Timon Afinsky

Our May edition of @create_what_you_wish_existed was truly exceptional. At @the_arts_club , I sat with Sri Prem Baba, who has guided seekers, founders, and leaders across the world for more than three decades. In a room buzzing with unicorn founders, I asked: - We are building with AI faster than ever, but human clarity does not seem to keep up. What happens when outer growth outpaces inner evolution? @sriprembaba answer stayed with us long after the conversation moved on. Sri Prem Baba: “We are living through one of the most important moments in human history, a revolution of consciousness. Across geopolitics, the economy, and every area of life, the common denominator is spiritual. It is a lack of understanding of who we are and what we are here to do. We are approaching a kind of singularity, where Human Intelligence meets Artificial Intelligence. Our greatest challenge is to develop a third dimension, - Spiritual Intelligence - so that we can handle this power. Because the real question is: WHO within us will use IT? We have never had so much knowledge at our fingertips, yet we have never been more anxious, more depressed, or more lost. Without self-knowledge and practices like meditation, humanity will struggle to navigate this transition”. @create_what_you_wish_existed is not an event. It is a private room where attention turns into action and conversations become outcomes.

When did health become the new way people show who they are? It didn’t happen all at once. No clean break. More like a slow turn of the wheel. One day you realise people aren’t signalling with what they wear anymore. They’re signalling with what they eat, how they sleep, what they track, and what they refuse. That was the undercurrent at Tramp Private Members Club during my last CREATE WHAT YOU WISH EXISTED fireside chat. It was also Lestat McCree’s first ever public talk. Founder of @healf , he spoke without trying to convince anyone. The company has already crossed £100M in ARR, serves more than 550,000 customers in the UK, and is aiming for £1B. But what held attention were the decisions that don’t show up in metrics. In the early days, a bad review once sent him driving across the city. He knocked on the customer’s door and apologised face to face, then stayed long enough to understand what had actually gone wrong. Another time, a customer in Cannes placed an order that wouldn’t arrive in time. The team packed a suitcase, boarded a flight, and delivered it themselves. It cost more than it made. Those choices linger. They shape how a company behaves later, when scale makes everything harder and slower. Inside Healf, the system is stripped back to four things: eat, move, mind, sleep. “The basics are underrated. The quick fixes are overhyped.” He described being a CEO as “absorbing missiles.” You keep moving because there is no alternative. Even hiring reflects that mindset. Candidates receive an email from Healf HR explaining why they should NOT join. The ones who insist, tend to be the ones with the right culture fit - driven by obsession. During the conversation, Lestat opened a £1M allocation to the room. You could feel the shift. Attention sharpened. Interest moved quickly, ultimately 2X exceeding the allocation, driven by the calibre of founders, operators, and a few globally recognised names. That is the part that matters deeply for me. @create_what_you_wish_existed is no longer just a talk. It is a room. A very private one. Builders, founders, operators. People who listen carefully and act when something feels real.

When brilliant minds gather in private, the real game begins. Every move matters. We created Immortal Game Chess Night because we felt something was missing at the very top. The world’s leading visionaries, founders and investors have endless conferences and formal dinners, but very few private spaces where they can connect intelligently, compete seriously and drop their egos. I co founded The Immortal Game with my friend and business partner Natalia Vodianova and Ilya Merenzon, Founder and CEO of World Chess, organiser of the world’s most important chess events. Between us, we have spent decades building bridges across business, culture and philanthropy at the highest level, sharing the same belief in curated, high trust rooms. This February, we hosted Immortal Game Chess Club in collaboration with Harry’s Bar, one of the most discreet private members clubs in the world. We welcomed 64 guests. Three Grandmasters. Two Oscar winners. Around $10B in founder net worth. Over $50B in assets under management. More than $175B in enterprise value represented in the room. The evening was co hosted by: • Michael Adams, “The Spider,” former World Championship finalist and England’s leading Grandmaster for more than three decades. • Artem Sokolov, Founder and CEO of TheHumanoid.ai. The night featured Hand and Brain matches, a live replay of the 1851 Immortal Game, rapid exhibitions and open challenges. Harry’s Bar created a bespoke culinary experience with 18 tailored dishes and five custom cocktails designed exclusively for Immortal Game. Thank you to the founders of the exceptional companies curated for our guests through the evening’s Goodie Bags: Healf, Decree, Niance, WholyMe, Skin Cycles, Kaicao and Vyrao. What matters for us most is what happens when hierarchy disappears. When the board is no longer corporate, but 64 squares, judgement outranks title. In a time shaped by AI and automation, we believe in building rooms that sharpen the human edge. That is why we built The Immortal Game. ♟️ When is the next one? @create_what_you_wish_existed

