• Alfonso Cobo, 32, bought a three-bedroom apartment in an old Tribeca warehouse for $4.6 million in 2022.
• The tech entrepreneur, who studied architecture, spent $1 million making it a bachelor pad.
• Cobo sold his loft to pursue a bicoastal lifestyle and more renovation projects worldwide.

In 2022, Alfonso Cobo was on the hunt for new digs in Manhattan when he decided to look at listings in Tribeca.

Cobo, originally from Spain's Canary Islands, lived in a handful of New York City neighborhoods over the course of eight years.

"I've done this thing of moving a lot from Brooklyn to Manhattan," Cobo, a 32-year-old serial tech entrepreneur and the founder of social media platform Hypelist, told Business Insider. "Tribeca was a neighborhood I had never tried."

Eventually, he came across a listing for a three-bedroom apartment in The Fairchild, a seven-storey converted warehouse built in the 1880s.

"It was very, very dated. Everything was super white, dark floors, glossy white kitchen cabinets," Cobo said. "It just wasn't me at all. It didn't have the level of warmth I wanted. It didn't have any personality."

But Cobo isn't one to shy away from a project — so he took a leap and bought the 2,000-square-foot apartment for $4.6 million.

Cobo was dead-set on the apartment and paid 8% over the asking price.

Three years before buying the Tribeca loft, Cobo sold a social media app he created to Squarespace for $50 million.

As much as he might fit the bill of a tech entrepreneur, he says he feels like a designer first and foremost.

"Even though I didn't love architecture as an industry as a whole when I used to like work there," Cobo added, "I did really miss that physicality of designing spaces."

That itch to create is partly why he felt he could take on a real estate project as extensive as this — and was willing to pay 8% above the asking price.

"I do love putting all my passion and love into designing my own spaces."

Cobo enlisted British designer Helena Clunies Ross and spent $1 million on a renovation.

Cobo, who has an architecture degree from a British university, credits Ross with encouraging him to work in "unconventional" design choices that took his home "to the next level."

"We put a lot of effort in doing a really high-end renovation," he said.

The process ended up costing Cobo $1 million as it involved spending on a number of custom-designed features.

He estimates that about 80% of the interiors and furnishings are customized.

From the sofas and curved windows to the lamp in the dining room that spirals down from the 21-foot ceiling and the metal-clad library, almost every inch of the apartment was tailor-made to suit Cobo's personality and style, including nods to his Mediterranean heritage.

One of his favorite features is the dark gray kitchen island, which he said and Ross spent "weeks and weeks" picking out.

Cobo's priority was sourcing unique and high-quality materials, which meant the space turned out far from the "sad beige" aesthetic often associated with millennials.

"Even though I'm quite minimal when it comes to design, there's a lot of layering and a lot of texture," he said.

The apartment originally had three bedrooms, but Cobo ditched two of them.

Having found success at a relatively young age, Cobo said he didn't feel the need to have an additional two bedrooms.

"I don't have a family, I'm still single, so I really created a space that fulfilled my needs at the time."

What eventually turned into his bachelor pad was an oasis within the hustle and bustle of NYC where Cobo could work, be social with friends, work, and disconnect. "I really wanted to adapt the space to those needs."

Not having a guest room wasn't an issue, Cobo added. If his parents visited, for example, they got the bedroom while he set up camp on the couch.

One of his favorite features is a 16-foot olive tree that required a crane to install.

Given the apartment's modern design, Cobo wanted to add a more earthy element to his home.

The result was a huge 16-foot olive tree, which sits on the first floor and was no small feat to install.

"To bring that in, we actually had to close the traffic in the street, bring in a crane, crane the tree up, and then fit it through a really small window," he said.

It was "a whole thing," Cobo said. And for a moment, he had real doubts the tree would ever get into the loft.

But when it finally did, he said "it changed the space completely and brought that added missing piece of nature."

Cobo just sold the apartment for almost $7 million.

Working with Jessica Markowski, an agent from NYC real estate firm Serhant, Cobo said it took about three months to find the right buyer.

This week the loft sold for $6.9 million — making it one of the most expensive one-bedroom sales in Manhattan this year, he said.

Cobo wouldn't be drawn on the new owner, but said the individual shares a similar lifestyle and aesthetic.

