"How the h*ll did these kids pull this off?" We were supposed to start FR8 in a beautiful historic mansion. By December, it was clear it wasn't a fit for us. Too many rules. Too many restrictions. At that point, we had only a few weeks before the program was supposed to begin, and we still didn't have a home. We had previously gotten a lead about a 4000m2 hotel with 54 rooms sitting empty on our campus. We didn't take it seriously at first but then we realized that it's actually 10x better than the mansion. We had to make it happen. We started calling. Almost no one answered. It was Christmas, and everyone was on holiday. By January 7, people started returning to work. Cohort 0.5 participants from all around the world, for whom we had already booked flights, were set to land on the 17th. That gave us ten days. It meant non-stop calling, texting and following up, plus just a tiny, totally insignificant amount of stress on our shoulders.. On January 9, we got a call: we had secured the hotel. We've never felt such relief, excitement and a bit of pure shock at the same time. But that was just the beginning. The hotel was completely empty. No furniture. No internet. Nothing. And we didn’t get the keys until January 13. That left us four days to furnish the whole hotel with a budget of less than 20 000€. We made it happen. Huge s/o to our rockstar Anette for running the whole operation. To Caeden, who showed up with his whole squad during the week. And to the dozens of people who helped us, it all came together because of you. Thank you! On January 18, we kicked off FR8’s first-ever orientation program with an incredible group of interesting people from seven different countries. Seeing it all come together after months of chaos and stress was surreal. It worked. We proved that crazy ideas can be transformed from a thought in your head into reality. It sounds like a cliché, but this isn’t a motivational speech. This is what it looks like to make something happen when you're being told it’s impossible. Now, a small scrappy team of students are running the world’s first and only hacker hotel. Give it a decade, and the world will be asking 'how the h*ll did these kids pull this off?' This is the start. We will make FR8 the obvious choice for the smartest students building groundbreaking technical projects and startups, outshining places like Stanford, FAANG and Y-Combinator as the top choice. We are young, hungry, and crazy enough to pull it off. APPLICATIONS FOR COHORT 1.0 (SUMMER) ARE OPEN NOW. Find the link on our website ( or in the comments down below.