20 years ago, in the early days of his career, Andrey Khusid was running a small creative agency in Perm. One day a well-known artist approached him with an unusual request: build an installation where visitors could interact with art on a large digital touch screen. This was 20 years ago. Touch screens were barely on the horizon. The problem was simple. The technology required to build it cost around $10,000, and the team had no budget. Instead of abandoning the idea, Andrey searched online and found instructions from a Chinese startup showing how to build a touch screen from… a kitchen table. He went to his parents’ balcony, found an old table, brought it to the office and, together with his team, turned it into a working prototype using a projector and mirrors. That experiment eventually set him on the path to building Miro. Today @mirohq is used by 100+ million people, by teams across 99% of the Fortune 100, and employs around 1,600 people globally. During our conversation, Andrey described the principle that guided that journey: Day One thinking. The idea is simple. Regularly ask yourself: “If I started this company today, how would it look?” If the answer is different from what exists, you rebuild before the market forces you to. Nearly twenty years after starting his first company at 18, Andrey still runs that exercise. CREATE WHAT YOU WISH EXISTED is a series of real-life, off-the-record conversations with world-class founders and visionaries. Our next event takes place in April with the founder of Europe’s fastest-growing company. If you would like to be in the room, reach out.

Guess what brand took over the NYC ice rink for their fashion show ⛸️

Luxury looks different on ice 🧊

May the 2026 year ahead be shaped by meaningful connections. By conversations that go beyond the surface. By meeting in real life, with people who see you and remind you why you began. @create_what_you_wish_existed

This isn’t talent or discipline I was born with. It’s something I learned this year. Same place. Same iPhone. One year apart. If this guy could do it, anyone can.

When I met @olegtinkov in 2007, I was 25. He was 39. He had just started Tinkoff Credit Systems and walked into the room as if he owned it. Power, money, energy, even sex appeal. He carried all the leverage. Oleg was already a proven, serial entrepreneur, not a first-time founder. He had built and sold Daria Frozen Foods to Roman Abramovich. He had created Tinkoff Beer, the brewery business, and Tinkoff Restaurants. By then, he was a symbol of success. Everyone knew his name. I felt admiration. And if I am honest, I felt envy too. There is something unsettling about cocky, nonconformist founders like that. Outliers who do not ask permission. Deep down, many of us want to see who they become when success is stripped away. When sickness arrives. When loss comes. When they are truly tested. What I did not know that day was that the worst had already happened to him. Oleg spoke about it publicly for the first time years later, when I sat with him at a Create What You Wish Existed fireside chat powered by Locals.org in Paris last week. At 20, Oleg returned from military service in Russia’s Far East. As a third-generation miner, his future seemed fixed: work in the mines, drink beer, watch football. Two months later, he and his girlfriend were riding a bus when a Kamaz truck hit it head-on. She was slightly shorter than him. She took the impact and died instantly. Oleg survived. Eight teeth gone. A scar on his face that would stay with him for life. That day, he learned something about fate and fear. He could not remain in his hometown. Every street carried her shadow. He met a stranger who said he was going to Leningrad to apply for university. Oleg went with him. After that, fear loosened its grip. When you almost die that young, failure loses its voice. You stop waiting. You stop believing there will be a better time later. You may become a fatalist. But more importantly, you start acting... >>>> continue in comments

FACES @fashiontrustarabia @afinsky @locals_org @create_what_you_wish_existed @mntostudio @anastasiabeverlyhills #FTAxAnastasiaBeverlyHills #FTAPrize2025 #AnastasiaBeverlyHills #FashionTrustArabia #FTAPrizePartners

POV: Who took over the mountain? 🏔️🎿

Would you ski here? ⛷️🚡 If the Alps turned into unreal the world’s most luxurious canvas — an entire slope carved with the iconic Louis Vuitton monogram. A surreal blend of high-fashion and high-altitude that looks almost too perfect to be real. Swipe to see the full resort from above →