogota), and plenty of former hotels. In choosing empty, sometimes non-traditional properties, Rudasevski and Museri commit themselves to engaging and revitalizing the local community. They build these properties out into digital nomad dream worlds, with local artwork; street art on the walls; reclaimed wood furniture from local designers and artisans; yoga and meditation spaces; coworking space; library; shared kitchen; and The Playground. This is the communal space in every Selina where travelers sip green juice and tuck into salads, grain bowls, and local seafood; work on collaborative projects, attend talks, and catch up with other travelers over a cold beer as a DJ spins in the corner. There are US$10/night beds in a hostel-type dorm; private rooms with shared and private baths from US$40; trendy deluxe rooms from US$160; and, at some locations family rooms (from US$100).
Selinas has all the makings of a party atmosphere—a bar, DJs, inexpensive dorm rooms and the corresponding backpackers—but there are far more digital nomads here than long-term Spring Breakers. Just after 7am the breakfast tables begin filling up with travelers eager to take on the day, piling their plates with phenomenal banana bread, eggs, and heaps of tropical fruit. By 8am, the quiet, well-appointed coworking spaces are half full—journalists writing, photographers editing, a group of techies coding, and a few people sipping coffee and chatting in English and Spanish about their projects.
In April, Selina raised US$95m in funding and their worldwide explosion began in earnest. Their first European and US locations welcome nomads this month in Porto, Portugal and in December in Miami’s Little Havana. Rudasevski and Museri are smart businessmen, ultra-charismatic, just like their character Selina. “When we opened the first Selina in early 2015, we didn’t know what it meant, but we thought it would be interesting: coworking and rooms in an experiential place. Then we opened a second one and realized we’d created an incredible experience for people and a community behind it. When you launch a product, you’re scared—no one gives you money, you take your entire savings, you hope it’s going to work. We didn’t know from day one. Now I’m certain.”
“Our vision with Selina is to have this platform that delivers experiences globally, but we can’t standardize anything. For us to be able to locate ourselves in places the local community appreciates takes times. We, the entire team, will succeed when you can pay $1,000/month and travel globally in 100 cities,” Museri adds. The pair know exactly where they’ll be: in at least 40 locations in Europe, the US, and Latin America by the end of 2019. By 2020, in 100-plus locations worldwide. Their vision is 350 locations around the world, 100,000 beds globally, 180 staffers hired per month, and it’s happening: like Uber and Airbnb, Selina will become a household name.
Museri and Rudasevski themselves embody Selina; working remotely, traveling the world, meeting new people, forming lasting bonds. Their desire to build Selina was personal. Museri says he is “not a person that can live in an environment that is just professional. I hate it. My dream is just to make interesting spaces around the world. I am 1,000% driven by the social aspect. Life has to be with people.”
