We recently connected with Hans Podlipnik & Luna Wang N/A and have shared our conversation below.
Hans Podlipnik & Luna Wang, appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
Hans: I have been very fortunate in my life to say that I played over 16 years on the professional ATP tour of tennis. During that time I was very fortunate to visit over 80 countries and see a very rich and diverse architecture. I fell in love with the scandinavian style of minimalism and natural light. I started planning early on that one day when I retire from tennis I would want to build a cabin with a lot of glass in the most stunning location.
Luna: In early 2019, I met Hans through a private tennis lesson. He had recently retired from being a world-class tennis pro and shared his dream with me of building a small cabin in a beautiful secluded area. I was immediately excited by his dream, and we soon became business partners. Together, we purchased a 180-acre mountainside and began building an iconic resort brand – Earthlight Villas, which is specifically designed for romance and luxury living in a secluded, stunningly beautiful location. Our first unit was completed in February 2022 and quickly achieved 100% occupancy. As more and more people add their names to our waiting list, we are building three more units this year and plan to follow up with a 3,000 square-foot wedding venue in the next three years.
Hans Podlipnik & Luna Wang, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
HANS: I grew up in Chile, my father is from Austria and my mother is Chilean.My dad was a professional soccer player so sports ran deep in the family, it taught me a lot about discipline and hard work. When I was 16 years old I became a professional tennis player, however, even though my background is really far from real estate development while on tour I used to watch every video I could find on Airbnb real estate and photography. I used to travel to so many different countries always carrying my rackets and my cameras. Now I am very grateful to have learned those skills because I feel they served me well.
LUNA: After working as a senior executive for large American corporations in China for over 20 years, my husband, our two children, and I moved to Seattle in 2014. Rather than continuing to work for large corporations, I decided to become an entrepreneur and focus on real estate. I started by building my own five-bedroom, three-bathroom, 3,600 square-foot single-family house. Then, I obtained my broker’s license and successfully built and sold an eight-townhome project. It soon became clear to me that I really enjoyed creating high-quality and beautiful real estate projects that could bring people joy and extraordinary experiences.
We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.
Hans: One of the most amazing things that I’ve discovered in my life is how amazing tennis is as a tool to connect with people. Is the perfect excuse to create a community and to meet incredibly interesting people. When I decided to retire from playing professionally me and my wife decided we were going to move to the USA. After doing a 30 min google search about different cities in America, we decided that we love Seattle the most. So we packed our bags and move to the US. I initially got a job at a local tennis club and that is where one day I met my most amazing business partner Luna. It felt as we knew each other from another life and we were just waiting to get reconnected again. Obviously she has benefited a lot from meeting me because her tennis skills have improved dramatically lol.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
Hans: Hustle, hustle and hustle. When we first approach the banks to fund such project we realized nobody will fund a dream. So I took up my racket and worked 12 to 14 hour days on court giving tennis lessons non stop to raise enough capital to fund my part of this project. Unfortunately we got hit with the pandemic and prices increased dramatically. This put a lot of stress on us because it meant living as cheap as possible and saving as much as possible for a few years. My wife who was also a former professional tennis player took up the racket as well and went out to coach many hours to be able to support my dream. She is amazing.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.earthlightvillas.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/earthlightvillas/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/earthlightvilla