The Free City That's Been 45 Years in the Making

Paloma Lecheta is a Brazilian entrepreneur and co-founder of Founder Haus, a hub for what she calls healthy entrepreneurship in Jurerê Internacional, a private neighbourhood on the island of Florianópolis. After accelerating around 1,800 startups across Brazil, she is now part of a small group of founders trying to do for Brazil what Próspera is doing for Honduras, turn a quietly functioning private development into a formally recognised Free City.

Timothy Allen sits down with Paloma in Honduras for a conversation about the 45-year-old Brazilian neighbourhood that has been running its own water, sewage, security and urban planning since 1980, the visionary banker who built it from raw beach scrub, and the new generation of founders now trying to give it the legal autonomy to match. The result is a story of a Free City that already exists, mostly hiding in plain sight, and the people quietly trying to formalise it before the rest of the world notices.

In this conversation:

• The story of Péricles de Freitas Druck, the Brazilian banker who built a private city in 1980 with no reference points and 45 years before the charter cities movement existed
• Why philanthropy often fails to solve the problems it claims to, and why business may be the better tool
• Healthy entrepreneurship: why founder burnout is a business problem, not just a personal one
• How Jurerê Internacional privatised water, sewage, security and urban planning while staying within Brazilian law
• The brain drain problem: 1,200 millionaires left Brazil last year, and why most of them didn't want to
• Floripa 10, the proposed Digital Economic Zone that would give Jurerê formal regulatory autonomy
• Ipê City, Brazil's first pop-up city, and how Founder Haus, Peerbase and Tools for the Commons are stacking experiments on top of each other
• Why the difference between crazy and visionary is just execution

Enjoy the conversation.

Timestamps (Audio version only, includes Timothy's episode introduction):

• 0:00:29 - Introduction to episode
• 0:08:18 - Start of conversation
• 0:13:00 - Ciudad Morazán and why making money is part of doing good
• 0:17:00 - Why nonprofits can't pay well, and why the talent goes elsewhere
• 0:18:30 - The new wave of founders: DAOs, protocols, and rethinking what a company even is
• 0:20:08 - Ipê City and Jean Hansen: Brazil's first pop-up city and its first network state
• 0:22:30 - Founder Haus and the move to Florianópolis: building a hub for healthy entrepreneurship
• 0:28:30 - The story of Péricles de Freitas Druck: the banker who built a private city in 1980
• 0:31:00 - How Jurerê Internacional works: open neighbourhood, private services, contractual governance
• 0:36:00 - Running a city without taxes: how Habitasul funds infrastructure through services
• 0:39:00 - Becoming a Latin American node: 1,800 founders through Founder Haus in three years
• 0:46:00 - Floripa 10: the proposed Digital Economic Zone and why Brazil needs to compete
• 0:50:00 - Why 1,200 millionaires left Brazil last year, and why most of them didn't want to
• 0:53:00 - Lula, elections, and navigating governments without waiting for permission
• 0:58:00 - You don't choose your cards: founder strategy in a hostile jurisdiction
• 1:03:00 - Stacking experiments: Tools for the Commons, Peerbase, and the open-source approach to building cities
• 1:09:00 - Lessons from Próspera: legal framework, local community, and government revenue
• 1:11:00 - Why governments are people, and people respond to incentives
• 1:14:00 - The difference between crazy and visionary is execution
• 1:17:00 - The 45-year head start: Péricles as Brazil's pre-charter-cities visionary
• 1:25:00 - Why founders should be building cities now, and why timing matters

Guest: Paloma Lecheta - LinkedIn | Founder Haus

The Free Cities Podcast is the official podcast of the Free Cities Foundation hosted by Timothy Allen. New episodes every Friday. Long-form, in-person conversations with the builders, investors, residents, and thinkers shaping the future of free cities, charter cities, special economic zones, network states, private cities, and governance innovation worldwide.

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