For journalists, writers, and curious correspondents
Press kit
The one-paragraph pitch
Hearth & Hermit is a matchmaking platform that revives the 18th-century practice of ornamental hermits — solitary souls hired by landowners to live quietly upon their estates, tend gardens, walk grounds, and embody an air of contemplative dignity. Today, with rents impossible and corporations buying up neighbourhoods, we have rebuilt the practice as a modern, dignified alternative to renting. Hosts offer a roof and the run of the land. Hermits offer their presence — and ask very little. Operating in the USA and UK. Subscriptions are quietly priced; founding members ride free.
Quick facts
- Founded
- 2026
- Regions
- United States · United Kingdom
- Domain
- hearthandhermit.com
- Pricing
- Free · Starter $1 → $4.99/mo · Standard $4.99/mo · Annual $35.99/yr
- Founding offer
- First 200 hosts: free Annual for 12 months. First 100 hermits: free Standard for 6 months.
- Press contact
- adam@bigbrainconsulting.ai
Quotable lines, for the kindly editor
- "Rent is not always currency."
- "A small middle finger to the housing crisis, dressed in a long cloak."
- "In the 18th century, the wealthy kept ornamental hermits. We are bringing the practice back — with less powdered wig, more dignified housing."
- "Hosts seek a presence. Hermits seek a roof. The contract is the contract."
The founder
Adam Thick
Michigander · BTC miner · AI consultant
Adam Thick is the founder of Hearth & Hermit. He runs Big Brain Consulting LLC, where he advises companies on artificial intelligence. He also mines Bitcoin, lives in Michigan, and finds the modern housing market — politely — absurd. Hearth & Hermit is his quiet rebellion: a small return to an older, kinder kind of arrangement.
Reach out: adam@bigbrainconsulting.ai
Brand assets
Social card (1200 × 630)
Right-click → "Save image as" to download. Free to use in articles about Hearth & Hermit.
Palette
Parchment
#F4F1EA
Ink black
#1A1918
Wax red
#8C2A20
Moss
#4F634A
Oak
#6B4C3A
Hearth
#D4A373
Typography
- Display: Cormorant Garamond (often italic)
- Body: Lora
- Overlines / small caps: EB Garamond
The story, in two paragraphs
In the 18th century, the very wealthy of England and the colonies engaged in an extraordinary kind of theatre: they hired an ornamental hermit. A real human soul, dressed in a long beard and a brown cloak, paid in modest coin and a roof, to wander the estate and seem profound. The hermits cared for animals. They tended gardens. Some never spoke. Some befriended foxes. The contract was the contract.
We do not write to praise the practice in full. We write because something in it deserves remembering: the simple, unbothered exchange of a roof for a presence. Housing as a quiet kindness rather than a quarterly extraction. Hearth & Hermit is, in 2026, an open invitation to revive the courtesy.