And while he's renovated a handful of residences before, letting go of his Tribeca apartment wasn't easy. "I was quite emotional because I put so much of myself in it."

Cobo is already busy with new renovation projects.

Cobo's decision to sell the loft was prompted by increasingly dividing his time between New York and California.

As well as working on his latest tech venture, he's also looking ahead to future renovations through his real estate company, Olivar.

Creating beautiful homes is one of his "passion projects," Cobo said, adding that he has projects underway in the US, Bali, and Spain.

"I'm always thinking about what the next thing is, what I can build next, what I can renovate."

Bryan Johnson spends $2 million a year on longevity treatments. We spent a day with the tech entrepreneur who wants to live forever, getting a close-up look at his antiaging meals, supplements, clinical procedures, and daily exercise routine.

• Caspar Lee is an ex-YouTuber turned entrepreneur and venture capital fund owner.
• He shared his tactics for staying fit while running his own businesses and traveling often.
• These include using AI tools, walking as much as possible, and combining exercise with socializing.

Caspar Lee may no longer be a YouTuber, but he's still involved in the influencer world behind the scenes.

Lee, 30, is based in London and co-founded three companies: the marketing agency Influencer, the talent management company MVE, and the venture capital fund Creator Ventures.

With so many projects on the go, his schedule looks very different from week to week, and it can be hard to maintain a consistent fitness routine.

"I don't need to be able to run for over two hours, but I don't want to struggle if I go for a run," he told Business Insider as part of his campaign to promote Google's AI, Gemini Live. "I also do it for the mental health benefits, to be able to enjoy life, and I want to have some sort of muscle because it will be great as I get older."

Lee shared how he keeps fit to achieve these goals while running his own businesses.

Different types of exercise

Lee builds a few different types of exercise into his schedule. When he's traveling, he goes to the gym or goes on runs because it helps him manage jetlag and anxiety.

"If I'm struggling to stay awake, I'll go to the gym. Or if the next morning I'm struggling to wake up, I'll go for a run," he said. "I get a little bit anxious when I travel, and the endorphins help."

When he's not traveling, he likes to exercise at home after he gets back from work. He particularly enjoys the 20-minute workout videos by Joe Wicks on YouTube.

While he's at work, he tries to offset long periods of sitting down by doing stretches and building walking into his day.

"If I need to grab some food, I'll walk to fetch it. And instead of jumping on the Tube to get to a meeting 20 minutes away, I'll try to walk. I even try to take calls while walking. I just think walking is one of the best forms of exercise you can do and it's really underrated, so I do as much of it as I can," he said.

Making exercise social

"I'm not just someone who hangs out at the pub drinking pints. I'd rather be doing something fun," Lee said. "I love exercising with my friends."

His favorite workouts to do with friends are runs and playing golf

"I love to play golf. It's a nice 4-hour walk," he said. "And it's such a great way to make new friends and to spend time quality time with existing friends. Most weekends when I'm in England, I'll try to play golf one of the days."

He structures his workouts around playing golf, too, doing strength training early in the week and cardio later in the week so that his muscles aren't stiff for weekend golf rounds.

Lee also works out with his fiancée, the influencer Ambar Driscoll, "quite a lot," doing bodyweight exercises and walking.

AI-driven workouts

Because of all the traveling Lee does, he struggles to keep to a strict workout schedule or work with a personal trainer consistently. He said the Gemini AI structures and plans his workouts for the week.

He spends 45 minutes in the gym, doing three sets of six exercises for a particular muscle group, which he lets the AI decide.

"Yesterday I was using Gemini Live to help me because I wanted to do a fun push-up routine. It just came up with a bunch of things I could do," he said. "I probably don't put exercises together correctly, which is why I then ask Gemini 'What am I doing wrong?' and it helps."

Simple diet rules

"Generally my rules are: eat as little sugar as possible, drink as much water as possible, and get in protein," he said. "But I do love a dessert, so when I want to have sugar — like a tiramisu — I'll have it."

He makes a lot of chopped salads, he said, including tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, mangoes, dates, and walnuts.

"I'll ask Gemini Live for help with food as well. I'll say 'Look, I just came back from traveling. I'm tired. I'm jetlagged. Can you help me come up with something that's going to help with that?' And it has the most incredible recipes," he said.