This episode, we talk to the founders of The Black Hole Group; a collective of lifestyle and F&B concepts. They started out in 2012 with a backpacker's hostel, and now they own about 13 F&B and lifestyle concepts and are still going strong. More importantly, they are friends who started a business together, and we are super excited to talk to them because The Woke Salaryman was also started by two friends who met in school. They met in JC; while we met in Poly, so we have so many things to ask. We will ask them about what it's like starting a business with a close friend, how to maintain or balance being friends and business partners, and their journey from plucky 26-year-olds running around putting our fires in a backpackers hostel to essentially, F & B moguls. 0:00 Intro 1:16 Why are they called The Black Hole Group 10:05 Starting a hostel in their 20s 15:17 The margins of running a hostel 21:08 Scaling the business 24:02 Do you hang out as friends now? 28:58 Working together as friends/cofounders 37:15 Growing a business = compounding learning 41:00 COVID as a wake-up call 48:20 Co-founders with different lifestyles 54:21 Would you recommend starting a business with a close friend